A famous man who lived in Poughill, albeit only for twelve years, was Sir Goldsworthy Gurney.

  He as you know was a Cornish surgeon and scientist, the inventor of the Bude light used in all lighthouses and the Gurney stove and an early pioneer of steam power in carriages. And I am sure don't need to quote his biography here. But I suspect you will know that he is more locally famous in Poughill for building Budes castle, which he leased until 1863.

Bude Castle

  By this time, now a succesful farmer and landowner, he suffered a paralysing stroke and retired to Poughill with his second wife, Anna Jane. The last years of his impressive life was to be spent in a fine and discreetly private property in Poughill called Reeds. It was built by the vicar of Poughill son Vickery Jose in 1801, a coal merchant and lime dealer who eventually went bankrupt in 1836. It is a fine property which is tucked back from the lane behind high whitewashed cobb walls, directly opposite Trelana, now a nursing home on Northcott Mouth Road. He passed away at Reeds on February 28th. 1875.

  Reeds was and still is a splendid Victorian house, with huge rooms and one which at one time had vast terraced formal gardens, lawns, a verandah, extensive sea pebble lined pathways, greenhouses and vegetable gardens. Backing onto open fields and with its own stream the steep banks of which were also terraced with pathways and lovingly manicured.

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