Charles & Alice Hext
Owned Trebah 1907-1939
Charles (1851-1917) and Alice (1865-1939) purchased Trebah from Sir Jonathan Backhouse in 1907 and it once again became a primary residence.
Charles came from a well-known family in St Austell and, like his father, was a banker and magistrate. He served as Mayor of Bodmin from 1894-1895, High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1915 and was a Justice of the Peace for many years.
Alice Hext, née Petherick, was also born in St Austell to a bank manager father. She was said to be a formidable woman and there are multiple newspaper clippings where Alice would write in advocating for women’s rights and opportunities.
She was treasurer of the Girls Friendly Society of Falmouth, donating a house at Grove Place and was a prominent benefactor of the Elizabeth Barclay home in Bodmin, as well as Justice of the Peace.
After ten happy years at Trebah, Charles passed away in 1917, following a short bout of pneumonia, leaving Alice to take charge of leading Trebah further into the 20th century. It was under her watch that the garden truly flourished.
Garden development
By the early 1900s, the garden was well-established and put on magnificent displays of colour each year. It is recorded that by the 1930s six full-time gardeners were looking after the valley.
Looking at Ordnance Survey maps, we know that by 1907 new paths had been added to the garden, including the path we now call Badger’s Walk.
Two small ponds were created in the middle of the garden, now known as Dinky’s Puddle and Azolla Pool, which were stocked with rainbow trout and golden orfe. Many camellias were also planted around this time.
The marshy area at the bottom of the valley was puddled to create what we now call Mallard Pond and, in a display of affluence, it became home to a flock of pink flamingos, though it is said they didn’t take to their new surroundings and flew away.
On the eastern side of the garden, an open-fronted summer house with a thatched roof and cob walls was built. Originally called Alice’s Retreat, this structure was rebuilt in 2002 and is now known as Alice’s Seat.
A Royal Visit
On 21st April 1935, Alice mysteriously and without reason cancelled on a couple living in the adjoining village of Mawnan Smith, who were meant to be visiting her that day for tea.
In the mid-afternoon of this otherwise-normal Easter Sunday, a car arrived at Trebah and out stepped Edward, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, along with a number of his friends including a couple called Mr & Mrs Simpson.
Whilst we do not know the exact nature of their visit, it was likely social and would have been a great honour for Alice and her staff.
After the visit, Edward sent Alice a letter thanking her for the plants and his visit to Trebah.
When his father King George VI died on 20th January 1936, Edward ascended to the throne becoming King Edward VIII. However, just months into his reign, the new monarch wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, who had also been in the party that visited Trebah the year before.
She was still married to her second husband, Ernest Simpson, though seeking a divorce.
After much political objection, Edward abdicated the throne on 11th December 1936 and became the Duke of Windsor, marrying Wallis in 1937, and making way for his brother George VI and the current line of the royal family.
Upon hearing the news, Alice Hext was recorded as being very unhappy and the visit was all but forgotten.
Memories of Trebah
In 2025, a descendant of the Hext family shared an old album of photos of Trebah from the 1920s. We believe the photos to be from around the 1920s and to have been taken by friends or relatives that stayed with Alice Hext at Trebah, based on the album’s name ‘Memories of Trebah’. They offer a fascinating insight into the planting, house, garden and beach.
“We prepared tea, nothing special, just what would have been laid out ordinarily – it was just like any other at the house. But let me tell you, they were a charming party…After tea had been taken I remember the Prince of Wales sat in the garden smoking a cigarette.
These were specially made for him, and he only smoked half of this particular one. He stubbed it out in a flowerbed and we found it afterwards and kept it in a cupboard for six months! We even marked the chair that he’d sat in so that we could tell people in the future.”
“After the scandal, Mrs Hext was furious. She just couldn’t take it at all. All memory of the day was swept away and no mention of it was ever made again.”
Account of the royal visit by Alice Hext’s footman, F. Gordon Meneer
A Lasting Legacy
Alice went to great lengths to ensure that everything that had been accomplished at Trebah would go on to survive long after her death.
In 1938, she had the forethought to put in place covenants with the National Trust to protect the then 171 acres of Trebah’s estate from developers, or any person wanting to disrupt the natural beauty of the area. The Hext Covenant still informs the decisions we make when working in the garden today.
In 1893, Charles’ brother Francis Marwood had married Alice’s sister Florence Petherick and it was their daughter, Dorothy, who inherited Trebah estate upon Alice’s death in 1939. She sold the garden and Trebah Farm off separately.
Pictured: Alice Hext with her dogs Wasp (standing) and Nettle (sitting)
An excerpt from Alice Hext’s obituary reveals that “Mrs. Hext was a keen horticulturist and a frequent exhibitor at county and local garden shows… Her grounds were always open to the public and were often used for fêtes and garden parties.”
“In the Constantine-Mawnan area she was interested in, and almost invariably a helper in, anything for the betterment of village life. She gave to Constantine its present recreation ground and pavilion, and in both villages she supported sporting and social organisations, almost without exception.”
Excerpt from Alice Hext’s obituary
