Trenwith House

**Trenwith House** was a home owned by the Poldark family on the land of Trenwith.

The house had portraits of deceased Poldarks hung up on the walls.

## History

### Early history

Trenwith House was built in 1509. It then belonged to the Trenwith family. In 1696, Anna Maria Trenwith married Charles Vivian Raffe Poldarque. Because the family only had daughters, the house and land was given to Charles instead and he became the first Poldark to be head of the Trenwith estate.

Charles Vivian and Anna Maria had four children, and two survived infancy: Agatha and Claude. Agatha became a spinster and lived at Trenwith House her whole life. In 1708, Charles Vivian died when Claude was around ten and he inherited Trenwith and the land.

Claude died in 1748 and the estate passed to the second of his three children, Charles Poldark. The youngest, Joshua Poldark, had the land of Nampara instead. Charles had two children: Verity and Francis Poldark.

### 1783 - 1792

By 1783, the home was owned by Charles Poldark. In September 1783, a gathering was held to celebrate the engagement of Francis Poldark to Elizabeth Chynoweth. At the meal, Ross Poldark returned home from the Revolutionary War to meet his family, where he found out about the engagement, to his disappointment. The reception of the wedding was held at Trenwith.

In 1784, the christening of Geoffrey Charles Poldark was held at Trenwith. In 1786, Charles Poldark died of a heart attack and Francis Poldark inherited the house and land. Francis struggled to manage the estate and family mining ventures. He was bribed and betrayed family, he lost confidence in bad decisions and he eventually died trying to find copper at Wheal Grace in 1792.

### 1793 - 1799

Geoffrey Charles was far too young to inherit Trenwith and the responsibility of running it. Elizabeth was to care for the estate until he was of age. Francis had considerable debt and a failing mine, and Elizabeth and their child fell into poverty and loneliness. Ross Poldark wanted to help financially, but Elizabeth later married the wealthy George Warleggan, who helped her manage and control Trenwith.

George began bringing change to Trenwith, including setting up a perimeter around Trenwith land. He used brute force to keep trespassers away even though locals used paths there, and caused a riot of villagers to head towards Trenwith House to raze it to the ground. Ross intervened and the villagers left. Elizabeth later gave birth to Valentine Warleggan at Trenwith House, pretending the child was George's and it was a premature birth when the child was actually Ross Poldark's. Ross and Demelza had begun avoiding Trenwith for years.

In 1794, George, Elizabeth and Valentine lived in Cardew for a short time, leaving Geoffrey Charles and Agatha in Trenwith. In 1795, Agatha Poldark died in the house when she and George had an argument and Geoffrey Charles left Trenwith to attend a boarding school. Elizabeth and Valentine lived in Trenwith again, but George began avoiding them because Agatha had told the truth about Valentine's paternity. They eventually reconciled, and he took up full-time residence in Trenwith House again.

In 1799, Elizabeth died at Trenwith House giving birth to Ursula Warleggan. George was left in charge of Trenwith until Geoffrey Charles turned 18 but that would be in just under three years.

### 1800 - 1802

In 1800, he took Valentine and Ursula to to live at Cardew instead, and Geoffrey Charles had a dinner to honour Elizabeth and the Poldark family. He asked Drake and Morwenna Carne to look in at the house when he's at school and take care of it. They later heard of break-ins in the local area and wanted to spend a few nights at the house. Unfortunately, George headed back to fetch a portrait of Elizabeth that evening, and chased them when he saw Drake.

George and Cary Warleggan soon brought Valentine and Ursula back to live in Trenwith. Cary sought help for George's delusions because of a fragile state of mind, and had him locked up in the bedroom where Dr. Penrose conducted brutal treatment. Ralph Hanson kept stopping by to conduct business and Cary kept excusing George's absence. Geoffrey Charles and Cecily Hanson later looked at Elizabeth's portrait.

## Behind the scenes

* Trenwith House is filmed at Chavenage House in Gloucestershire.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ross Poldark, Book 1, Chapter 2
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 See this image of the Poldark family tree by Winston Graham
3. ↑ Poldark, Season 1, Episode 1
4. ↑ Poldark, Season 1, Episode 3
5. ↑ Poldark, Season 1, Episode 4
6. ↑ Poldark, Season 2, Episode 1
7. ↑ Poldark, Season 2, Episode 5
8. ↑ Poldark, Season 2, Episode 6
9. ↑ Poldark, Season 2, Episode 8
10. ↑ Poldark, Season 2, Episode 9
11. ↑ Poldark, Season 3, Episode 1
12. ↑ Poldark, Season 3, Episode 2
13. ↑ Poldark, Season 3, Episode 6
14. ↑ Poldark, Season 3, Episode 7
15. ↑ Poldark, Season 3, Episode 8
16. ↑ Poldark, Season 4, Episode 8
17. ↑ Poldark, Season 5, Episode 1
18. ↑ Poldark, Season 5, Episode 1
19. ↑ Poldark, Season 5, Episode 3
20. ↑ Filming Locations by Poldarked