Famous People

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney

One of the most famous sons of  Bude is Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, whose genius for inventing literally ‘enlightened’ even the Houses of Parliament. By feeding oxygen straight into the central flame of an ordinary oil lamp, he managed to create a brilliantly white light. With the help of cleverly positioned prisms and mirrors, this light was reflected along the chambers and corridors of his abode, the Bude Castle. This method was later used in the Houses of Parliament as well as in the lighthouses along the coast, thus saving many a life at sea. One can still find a replica of the Bude Light on Trafalgar Square in London today.

Goldsworthy Gurney had an answer to many problems. Leasing a lovely plot close toSummerleaze beach from his longstanding friend, Sir Thomas Acland, he ventured building his house there in 1830. There was one problem though. He was trying to build on shifting sand - in the middle of a sand dune. Many a Bude local predicted the house would not stand for a week, but again Goldsworhty Gurney's genius came to the rescue. With the help of a concrete raft he managed to stabilise the walls, and it is believed that the Bude Castle was the first building to be built on such a concrete raft!

In 2000, Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and his Bude Light were commemorated by the erection of a slender and colourful cone just in front of the Bude Castle. Its lights were officially switched on by HRH, The Duke of Gloucester on the 9th of June 2000. 

After an extensive repair and refurbishment, the Castle was reopened to the public in July 2007 and now serves as an heritage, archive, gallery and exhibition centre - containing a wealth of information on on the local area and Gurney himself; a fitting tribute to Bude's forgotten genius.

Download our Bude Light brochure.

The Reverend Stephen Hawker

When the Reverend Hawker arrived at his new parish, Morwenstow, he was shocked to find himself in a rather godless congregation full of smugglers, wreckers and other outcasts, with a church falling to pieces and a vicarage full to the brim with the latest booty of many a wrecking spree.The Cornish considered smuggling quite a decent profession and wrecking a personal right.

The Reverend Hawker, quite an eccentric figure himself, did much to change the ways of his "flock" and managed to turn most of them onto the straight path. Instead of lending a "helping hand" in deliberately guiding crippled ships onto the rocks, the parishioners now tried guiding them to safety wherever possible, and rescued whom soever they could. Together with the Reverend, they even undertook the grimmest part of any wreck - collecting the drowned sailors, or whatever was left of them - and gave them a proper burial on hallowed grounds. People like him slowly, but surely, changed the ways of the locals and, with that, the cruelty of wrecking came to an end.

Instead, the first tentative attempts at sea rescues came to life. The Reverend Hawker is probably best known for his poems, especially "The Song of theWestern Men", which is now the Cornish Anthem. He wrote this, and many other verses in his little hut close to the cliffs, which was built entirely of driftwood. It was his private inspirational retreat and the hut can still be seen today. Now passed into the ownership of the National Trust, it is the smallest property on their list!