Small clip-lock box with room for swops.
Cache located off Church Road, just past Lovenva, the bungalow commissioned and built for Harold & Mary Wilson in 1959 as a second home on a plot of land purchased from the Duchy of Cornwall for £200.
The Labour Prime Minister would often visit the islands with his wife, two sons and Labrador Paddy. He died in 1995 and his widow Lady Mary Wilson continued to stay in the property up to her death in 2018. She was 102 and had the dubious honour of being the longest living spouse of a British Prime Minister. The Wilsons named the three-bedroom bungalow 'Lowenva', an old Cornish word meaning 'house of happiness' that was apparently suggested by Harold's sister Marjorie.
The building itself has absolutely no architectural value in itself, indeed, its design could be described as bland and almost looking like a garage with windows.
Recently sold, the estate agent's description is fabulous:
"Lowenva is situated in an elevated position on Church Road, just 500m from Hugh Town, the tiny “capital” of St Mary’s with its shops, schools, banks, Post Office, harbour and many other amenities. Formerly the holiday home of Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and until recently the island home of his late widow, Lady Wilson, Lowenva was built for the family in 1959.
It is of cavity block construction, having Reformite stone exterior, and a pitched shingle roof. Although the house does not enjoy sea views, the large lawned garden does. However, a modest extension out towards Church Road, would afford sea views, subject to the necessary consents.
The property generally enjoys excellent natural light levels, catching the sun all day. It is now in need of modernisation throughout, with potential for conversion of the roofspace to extend the accommodation – a perfect blank canvas to create a bespoke home. Lowenva has gardens on all sides, laid to lawn, extending approximately 0.18 acres.
Two sides are bounded by well- tended Pittosporum hedges, whilst the road frontages have granite walls and are screened by mature Agapanthus and Hydrangea beds. Within the garden is a modest garden shed." £395,000 (2019)
Speaking on a visit to the islands in 1964, Harold Wilson said: "I come here for every holiday when I can get away, because you can get away from everything, not only in distance but also in time.
"If you go to some of the uninhabited islands you can imagine yourself almost living in pre-Roman times".
A year later he explained how he managed his schedule on Scilly, saying: "What I like to do is relax and enjoy the holiday during the day and review in the evening any actions or decisions that need to be taken."
in 1976 he suddenly quit as prime minister during his second period of office, many wondered about his motive. As his colleague Barbara Castle put it later, “What exactly was Harold up to?” But now we know the simple truth. At 60, he was tired and physically frail, and he feared (correctly) that he was losing his memory, which had been formidable, an important tool throughout his political career. In the years left to him, he slowly began to forget where and who he was.
He was the first prime minister to reveal his knees in public and the last to smoke a pipe – a bridge of sorts between generations – but the idea grew that his everydayness was a contrivance, that he secretly smoked Havana cigars rather than ready-rubbed Exmoor Hunt, and that he preferred cognac to beer.
“Wilson would not have wanted anything that detracted from his image as a plain, ordinary, accessible man,” his biographer Ben Pimlott wrote about the bungalow, but to stand in front of it is to marvel at how plain, ordinary and accessible it actually is.
A bench on a headland records his favourite view. A display case obscurely sited in the basement of Hugh Town’s museum holds two of his celebrated Gannex macs, his Labour party tie, a pipe and an inscribed golf ball. You have to be determined and pass a lot of excavated pottery and shipwrecked artefacts to reach them.
Wilson is buried in the Scillies. His grave lies among the quadrants of other graves in the churchyard of St Mary’s Old Town church, only a few minutes’ walk down the hill from his bungalow. There were no flowers in the vase when I went. A line of seashells decorates the surface gravel and the headstone has a simple inscription: Tempus Imperator Rerum, time is the ruler of everything.
The cache is located just across the road from Lovenva at the start of King Edward's Road.
Congratulations to pljg on FTF.
Click the link to view a wonderful short film made by Harold Wilson House Instagram account which shows the house as he lived in when they purchased it in 2019. Many thanks for their permission and to Pencoise for sorting out this posting.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFHM6BNnDWE/