Sarah, two Couling sisters Annie and Emma and cousin Em

Early Life in Cornwall

Sarah (1884–1948) was the daughter of William Couling, a labourer and gamekeeper, son of yeoman farmers, and Eliza Southern, whose roots ran deep into the Tamar and Lynher valleys. 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.

Although Sarah was born at Treverbyn in the parish of St Neot, the emotional centre of her father's family was always Polbathic (sometimes spelt Polbathick) on the St Germans tributary of the tidal River Lynher. The very name is Cornish – often interpreted as “wonderful/marvellous pool” or “boar’s pool” – and the hamlet sits where a once damed narrow creek widens into a sheltered tidal basin. In the nineteenth century it was a compact world of a corn mill, chapel, inn, workshops and small farms strung along the road and up the hillside lanes.

For a child like Sarah, travelling between Treverbyn and Polbathic meant moving between two very different Cornish landscapes: the rougher upland country of St Neot with its granite and moorland, and the softer wooded valleys and salt-smelling creeks of the Lynher. Her father William had been born into this riverside community, and when work or housing drew him to St Neot as a gamekeeper, the family never quite lost sight of the hamlet at the head of the tide where his parents and grandparents had lived.

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, in the parish of St Germans. There, she was raised alongside her aunts Annie and Eizabeth Couling. This home 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 Polbathic with Elizabeth and now James. The census shows her as his niece living there, indicating that she had been raised by her uncle and aunts throughout her formative years. Growing up on this smallholding, Sarah would have learned the practical skills of tending cows and poultry that would serve her well in her future life.

Polbathic in Sarah’s Childhood

When Sarah arrived as a small girl to live with Uncle James and Aunt Elizabeth, Polbathic was still very much a working rural hamlet. The main road climbed steeply away from the creek, with cottages on terraces such as Sunnyside, small fields and orchards behind them, and paths dropping down to the old corn mill and to the foreshore where boats could be beached at high tide.

At the heart of village life stood the Halfway House public house – so called because it marked a stopping point on the route between Plymouth and the western parts of Cornwall. Earlier Toll and Oliver relatives had kept the inn in the mid-1800s, and stories lingered of formidable landladies and busy evenings when farmers, tradesmen and carters filled the rooms. By Sarah’s day the pub was still a lively place; even if she herself never entered, she would have known the clatter of carts outside, the sound of voices carrying up the hill, and the steady flow of news and gossip that passed through its doors.

A short way up the slope stood the Wesleyan Reform chapel, another focal point in the hamlet. Like so many Cornish communities, Polbathic’s social life revolved not only around the inn but around the chapel’s Sunday services, anniversary teas, Band of Hope meetings, concerts and fundraisers. Sarah's ancestor Coulings and cousin names like the Tolls, Olivers and Samsons all appear in the records and memories associated with the chapel. It is very likely that Sarah’s Cornish childhood included long Sunday walks in best clothes, packed pews, and the sound of familiar hymns echoing off the plaster walls.

Down near the water, the old mill and associated buildings reminded everyone that Polbathic had once been a small industrial as well as agricultural centre. Sarah’s miller grandfather William Couling (1817–1887) and grandmother Emma (née Toll) had lived here before her birth, and older relatives could still point out “Couling’s mill” on the tithe map or in family stories. Even though the mill was past its peak, the idea that her people had once “run the mill” gave the family a quiet sense of rootedness and pride.

The Couling and Southern Heritage

Sarah's Siblings

Brothers and sisters filled Sarah’s early life at Couling Cottage and later in Polbathic: siblings included William, Emma Jane, James (born 1889), Mary, and younger sister Elizabeth “Leza”, alongside two infants, Annie and George, who sadly died very young.

Sisters Annie and Emma would later follow Sarah across the seas to New Zealand, while brothers like James 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.

Polbathic Roots and the Toll Connection

Polbathic, is a small hamlet on the tidal reach of the River Lynher in the parish of St Germans. By the early nineteenth century it was already home to several of Sarah’s ancestral families.

The Toll family were especially prominent. One branch owned property at the corner where the Halfway House Inn stands, and Toll relatives appear in records as farmers, mariners and strong, larger-than-life characters remembered in local stories. Through her grandmother Emma (née Toll), Sarah was linked directly into this long-established Polbathic clan with many lines reaching back even to 1000 AD.

