Prideaux Place (Cornish: Plas Prideaux)^[2] is a grade I listed^[3] Elizabethan country house in the parish of Padstow, Cornwall, England. It has been the home of the Prideaux family for over 400 years. The house was built in 1592 by Sir Nicholas Prideaux (1550–1627), a distinguished lawyer,^[4] and was enlarged and modified by successive generations, most notably by his great-great-grandson Edmund Prideaux (1693–1745) and by the latter’s grandson Rev. Charles Prideaux-Brune (1760–1833). The present building, containing 81 rooms,^[4] combines the traditional E-shape of Elizabethan architecture with the 18th-century exuberance of Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Gothic.

The house contains a fine collection of works of art, including royal and family portraits, fine furniture and the Prideaux Porcelain Collection. The recently uncovered ceiling in the Great Chamber is a masterpiece of the art of the Elizabethan plasterer. In 1968 the estate comprised about 3,500 acres, excluding the St Breock estate situated about ten miles away, also in the family’s ownership, inherited from the Viell family in the 17th century.^[5] The deer park is one of the most ancient in England, containing in 1968 about 100 fallow deer, increased from only about six in 1946 following World War II.^[6]

Edith Pattou

The service at breakfast was not as efficient-much slower-than it had been the previous day. Several people were seeking out the waitress for their order to be taken only to be told to return to their table, someone would be along soon.

The waitress eventually came to take our order (after taking an order from others that had arrived later than us). I chose the blueberry pancake stack. It was delicious.

The temperature had dropped enough for us to follow the local history walk around Padstow. We stopped at St Petroc’s church where we heard the organ being tuned. Shortly after, we arrived at Prideaux Place just in time to join the guided tour at 12pm. When the tour had concluded we enjoyed mackerel pate whilst sitting outside overlooking the deer park.

We then resumed the Padstow walk which ended at the harbour. We continued to the nearby National Lobster Hatchery which we found fascinating. As we arrived, the lobsters and other marine life were being fed. It was fascinating to watch the lobster eat.

We returned to the town and had refreshments in the delightfully named Cherry Blossom café. We shared a cake and I had my usual Elderflower Presse and Mr C a cup of tea. We then returned to the billet to chill out with another cup of tea enjoying the view from our room.

Later we dined in Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant. The service from Olly was excellent but once again, as in Winchester earlier this year, we were left slightly underwhelmed by the food choices. I chose Indonesian fish stew which turned out to be one of the larger meals.

We have dined in Rick Stein’s before these two occasions and enjoyed what was on offer, but something has changed over the years.

We had a nightcap in the Old Ship Inn before retiring for the evening.

The first destination of our holiday was Padstow. When we set off (on time), the temperature was 94F s0  we were glad of the car’s air conditioning. We stopped for lunch in Gloucester services where we sat inside after we decided it was too hot to sit outside. Later, we stopped at Exeter services for a leg stretch and another cooling drink.

Padstow, was positively cool at 81F. We parked the car and checked into our hotel, The Old Custom House, which was conveniently close to the car park. We arrived at the most inconvenient time; the hotel was experiencing a power cut. In fact, the whole of Padstow was experiencing a power cut. The power kept cutting in and out for the next half an hour or so.

We dumped our bags in the room and visited the hotel bar just as the power cut out again. The bar maid was in the process of telling us that she couldn’t serve us when the lady who had checked us in intervened and told her that we were residents and she could serve us. All she needed to do was bill it to our room number.

One glass of wine and a cool beer later, we were chilling out in the lounge which overlooks Padstow Harbour. Whilst we were driving to Padstow the restaurant we had booked to dine in that evening phoned to tell us they weren’t able to honour the booking as both of their Chefs were ill. The journey to Padstow had been a long one so, rather than look for somewhere else, we decided to dine in the hotel restaurant for convenience.

However, when we arrived for dinner most menu items  had sold out leaving us with the options of burgers or curry. We told the person serving us that this wouldn’t work and we left. We were able to find a table at the Harbour Inn which is next to The Old Custom House. The food was nice. I chose scampi. This was served with chips cooked in beef fat. I know that many people rave about this type of chips but I was not convinced the flavour worked with scampi. I found the flavour clashed and I think I would have felt the same way if I had ordered the fish instead.

After dining we had a leisurely walk around the harbour before enjoying a nightcap in The Old Ship Inn. We returned to the hotel to find it was buzzing as we sat relaxing in our room with a view over the harbour.

Just as I was settling into bed, I remembered that I had forgotten to pack my lovely new alarm clock that worked so well when we were in Winchester for Easter.