Denys Val Baker - Family Life

Family Life

Denys's family life and career were very closely tied, providing inspiration for his writing.

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Librarian Patricia Johnson whom he met in 1942. They had one son, Martin, born in 1944. This marriage collapsed and ended in 1948. At this point Denys moved to Cornwall. He lived there for the rest of his life except for a three year sojourn in London and one year in Bermuda.

He married Jess Bryan (b. 1922) in 1949. Jess brought to the family Gillian (b. 1945) and Jane (b. 1947). The family slowly grew with the births of Stephen in 1949, Demelza in 1951, and Genevieve in 1954.

His life in Cornwall really began in 1948 when he rented a small cottage at the foot of Trencrom Hill just outside St Ives. But as the family quickly grew, following the marriage with Jess, they moved from Trencrom to Penzance and then to Sennen Cove.

Then, the Val Bakers were able to buy the seventeen-room Old Vicarage, St Hilary, the house featured in Bernard Walke’s book Twenty Years at St Hilary. At this time Jess took lessons with the potter David Leach in Penzance and soon opened up a studio pottery, which continued for at least twenty years.

In 1954 the Val Bakers left St Hilary and moved to Kent and then to London. But three years later they returned to Cornwall to a tiny rented cottage in Virgin Street, St Ives and then to Church Place before in 1958 moving to St Christopher's a house overlooking Porthmeor beach. It was here that the pottery run by Jess began to be successful, and Denys would often be found there both writing and serving customers. It was also here that Denys started on a series of autobiographical books, inspired by family life at St Christopher's.

In 1967 the family moved to the Old Sawmills, an isolated, rambling house located in extensive woodland up a creek at Golant on the river Fowey approachable only by boat or walking along the railway belonging to English China Clays. It was here that Denys settled for five years, writing in an old shed/studio on the sunny side of the creek. By now most of the older children had set out on their ways but they often returned with friends, and the Sawmills was always a very busy place. One of the reasons for this move was the safe mooring available for the newly purchased 60ft ex-navy supply tender MFV Sanu. Meanwhile, the Mask Pottery in Fowey continued to be run by Jess, with the help of Stephen and Demelza. Jess was offered the opportunity of running a course teaching the pottery in Bermuda so she and Denys spent a year there.

On their return in 1972, with MFV Sanu now moored in the Mediterranean, they started planning to move to another old millhouse, at Crean between St. Buryan and Land's End in 1972. As at Golant, Denys continued writing in a shed for a studio. Along the cliff footpath at Zennor, there is a bench overlooking the sea, which is dedicated to the memory of Denys Val Baker.