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When Captain Roger Angmering built himself a house in the year 1782 on the island offLeathercombe Bay, it was thought the height of eccentricity¹ on his part. A man of good familysuch as he was should have had a decorous mansion² set in wide meadows with, perhaps, a runningstream and good pasture.

But Captain Roger Angmering had only one great love, the sea. So he built his house—a sturdyhouse too, as it needed to be, on the little windswept gull-haunted promontory—cut off from landat each high tide.

He did not marry, the sea was his first and last spouse³, and at his death the house and islandwent to a distant cousin. That cousin and his descendants thought little of the bequest⁴. Their ownacres dwindled⁵, and their heirs grew steadily⁶ poorer.

In 1922 when the great cult⁷ of the Seaside for Holidays was finally established and the coast ofDevon and Cornwall was no longer thought too hot in the summer, Arthur Angmering found hisvast inconvenient⁸ late Georgian house unsaleable, but he got a good price for the odd bit ofproperty acquired by the seafaring Captain Roger.

The sturdy house was added to and embellished⁹. A concrete causeway was laid down from themainland to the island. “Walks” and “Nooks” were cut and devised all round the island. Therewere two tennis courts, sun terraces leading down to a little bay embellished with rafts and divingboards. The Jolly Roger Hotel, Smugglers’ Island, Leathercombe Bay, came triumphantly¹⁰ intobeing. And from June till September (with a short season at Easter) the Jolly Roger Hotel wasusually packed to the attics¹¹. It was enlarged and improved in 1934 by the addition of a cocktailbar, a bigger dining room and some extra bathrooms. The prices went up.

People said:

“Ever been to Leathercombe Bay? Awfully¹² jolly hotel there, on a sort of island. Verycomfortable and no trippers or charabancs. Good cooking and all that. You ought to go.”

And people did go.

 

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