The brothers then turned their hand to the production of Cod Liver Oil. In the early 1930’s they were the first to boil the cod livers at sea and store the resultant oil in the cool of the ship below the water line. This produced a fresher, virtually odourless oil. Owen Hellier was instrumental in the formation of the British Cod Liver Oil Producers, which became ‘Seven Seas’ in the early 1960’s when taken over by imperial Foods Ltd. Frank Hellier died in June 1937 and the house changed hands two or three

times up to 1950, including being requisitioned by the Admiralty in WWII for use as a hospital. In 1950 the house was sold by Mr MA Mardon to Owen Hellier, the son of the original owner. In 1991 the house was advertisied for sale by Country & Prestige House of Exeter for £495,000.

In March 1993 the house was broken into from the rear and neat cuts of 4x6 yds, 4x5 yds and 2x5 yds were taken from the carpets in the main rooms. The police suspect they were stolen to order and they, nor the culprits, were ever found. The damage was estimated at £3000+.

The house was built in 1910 for Mr Charles Hellier, a wealthy trawler fleet owner, at a cost of over £48,000. The external decorative marble frieze work was done by Italians brought over to the house. (The family name is spelt Hellyer and Hellier in different documents.) His sons Frank Orlando Hellier and Owen S. Hellier pioneered the fishing of Greenland Halibut in 1926. The fish were caught by line from a dory(large row boat) then frozen on the parent vessel and kept in cold storage. Their two main vessels were ‘Arctic Queen’ of 10,000 tons and ‘Arctic Prince’ of 5,000 tons.