Book Release: H.T.P., Hosken, Trevithick, Polkinhorn & Co Ltd.

Philip M Hosken’s CO53 new book H.T.P., Hosken, Trevithick, Polkinhorn & Co Ltd. The Families Who Controlled Cornwall’s Great Conglomerate will soon be available to purchase.

About the book:

The letters H, T and P mean little in Cornwall today, but a Century ago, the initials ‘H.T.P.’ were a significant part of its commercial, agricultural and community fabric. Three prominent Cornish business figures, with the assistance of a fourth, created the largest conglomerate of companies Cornwall had ever seen.

H.T.P., Hosken, Trevithick, Polkinhorn & Co Ltd explores the backgrounds of these men, their personalities, inter-family marriages and abilities to command an expanding company that introduced new technologies to Cornwall. They were respected and popular but at odds with their financiers as they exercised feudal control over their enterprise and its devoted members of staff. We read of a hard, but sometimes exciting, life in Cornwall and we come across untold, intriguing facets of Cornish history and endeavour.

Philip says, “The main character, John N. Rosewarne (TS 1909-16), who would have made a better bishop, is a distant relative of mine. An Old Boy of the school, he also served as a governor and was a close friend of Freddie Wilkes, the Senior French master.”

The book should soon be available at Waterstones in Truro, the Old Cornwall Society, and the Redruth Idler in Fore Street when it reopens after its holiday on 4 October. There is a copy in Kresen Kernow, and we expect the Cornish libraries will have it soon.