Fir Hill Manor

Fir Hill Manor is a manor house near Colan, mid-Cornwall, England, dating from the 1850s. In 1994, it was the subject of a BBC Bristol documentary, which tells the story of former Newquay policeman Derek Fowkes as he searches for absentee landlord, John Paget Figg-Hoblyn. John Paget Figg-Hoblyn claimed to be the rightful heir to the estate after the death of his father, Francis, who died in 1965. The inheritance was not settled for over 40 years. The estate had shrunk to 1,000 acres (400 ha) estate during that period.

Fir Hill Manor is situated within the Fir Hill Woods, near Colan (not far from Newquay). The Hoblyns of Fir Hill and Drennick were descended from Robert Hoblyn – whose son married Judith Burgess, the heir and representative of Elizabeth Milliton – and Sir John Langdon Bonython. The dwelling's first owner, William Paget Hoblyn, lived there in 1856 with his wife, one son and four daughters. The manor was originally surrounded by 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of land. William wanted his daughters to share in the inheritance of the estate. His son Ernest eventually died young. Only one sister, Rosalind, had children. She married a naval officer, Thomas Richard Figg, in 1884. They moved to Canada, and their children became Figg-Hoblyn. The remaining sisters neglected the estate. Rosalind's eldest son, Francis Figg-Hoblyn, wanted to restore Fir Hill Manor, but was not happy with its upkeep and eventually did not settle in England but remained the owner of the estate and manor house and passed it on to his son.

Francis Figg-Hoblyn, owner of the Fir Hill Manor estate, died in 1965. Upon his death he willed the property to his son, John Paget Figg-Hoblyn. However, John Paget Figg-Hoblyn had returned to the United States without making it clear he had accepted the inheritance. For several decades John Paget's whereabouts were not exactly known.

In 1994, Fir Hill Manor was the subject of a BBC Bristol documentary, The Curse of Fir Hill Manor, which told the story of former Newquay policeman Derek Fowkes as he searched for John Paget Figg-Hoblyn. John Paget's cousin, John Westropp Figg-Hoblyn, a septuagenarian ex-farmer from Missouri, USA, and his wife Geraldine, had an idea that John Paget was living in a trailer park in the USA. At that time, the exact address of their residence was still not known.

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