Coulings Cottage at Treverbyn - birth place of Sarah (nee Couling) Cloake
Sarah was the daughter of William Couling, a steadfast labourer and gamekeeper, son of yeoman farmers, and Eliza Southern, a resilient woman whose roots ran deep into the Tamar Valley's fertile soil. Born in 1884 at Couling Cottage, Treverbyn—a hamlet near St Neot—her earliest years were woven into the fabric of rural Cornish life, in the very cottage that still bears her family name today.
Family Snapshot - 1891 Census: By the tender age of six, Sarah was living with her uncle James Cowling, a cow and poultry keeper, in the hamlet of Polbathic (or Polbathick, as it was sometimes spelled), in the parish of St Germans. There, she was raised alongside her aunt Elizabeth Couling, a single woman of quiet strength. This home amid the rolling fields near the River Tamar became Sarah's childhood residence, maintaining the Couling clan's enduring ties to the land where her father William had been born.
Family Snapshot - 1901 Census: Ten years later, sixteen-year-old Sarah was still living in Uncle James's household at Pobathic. The census shows her as his niece, confirming that she had been raised by Uncle James and Aunt Elizabeth throughout her formative years. Growing up on this smallholding, Sarah learned the practical skills of tending cows and poultry that would serve her well in her future life.
Sarah's Uncle James and Aunty Anne Couling
The Couling and Southern Heritage
Sarah's parents Eliza (nee Southern) and William Couling
The Couling Family
Sarah's paternal line, the Couling family, traced back through generations of Polbathic farmers, intertwined with the Toll family—a lineage of surveyors, sailors, and smallholders whose name evoked the hollows and hidden pits of Cornwall's ancient landscape.
Her grandmother Emma Toll, born around 1820 in St Germans, had married into the Couling fold, forging bonds that echoed in parish registers and family lore.
The Southern Family
On her mother's side, the Southerns were humble folk of the southeastern parishes, laborers and fishermen eking out a living under the vast skies near Landrake and Rame.
Eliza Southern, born circa 1860–1862, embodied this practicality. She wed William Couling in the early 1880s, likely in St Germans, and together they raised a brood of seven children in St Neot.
Sarah's grandparents William and Emma (nee Toll) Couling
Sarah's Siblings
Sisters Annie and Emma would later follow Sarah across the seas to New Zealand, while brothers like James (born 1889) carried the family's unyielding spirit in Cornwall. The Southerns' story speaks of quiet resilience, with branches venturing to Devon and beyond in search of steadier fortunes.
Marriage and New Beginnings
As Sarah blossomed into young adulthood, opportunity beckoned beyond the horizon. In 1911, she exchanged vows with Bertie Thomas Cloake, a kind-hearted Cornishman born around 1885 in Landulph to David Thomas Cloake and Amanda Mary Hocking.
1884
Birth in Treverbyn
Sarah born at Couling Cottage in St Neot, Cornwall, to William Couling and Eliza Southern.
1891
Living with Uncle James
Six-year-old Sarah living with her Uncle James Cowling and Aunt Elizabeth in Pobathic, near the Tamar River.
1901
Still at Pobathic
Sixteen-year-old Sarah remains in Uncle James's household, having been raised there throughout her childhood.
1911
Marriage in Devonport
Sarah marries Bertie Thomas Cloake in Devonport, Devon. By census time, they're settled at Daison Cottage in Westhill, Torquay.
1912
Birth of Mary
First child, daughter Mary, arrives—a bright-eyed infant who would become the anchor of their bold new chapter.
1913
Emigration to New Zealand
Sarah, Bertie, and baby Mary sail for New Zealand, settling in Springbrook near Timaru, South Canterbury.
1923
Building Cloake's Honey
Bertie's beekeeping venture grows from a handful of hives.
1948
Sarah's Passing
Sarah passes away at age 64 in Timaru, Canterbury. She rests in a family grave beside Bertie.
Possibly Sarah and Bertie Cloake with Minnie at Daison Farm
The Journey to New Zealand
The wedding took place in Devonport, Devon, a bustling port alive with the clamor of ships and dreams of distant shores. By the time of the 1911 census, the newlyweds were settled at 1 Daison Cottage in Westhill, Torquay, where Bertie worked as a cow and poultry man on a local farm—skills that echoed the agricultural world Sarah had known growing up in Uncle James's household. Their first child, daughter Mary, arrived in 1912.
The pull of the unknown proved irresistible. In the early 1910s, amid a wave of Cornish emigrants chasing prosperity, Sarah, Bertie, and little Mary set sail for New Zealand.
High Country travellers aking a break at the Tekapo Hotel c1913
They were not alone in their adventure. Bertie's brother Arthur would follow with his bride Alma Chubb, and Sarah's sisters Annie and Emmy (the latter with husband Bill Harper) joined the exodus, weaving a tight-knit web across the oceans.
The Cloake and Couling families were part of a larger pattern of Cornish emigration to New Zealand. Landing in the sun-drenched plains of South Canterbury on the South Island, they claimed a homestead in Springbrook, near Timaru—a landscape of golden grasslands that must have felt worlds away from Cornwall's rugged cliffs.
Building a Life in Canterbury
Here, Bertie turned his hands to beekeeping, starting with just a handful of hives. What began as a modest venture blossomed into Cloake's Honey, one of the largest apiaries in the South Island, a testament to the Cornish work ethic and resilience that Sarah embodied.
The Cloake Family in New Zealand
Sarah and Bertie's Children:
The Cloakes raised a lively family in their New Zealand home:
Mary - The trailblazing firstborn, born in England in 1912, became a Karetane Nurse and Mrs Wilson - See Mary's Story
Harry - Briefly served as a policeman in Greymouth before joining the honey trade; attended Timaru Boys High School
Myra - Later became a framers wife Mrs. Rouse
Sarah's home buzzed with the hum of hives and the laughter of children, her steady presence nurturing not just her brood but the innovations that defined their legacy.
The family developed the Cloake Board, invented by son Harry and grandspon Mervyn for efficient queen bee rearing, now used worldwide. They also pioneered the creamed honey process, which they chose to share freely rather than patent—embodying the Cornish values of community benefit over personal gain.
Legacy and Remembrance
Sarah's journey drew to a gentle close in 1948, at the age of 64, in Timaru, Canterbury. She rests eternally in a family grave beside Bertie, a site still visited by descendants who trace their roots back to that Cornish girl from Treverbyn.
Her story endures through vintage tins of Cloake's Honey, family reunions that bridge the Couling and Cloake lines, and the quiet pride of a woman who crossed empires to build a sweeter world.
In Sarah, we see the pioneer: resilient, loving, and forever tied to the land—whether the cottage at Treverbyn where she was born, the smallholding at Pobathic where Uncle James raised her, or the fields of Springbrook where she built her New Zealand legacy.
For the Cloakes and Couling kin scattered from Treverbyn and Pobathic to Aotearoa, Sarah remains our guiding light, a reminder that from humble hollows come the sweetest legacies.
This story is dedicated to all descendants of Sarah Couling and Bertie Cloake, whose journey from Cornwall to Canterbury exemplifies the courage and determination of the Cornish diaspora.
