Noel Coward, a Charlestown connection.

Noël Coward first visited Charlestown in 1907, when he was just seven years old. He came to stay with his aunt, Laura Antoinette Bulteel, née Veitch, at Pond House, also known locally as “Bulteel’s”. A frequent visitor in childhood, Coward later recalled Charlestown in his autobiography.

Noel Coward in 1907 at Aunt Laura's, Charlestown.

Background to the Bulteel Family

The Bulteels were an aristocratic family with links to the Spencer family and wider royal connections. They moved from Devon to Charlestown to manage the estate for the Crowder family, who had taken it over from Charles Rashleigh in settlement of a debt.

The family also had a strong naval tradition. In 1885, Henry James Bulteel, known as “Jas”, was appointed principal land agent and manager of Charlestown Estates Ltd by the Crowder family. He was paid £150 a year, later increased to £250, and his contract included a tied house at 161 Charlestown Road. Locally, the house was known as Pond House, although my family always referred to it as “Bulteel’s”.

Noel is seen sitting on the lawn at Pond House in 1972.

Family and Household

Henry married Laura Antoinette Veitch. They had three children:

·         Alan

·         Walter Gordon Bulteel

·         Violet, known as “Girlie”, who was born in Charlestown on 23 July 1888

Laura was described as kind, attractive, and vain, though many in Charlestown also saw her as domineering, autocratic, and aloof. Later in life, she lost her hearing and became quite deaf. She died on 4 July 1923.

The family kept a pony and trap across the road in a stable at number 82, two doors down from Church Lane.

Noël Coward at Pond House

Compared with the Cowards’ villa in Sutton, the Bulteels’ home was grand, with Georgian furniture, fine china, silverware, and mirrors decorated with Chinese paintings. Behind the house was a pond with an island at its centre, and in Victorian times, band concerts were held there. The grounds, with their hidden paths, deep water, and unstable blue punt, became a place of adventure for the young Noël Coward.

Walter, who was several years older, did not seem to have taken much to Noël and often passed him on to his sister Violet. Noël preferred Violet’s company and later wrote home that she was teaching him to row. Walter also took him on motorbike rides as a pillion passenger, prompting Noël to remark, “It certainly beats motoring for thrills.”

In his autobiography, Coward described the pond behind the house as having a wondrous air, with its island at the centre. He later wrote: “I spent the rest of the day exploring the lake and the garden, the spell of its beauty was as strong as ever, and I was very happy. There was an old blue punt, still waterlogged, the deep, wide lake coffee coloured on account of the clay soil, and the mysterious damp-smelling jungle beside it.” Walter Bulteel also gave Noël a typewriter, on which he began to write.

Coward later starred in the film In Which We Serve, which received a special screening at the Capitol Cinema in September 1942. As a boy, he regularly attended Saturday-morning cinema at the Savoy Cinema on Truro Road during his summer stays.

Another star of the film was Sir John Mills. I was once fortunate enough to meet him unexpectedly on a hot Saturday morning after coming in from fishing. I went up to the Rashleigh for a pint and found him sitting alone in the beer garden. We talked for half an hour, during which he spoke about his special relationship with Noël Coward — a happy memory.

A special screening was held at the Capitol Theatre, St Austell.

Later Members of the Bulteel Family

Henry James Bulteel also owned an old Bristol pilot cutter called “Gipsy”, which was wrecked at Mevagissey in 1903.

His son Walter Gordon Bulteel, born in 1885, succeeded him in 1924 as land agent and manager of Charlestown Estates Ltd.

Walter married Ada Constance Gaunt, daughter of Edwin Gaunt and Ada Fanny Slater, in Kensington in 1916. He served in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards on 3 October 1915. In 1952, he became commodore of the Porthpean Sailing Club, was re-elected in 1953, and resigned in 1954. He and Ada had four children: Christopher, Richard, Margaret, and Diana.

Michael Littleton, whose father was the estate foreman, recalled Walter Gordon Bulteel as a Francophile who first drove a Citroën Traction Avant and later a Singer Gazelle. He remembered Pond House with shutters, Walter’s habit of slipping the clutch rather than changing down, and his distinctive style: a long cigarette holder and a handkerchief flowing from his jacket sleeve. To him, Walter was the epitome of an eccentric English gentleman, and he also remembered fêtes in the garden when his family first moved to Charlestown.

Walter retired as land agent in 1963 and was succeeded by Michael Wilton.

Christopher Harris Bulteel MC

Born in Charlestown, Cornwall, on 29 July 1921, Christopher Harris Bulteel had deep family ties to the West Country and retained a lifelong love of the sea, sailing, and Cornwall. A pupil at Wellington in the late 1930s, he had just arrived at Merton College, Oxford, when war broke out. He served in the Coldstream Guards from 1940 to 1946 and won the Military Cross after leading a successful frontal assault on a heavily defended hill north of Salerno, Italy. After barely surviving malaria, he returned to Merton and in 1949 joined Wellington as an assistant master. From 1959 to 1961, he was head of the history department, and he also served as honorary secretary of the Wellington College Mission and the Walworth Clubs. His great-grandfather, John Crocker Bulteel, had been an MP.

Himself a pupil at Wellington in the late 1930s, Bulteel absorbed its unusual warmth and intellectualism, and had just arrived at Merton College, Oxford, when war broke out.

He served in the Coldstream Guards from 1940 to 1946, winning the military cross after leading a successful frontal assault on a heavily defended hill north of Salerno, Italy. His great-grandfather, John Crocker Bulteel, was an MP in London.

Having barely survived malaria, Christopher Bulteel returned to Merton and, in 1949, joined Wellington as an assistant master. From 1959 to 1961, he was head of the history department; he also served as honorary secretary of the Wellington College Mission, the Walworth Clubs

Other Family Members

·         Diana Catherine Bulteel was born in 1918, served as a corporal in the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) during the Second World War, and died in 1999.

·         Richard Hillerson Bulteel was born on 24 September 1926.

·         Margaret Bulteel was born in Charlestown in 1922.

·         Laura Antoinette Veitch was born in 1861 in Madeira, Portugal. She married Henry James Bulteel in Croydon in 1879 and died in 1923.

Richard Hillerson Bulteel. Born 24^th September 1926.

Margaret Bulteel. Born in Charlestown in 1922 and was still with us in 2023 at the unbelievable age of 101!

A Letter from Noël Coward, 1907

This 1907 letter from seven-year-old Noël Coward to his mother is the oldest item by him in my collection. It reads:

“Give this to Maggie and Winnie, Charlestown, 1907

Darling Mother

I hope you are well. Girlie has taught me to row with two oars, and I row her along. I had some little boys over yesterday afternoon to tea, and I dressed up in a short dress and danced to them and sang to them, and we all went round the lake and on it.

XXXXXOOOOXO I am writing this in the kitchen with love from Noel Coward”

Happy Mother’s Day!

The Letter to Mum on Mother's Day 1907.

Written by Lyndon Allen.