In his self-appointed role as enforcer of harbour fees in 1930s Mevagissey, Councillor Wright Harris was fond of recording the comings and goings of fishing vessels from a vantage point at the top of the Cornish village.
It was a habit which did little to endear the imperious Harris to his fellow residents, who likened his officious zeal to the behaviour of a fast-emerging German politician of the era. It was not long before the councillor's route to his viewing station became known among locals as "Hitler's Walk".
But what was once evidence of a healthy pre-war Cornish disdain for authority has of late become a source of disbelief and division after Mevagissey's parish council announced it wanted to reinstate a sign advertising the small park where Harris once stood as "Hitlers Walk" (apostrophe apparently unnecessary).
As the parish councillors were last week declaring their intent to restore a sign carrying the name of the Nazi leader (it had been taken down in 2005), the rest of the world was preparing to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Cornish Jews expressed their outrage at the proposal and called for a boycott of Mevagissey if the sign was put up. Harvey Kurzfield, chairman of Kehillat Kernow, which represents Cornwall's Jews, said: "You put up a sign to honour someone. Putting up a sign for Hitler is offensive to all people, not just to Jewish people. "
The outcry seemed to have prompted a rethink yesterday after it emerged that the parish council is to reconsider its position at its next meeting this month.
James Mustoe, who sits on Cornwall Council, the unitary authority that oversees the county, said: "I spoke to the parish council and strongly advised them to reconsider this issue and I understand they will now do so ... from my own perspective anything that would attract negative publicity and harm the tourism industry in Mevagissey is a bad thing."
Parish councillor John Daniel said: "The name goes back to a time before the war when whoever was in the charge of the park was a bit authoritarian. It's not offensive, it's just what local people call it."