Nearby

The Crows Nest

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The hamlet of Crows Nest lies in the parish of St Cleer, one of the largest in Cornwall, with an area of nearly 11,000 acres. All around are fertile farmlands, beautiful river valleys and large tracts of open moorland.

 

Crows Nest like the nearby Hamlets of Darite, Tremar, Pensilva and commonmoor expanded rapidly in the 19th century. Each tiny cottage was crowded with lodges and in some the beds were never cold as one shift replaced another! The few farmers dwellings were soon surrounded by makeshift shanties, which were hastily constructed to accommodate the new workforce. Many of these communities were lawless and violent, similar in character to the mining camps of the Wild West of America, with drinking dens and brothels set up to relieve the men of their hard earned money.

 

Quickly, however these were replaced by the typical terraces of small, well built cottages which can still be seen today.

 

The inherent Crows Nest, like most other old buildings, has had many uses over the years. It was once a mine Captain's house and the pay office for the local miners. They were summoned by a bell hanging above one of the windows and paid partly in Crow's Nest Tokens, which they could exchange for goods and ale, sold from the office.

 

St. Austell brewery purchased the building from Barclays Bank in 1905, for the sum of £330. Beer was brewed here, and it was then known as the sun inn.

 

The name was changed to The Crows Nest Inn in 1985. The Crows Nest Inn is reputedly haunted by 3 benign ghosts. 1, a young bride wails for her lost love, who never returned from his shift at the local Cardon mine!