Apartment available in a historic building built with Spanish gold – but only if you’re local

A historic almshouse built with Spanish gold taken during the Golden Age of Piracy is looking for new residents – as long as they’re local. Hutchens’ Almshouses in the hamlet of Paul, just outside Mousehole, are looking for people to move into, but you will need to have connections to the Penzance and Newlyn area to do so.

Elaine Bawden, a trustee of the Stephen Hutchens Trust and Almshouses, said: “As trustees of Hutchens House, we are maintaining Captain Stephen Hutchen’s dying wish to provide accommodation for people who lived in the Paul, Mousehole, Newlyn or Borough area of Penzance. for five years.

“The wording of his generous legacy of 1709 may have been altered to keep pace with modern times, but the ethos remains the same… need for housing replaces poverty as the main criterion for occupying apartments at Hutchens House. The importance of this wonderful Pomen can never be underestimated and helps in a small way to address local housing needs for retirees with local connections who can live independently.”

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Hutchens’ house was built with pieces of eight taken by Captain Stephen Hutchens. As he lay dying in Jamaica in 1709, having just captured a ship, her crew and her treasure – a captured prize of 20,000 pieces of eight – he remembered in his will the village of his birth and left money for shelter and maintenance. six of the poorest men and six of the poorest women living in the Parish of Paul’.

This was the period known as the Golden Age of Piracy (about 1650 to 1730) when English and French sailors attacked Spanish ships as they returned from the New World laden with silver and gold. Eight days after signing this will, he died at the age of 40.

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Hutchens’ house was built and his will and wishes have been carried out to this day. In 1968 the Charity Commission extended the terms of Hutchens House to allow residents to apply from Newlyn and Penzance as well as Mousehole and Paul.

In 1994, the property was renovated. As a result, there are now six new apartments for double occupancy, as well as separate caretaker accommodation and a shared room. In 2007 the barns were converted into two additional houses. Hutchen House offers one bedroom apartments suitable for single or double occupancy, together with heating and hot water, gardening, window cleaning, lunch provided by the manager six days a week, water supply, TV licence, external maintenance and laundry.

Elaine said one of the main application criteria is that applicants must have lived in the Paul, Mousehole, Newlyn or Borough of Penzance area for five years. She added: “We have flats with single and double occupancy. Preference is given to retired applicants who have a local connection and can live independently. We currently have an apartment available to rent – inquiries can be made via email to hornby01@aol. com.”