HISTORY

PHILIP J STEPHENS (1876-1948) & MRS WINIFRED STEPHENS (c1870s-1968) gifted the sports and leisure area off Bossiney Road, now known as Tintagel Memorial Playing Fields, to this village in 1947. They passed the freehold of the site to the National Memorial Playing Fields Association, Patron of which is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The said organisation was set up to make recreational land available to the people of the United Kingdom in memory of the Queen’s father, hence the name “Memorial”.

The Deed of Conveyance appointed a local management committee to look after the day-to-day running of the amenity and keep it as a recreational area for the residents of Tintagel forever. The Tintagel Memorial Playing Fields Association continues to be run by a regularly elected committee of Trustees. The fields themselves became a Registered Charity in 2001 because UK law requires that endowed land, such as a playing field, is registered as such.

Mr and Mrs Stephens were Quakers. They met in London, where Philip Stephens served his apprenticeship as a Chartered Accountant. One of eleven children and a twin, Mr Stephens was originally from Budock, Falmouth: the son of a Rope Making business proprietor (Ashfield Ropeworks - now housing).

 

Winifred Stephens was born Winifred Homan. Her mother, Ruth Homan, gifted the Social Hall to this village in recognition of the many happy years she lived in Tintagel. Winifred's grandfather on her mother's side was the social reformer Sir Sydney Waterlow, Lord Mayor of London in 1872, and a printer by trade. The Waterlow family home in North London was called Fairseat House and Ruth Homan named her own home in Tintagel, Fairseat Place. The house is now split into Fairseat and Lewis’ Tearooms (formerly The Riggs) opposite the front entrance to the Methodist Chapel.   Winifred Stephens' sister was married to the local Church of England Vicar and lived at Tintagel Vicarage.

It is thought, by their descendants, that Mr and Mrs Stephens moved to Tintagel to be near Mrs Homan. Mr Stephens was Accountant to George Bellamy of Willapark Manor, when the Bellamy family owned the Boscastle Manor Estate from 1913-1946. Philip and Winifred's son, Lieutenant Philip Mark Stephens (RN) married Morwenna Bellamy (daughter of George), they had five children together.  Both Philip Mark and Morwenna Stephens are both commemorated at St Materiana Church. Winifred and Philip J's  daughter, Joanna (E. Booth), opened the cricket pavilion in the 1980s, she too is buried at Tintagel.  Mr and Mrs PJ Stephens themselves are buried at Budock, Falmouth with other Quakers.

By Sarah Melton, Secretary Tintagel Memorial Playing Fields Association, cousin of Mrs Morwenna Stephens, whose daughter, Jo Stephens, has loaned photographs and information which have proved invaluable and for which I am very grateful. NB: NMPFA is now the National Playing Fields Association.