15 Bodmin Hill
What Three Words: ///scrub.
Forty metres along Bodmin Hill is a private residence built around an old inn called Byways. The house is still called Byways, but please respect the privacy of its residents.
The house consist of three gamekeepers' cottages fronting the road, probably built in the eighteenth century but modernised by 1900. The main house was added in 1929 and was occupied by a doctor. Above a stone-built garage, originally a coach house, was a billiard room.
Little is known about this pub that was on this site, except that it had a 6-day license and was popular with miners working at the Royal Iron Mine further up the hill. It was run as an adjunct to a private house and was typical of many small beer houses that sold beer as an additional source of income for a householder. In 1862 it is known to have been in the possession of Thomas Lewis, whose principal occupation was as a plasterer.
In the 1950s it was owned by a florist and about three quarters of the garden area was planted with daffodils. From 1959 until the 1970s it was owned by the Malden family.
Return to Couchwell Lane, walk down to Tanhouse Rd.
Turn left and walk to main road to