The Couling and Toll lines intertwined more than once, and by the mid-1800s the lane down to the mill and the cluster of cottages around the inn were full of extended kin living side-by-side. Later village memories recall Bill Couling, born in 1939 at Victoria Cottage, Sunnyside, and his father George working locally and keeping a small holding—evidence that the Couling name remained rooted in the hamlet long after Sarah herself had left for New Zealand.

In 1921, a group of local men, including members of these families, acquired an old army hut and rebuilt it as the Polbathic Recreation Rooms. Under the guidance of Jim Couling (known in the village as a capable organiser), the hut was fitted with electric light and conveniences. For decades it served as a social centre for billiards, concerts, dances, wartime billets and even pantomimes—another reminder that the Couling name was woven deeply into Polbathic’s communal life.

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 fellow Cornishman born around 1885 in Landulph to David Thomas Cloake and Amanda Mary Hocking. 

Polbathic may seem remote from Bertie's Bagmill home - 13.5kms by todays roads - but just 5kms by boat making it quite plausable he courted her by steaming along the Lynher  waterways. He was sending her postcards there for several years prior to marriage. His father David would certainly have known Polbathic espiecially if shipping limestone from there to Cargreen as a young bargeman.

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.

They were not alone in their adventure. Bertie's brother Arthur would follow with Alma Chubb to be his bride. 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 farmlet 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, which son Harry developed into one of the largest apiaries in the South Island, a testament to the Cornish work ethic and resilience that Sarah embodied.

The family developed the Cloake Board, invented by son Harry and  grandson Mervyn for efficient queen bee rearing, now used worldwide. They also pioneered a new creamed honey process, which they chose to share freely rather than patent—embodying the Cornish values of community benefit over personal gain.

The Cloake Family in New Zealand

Sarah and Bertie's Children:

The Cloakes raised a lively family in their New Zealand home:

• Mary - The 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 and Timaru before joining the honey trade; breifly attended Timaru Boys High School
• Myra - Later became a framers wife at Pareora, Mrs. Rouse

Sarah's is remembered as a loving and jolly grandmother and her 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.

Where the Other Families Fit In

When William and Eliza Couling raised their family at Treverbyn and in the Polbathic–St Neot orbit, they set in motion a set of branches that now carry very different surnames like Wedlake, Stephens, Jones, Moon, Kent, Harper and Brabyn grow out of the Couling, some who stayed behind when their sisters left for New Zealand.

1. The Couling branch (William Couling)

William Couling (born 1882) married Lousia Beatrice Bardens, with children Mabel Joyce and Geoffrey Couling.  No issue was to live in Polbathic as only Geoffrey was to have children in Canada 

2. The Harper branch (Emma Jane Couling)

Emma Jane Couling, one of Sarah’s younger sisters, married William John Harper. Their children, Emmie Couling Harper and William “Bill” Couling Harper, carried the Couling middle name into the next generation while using Harper as the family surname.  From these two Harper children came a run of grandchildren and great grandchildren 

3. The Wedlake & Stephens (James “Jim” Couling)

Sarah’s brother James (“Jim”) Couling married Asta May (Ester) Lobb and moved away to the St Neot Couling Cottage. They had two daughters: Olive Gwendoline (“Gwen”) Couling and Constance Mary (“Connie”) Couling. Through these daughters the Couling line continues under new surnames: grandchildren appear in the records as Wedlake, and Stephens. The next generation introduces more names again.

4. Annie never married in New Zealand

 

5. The Moon branch (Mary Couling)

One of the most visible “Polbathic” surnames in the Couling tree comes through Sarah’s sister Mary Couling, who married Charles Moon. Their daughter Georgina (“Gina”) Moon is among those recorded in the next generation.

6. The Kent, Brabyn and Scott branches (Elizabeth “Leza” Couling)

Another key married-in name is Kent. Sarah’s youngest sister Elizabeth (“Leza”) Couling married Earnest Edgar Kent. They had two daughters: Dorothy (“Betty”) Kent and Margaret Patricia Kent. The line then steps into yet more surnames including Brabyn and Scott. 

Note: For privacy, detailed dates and information about living people have been minimised unles consented. If you are part of one of these families and would like to add more detail, photos or corrections, please get in touch – this story is very much a work in progress.

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 Polbathic 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.