Praze-an-Beeble, Camborne, TR14 0PT
Tel: (01209) 833100,
Ancient Cornish Estate
Clowance is a large estate and substantial mansion house at Praze, near Camborne, for centuries owned by the St. Aubyn family.
Clowance House was the seat of the St. Aubyns (from 1671 they were the St. Aubyn Baronets, but the legitimate line ended with Sir John St. Aubyn, 5th Baronet in a 1839). Three years before his death the wings of the house burnt down on the 10th November 1836.
The first member of the St. Aubyn family to move to Cornwall was Guy St. Aubyn who married the heiress of Colquite in the mid fourteenth century. His son, Geoffrey, married in 1380 even more advantageously, his wife Elizabeth being the only child of Piers Kemyel of Clowance (near Helston). Clowance became the principal family home until the mid-19th century and the Kemyel inheritance included lands at Lamorna and St. Levan which form part of St. Aubyn Estates today.
The St. Aubyns also owned St. Michael's Mount, which they bought from the Bassett family in 1659 who were selling it to raise money to pay fines after the Civil War.
To pay death duties, the St. Aubyns also sold a lot of the farms and land that had been amassed over time. A consortium of businessmen bought and later sold the mansion and park lands in around 1929, to Harry Glanville, a local farmer. Mr Glanville continued to run Clowance until his death in June 1940. His wife Bessie Glanville continued to live in the Mansion up to 1945.
The current resort of Clowance estate offers swimming, tennis, gym and fitness facilities, a bar and an Italian restaurant set amongst apartments and patio homes to rent.
Today the mansion house is in private ownership and not open to the public.
Close to the junction of the B3303 and the B3280 roads, three miles south of Camborne.
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