About Cyprus Well

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Former UK Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, Patron of the Charles Causley Trust, formally opens a restored and refurbished Cyprus Well, Charles Causley's former house, in 2013 . (Photograph: Steve Tanner)
At the very steep top of Ridgegrove Hill in Launceston town centre -- just opposite Angel Hill, and at the junction with Dockacre Road (the A388).
The Trust's recent bespoke memorial plaque, at the front of the house.
Earlier house name- and number-plaque above the front entrance (which was in place during Causley's years at the house, and may originally date from earlier than that period).

Cyprus Well: About the House

Cyprus Well was Charles Causley’s home for 50 years. He bought it in 1952 to share with his widowed mother, and continued to live there after she died in 1971.

The house is marked just near the front door by a large cast-iron lantern, and by a circular memorial plaque unveiled by Sir Andrew Motion on its formal re-opening in 2013 (see the above photo). It is a small property, the middle one of three in a short terrace, situated down a very steep minor road (Ridgegrove Hill) just outside the centre of Launceston. The road leads towards the River Tamar and the Cornwall-Devon county border, at Polson Bridge about a mile away.

The terrace is quite old — Causley even suggests that it, and in particular his own house, is named for a nearby spring and its presumed Saxon owner, originally known as Sibard’s Well (see his poem with that title!). Causley therefore suggests that the site itself may date back over a thousand years.

The house fronts directly onto the road and its single-side pavement (please note that parking nearby is therefore very awkward). On the ground floor, there is a combined entrance hall and small lounge area, plus a separate, similarly small room that Causley used as his writing space and library. At its rear, there is a kitchen and dining area with a small glassed-in extension (and nowadays, a combined toilet and shower room). Up the steep and narrow staircase are two bedrooms. Outside and to the side of the kitchen/dining area, there is a small patio area and then a small rear garden, arranged in two sections down a slope.

Looking down Ridgegrove Hill to the Tamar valley from Cyprus Well (note the plaques on the wall near the front door).
Sitting (front) room at Cyprus Well, with the internal door from the road, and looking out onto Ridgegrove Hill.
Rear view from Causley's study and writing-room, looking across the patio and down through the back garden.
One of the two double bedrooms, on either side of the first-floor landing at the top of the central staircase inside Cyprus Well.

Cyprus Well has now been fully restored and refurbished to modern standards, after a long campaign of planning, fund-raising and organising by the Causley Trust. It is mainly used for the Trust’s residency and project activities.

Locating Launceston and Cyprus Well

See below for a navigable Google map, showing the locations of the town of Launceston and Cyprus Well — at varying scales, from UK-wide right down to close details. Use the ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons to zoom in and out, and use your moveable screen cursor to navigate around the map. The map also has a satellite mode, with a ‘wlakable’ street-level picture feature. (For a map showing our Causley Trust office, please click HERE.)