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Changing Face of the Crusoe Hotel

26/4/2014

4 Comments

 
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The Crusoe Hotel was built in 1824 as a granary, although from very early days the end of the building closest to the sea was used as an inn.  The original appearance of the building is shown above.  The roof is of uniform height and style over the full length of the building. However, on the evening of 8th January 1911 a serious fire broke out in a room on the third storey of the inn.  According to the next day's Evening Telegraph, the Buckhaven Fire Brigade were summoned, by the proprietor Mr Thomas Lumsden, and arrived within 30 minutes.  By that time, flames were bursting through the roof.  Unfortunately, the tide was out and the fire brigade had to rely instead on the Keil Burn. The top floor was completed gutted but the fire was prevented from spreading to other floors or to the adjoining granary, stores and stables.  Water damage did however contribute to overall damage of £1,000.  As the fire started in a room not occupied for over 24 hours, the cause of the blaze was not known.
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After the fire damage, the building was repaired and modernized.  The notable change was to the roof, with the beach-side of the building featuring a flat roof.  Perhaps this design proved to be leaky, as it was eventually replaced with the present roof - now higher on the sea-side than the other side.  In 1920, the granary was converted into a tearoom, extending the facilities of the hotel, by the owner Mr Howard Barnes Moss. Its license was granted on the condition that no liquor be sold in the tearoom.  The most recent major change to the building was the early 1990s extension (see lower right image) which runs perpendicular to the main building.
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4 Comments
Ellie Rose Elliott
30/8/2016 08:19:38 am

Mr Howard Barnes Moss left Largo and the Crusoe Hotel in 1924 with his wife and two sons and sailed to Auckland, New Zealand whence he proceeded to Tonga, and opened a hotel there. He was a great-uncle of mine, so any news you have from Largo would be of great interest - and if I can find more about Tonga, I'll share it with you. I'm sure Alexander Selkirk would have enjoyed the thought of a sojourn in the South Seas ...

Reply
Eileen Burton
4/7/2018 08:41:38 am

Hello Ellie, I've only just come across this post and am quite intrigued! I'm Howard Barnes-Moss's granddaughter, my father was one of the young sons you mention. I've done quite a lot of research into the family so wonder whether we're related? I have also travelled to Tonga to follow up the family history but don't believe he ran a hotel there. Would be interested to hear from you.

Reply
Ellie Rose Elliott
12/7/2018 06:53:56 am

Hello Eileen and delighted to meet you! My great-aunt Helenor (Nellie) Elliott was married to Howard's brother John and I have followed the family history with considerable interest, partly because I live in the North East at the coast and ships and sailors are what we do. I have so enjoyed researching the Wight family!

I would be so very interested in any information about Howard, as here in UK there is very little after they left for Tonga. Though the boys came home to school and your grandmother also, there is nothing in the public record about Howard. The hotel in Fiji would have seemed like a good idea at the time, he had already run two, but perhaps he did something completely different? Do you have any news?

We should talk, as I know other Barnes-Moss descendants you might like to get in touch with, but this blog is not the ideal place to post email addresses. You can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Ancestry if that helps...

Reply
Eileen Burton
12/7/2018 09:55:33 am

Hello Ellie Rose, Thank you for your reply! As I said, I’ve done a lot of research into the Barnes-Moss history, and some into the Wight family, but it would take a long to time to go through everything! As you say, this is not the right place for that but I can tell you that Howard didn’t run a hotel in Tonga, but owned/ran a copra farm. In fact, I’m intrigued you say he ran two hotels, I was only aware of the Crusoe Hotel.

After my grandmother and the boys (there were 3) came back to UK, Howard stayed on in Tonga though I’ve never been able to find a record of his death – even went to the Records Office in Nuku’alofa! I’m pretty sure he stayed there until he died, and know he ran a small business repairing/mending radios, bicycles – anything really! However, couldn’t find any sign of it after all this time. The two oldest boys, including my father, went to school in New Zealand before they went to school in England and my understanding is they came back to UK as my grandmother had family business to sort out.

It would be good to exchange more information and possibly be in touch with other Barnes-Moss descendants but unfortunately I don’t subscribe to any of the sites you mention. If you’d like to send me an email to the following address (not my main one), I can respond with some more details via my usual email - after.time@hotmail.co.uk

Regards
Eileen


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