On first sight, I thought I was looking at a pile of rock

– the ocean backdrop so hypnotic with it’s crashing waves, the cliffs so mesmerising it was hard to see the iconic outdoor theatre

And yet – there in full sight was the Minack theatre, the extraordinary legacy of Rowena Cade. The story of how this rocky Cornish headland transformed into a world-famous theatre is a story of one woman’s creative vision, fearless dedication, and sheer hard graft

Rowena Cade was born in 1893 and moved to Cornwall where she built her home, Minack house on the Minack headland, following World War 1 and the death of her father

Rowena was passionate about theatre and offered her garden to a local production company who wanted to stage Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. To help them, she decided to create a stage and somewhere for people to sit. What is incredible, is that Rowena didn’t use heavy machinery to create the seating area and the stage, she and her gardener - Billy Rawlings - used hand tools and...