The Plume of Feathers
Standing above the harbour in Portscatho, the Plume of Feathers has been part of village life since the eighteenth century. For generations it served not simply as an inn, but as a meeting place at the heart of a community whose fortunes were closely tied to the sea.
For the Peters family, its significance was more personal. Edward Peters became landlord of the Plume, his son Victor later followed him, and in 1922 Victor's son Warren Edwards Peters was born there. The Plume is where Warren's story begins.
An inn in Portscatho
The history of the Plume stretches back to the middle of the eighteenth century. A lease was granted by the Enys Estate to Stephen Jennings in 1757, and the Jennings family were associated with innkeeping in the parish during this period. By 1791 the Plume was being advertised as a well-established inn, with stabling, gardens and land attached.
Like many inns of its time, the Plume was surprisingly self-sufficient. Beer was once brewed on the premises in the cellar, in the area now known as the Cellar Bar. Water was drawn from the village pump outside and channelled into the building through wooden guttering and an opening in the wall. It is a wonderfully practical reminder of how differently an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century village inn operated. The Plume was also much more than somewhere to drink. Over the years it provided a meeting place for local people and hosted discussions, auctions and other gatherings, placing it firmly at the centre of everyday village life.
For generations the Plume was woven into the everyday life of the village. Meetings and debates were held there, property and goods were offered for auction, and the inn provided somewhere for fishermen, tradesmen, visitors and local families to meet. Its position just above the harbour placed it at the centre of a community whose working life was dominated by the sea.
Portscatho looking towards Gerrans Bay. The Plume's brewing cellar was once supplied with water from a village pump situated just outside the inn.
Portscatho harbour - before the breakwater
Portscatho harbour wall and lugger
The Peters family and the Plume
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Plume had become closely connected with the Peters family. Warren’s grandfather, Edward Peters, was landlord of the inn, but his interests extended beyond the business itself. Like many families in Portscatho, the Peters family had strong connections with the sea and the fishing industry.
Edward Peters was firmly established as landlord of the Plume by the late nineteenth century, appearing by name in contemporary trade directories. His role placed him at the centre of village life, but his interests also reflected Portscatho's much older dependence on the sea.
Edward became involved in an attempt to revive Portscatho’s once-important pilchard fishery. After years in which the great shoals had largely disappeared from Gerrans Bay, he helped finance a new seine fishing venture. In 1906 the effort was rewarded with a substantial catch — described in the local history as the first good catch in the bay for almost thirty years.
Edward died in 1909, and responsibility for the Plume passed to the next generation. His son Victor Peters and daughter Maud continued the family’s association with the inn. A few years later Victor married Annie Warren, and the Plume became their family home.
PORTSCATHO, 1920
The village goes up for sale
Much of Portscatho was once owned by the Enys Estate and leased to local residents. In 1920 sections of the estate were offered for sale, with houses, businesses and land divided into numbered lots.
The sale plan is particularly interesting for the Peters family story. The Plume of Feathers appears as Lot 30, and family research indicates that the Peters family also held the nearby pilchard cellars — connecting the family's involvement in both the inn and Portscatho's fishing industry.
Born at the Plume
The Plume was still the Peters family home when Victor and Annie’s second child, Warren Edwards Peters, was born there on 19 March 1922. His sister Bernice was seven years older, and Warren’s earliest memories were of growing up in and around the inn.
“I was born on March 19th 1922, a Saturday at 5am at the Plume of Feathers, Portscatho.”
For Warren, the Plume was not simply a pub. It was home. He remembered birthday parties in the large Picnic Room, family stories, visitors to the inn and the model of HMS Arethusa that stood there — an object that particularly fascinated a boy who would later spend much of his life at sea.
Among the visitors Warren remembered was Ramsay MacDonald, who stayed at the Plume for a week. Warren recalled that his father was a Conservative, while MacDonald was the first Labour Prime Minister — a political difference which apparently did nothing to prevent them getting along.
The Plume of Feathers and surrounding village — historic view.
The Plume of Feathers in more recent years.
Leaving the Plume
By 1935 the Plume needed substantial repairs. The roof alone was estimated to cost around £400 — a considerable sum at the time. The family decided to sell the inn to St Austell Brewery, bringing the Peters family's long association with the Plume of Feathers to an end.
In 1935 Victor sold the Plume of Feathers to St Austell Brewery, bringing the Peters family’s direct association with the inn to an end. For Warren it also meant leaving the place in which he had been born and spent his earliest years.
“The Plume needed a new roof and my father decided it was too much to take on.”
The family moved on, and Warren’s life soon took him from Portscatho to Padstow, boatbuilding and eventually the Royal Navy. But the Plume remained the starting point of his story — and of the memories he would record many decades later.