CORNWALL ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL HISTORIANS
Chairman’s Letter
This year’s programme of outdoor meetings has now come to a close and I must thank Hilary and John Ballard for the way they organised not only the events, but also the weather. Although not the best of summers generally, the sun shone on every event. And talking of the weather, it’s the subject of next February's weekend conference and the programme of speakers is nearly complete so thank you once again Hilary and John for all your hard work. In February we will have a new couple taking over the reins as outing secretaries: Marilyn and Ian Thompson. I am pleased to report that 'Team Ballard' is staying on committee. Dates and venues for next year's outings are well in hand as we always work a year ahead.
Back to this year. In July we had a really fascinating day at Tremough campus kindly organised by Garry Tregidga who heads the Institute of Cornish Studies, based on the campus. As well as hearing about the various collections and the work being done, we had an interesting walk around the campus and its beautiful gardens that look down on to Penryn.
Long time member and past chairman Tony Wood organised the September outing to North Cornwall. Poundstock was the venue for the morning with some good talks and tours of both the Church and its famous Guild-house. After lunch we regrouped at Bude for a talk and walk round the lower reaches of the canal before driving to see the top of the incline plane where canal boats were once hauled up the great height
NEWSLETTER
November 2015
Our Place on the Internet
www.calh.co.uk
to the higher canal.
All the outings this year have, eventually, been well attended, but members tend to be rather slow in returning their booking forms and this can cause the organisers sleepless nights. So, to keep your outings secretaries bright eyed and bushy tailed, can you please try to return your booking forms in good time. Also can you please let us have ideas for future events and, ideally, suggest groups or individuals who might organise them.
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I still have a large number of back copies of journals for sale, a selection of which I will
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I still have a large number of back copies of journals for sale, a selection of which I will
bring to each indoor meeting. With the new 'Index' you all have, it is easy to see which copies might be of interest. And, talking of the journal, your editor is always happy to receive articles, however long or short, for inclusion in the yearly publication.
I have just returned from two weeks in Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and it has struck me, yet again, how important it is to look at other areas as well as your own, if only to establish what was a general, local practice and what was a truly local practice, common in your area but not elsewhere. That is why CALH outings cover the whole of the county (or should I now say Country?). What may have been considered normal practice in Penwith may have been highly unusual in East Cornwall. We need to look at the wider view to understand local variations. This includes building materials, house, farmyard, village and town layouts, as well as how the land was administered and the laws of the country upheld.
With this in mind I wonder if you would be interested in the possibility of CALH crossing the Tamar for a day. The Cornwall and Devon Archaeological Societies regularly organise joint meetings and have had visits to each other’s areas. Do you think it would be of interest if CALH organised a similar day with, say The Devon Historical Society. I am sure we could make it an interesting outing but there is no point doing it unless it is going to be well supported. Have a good think about it and I will bring it up again at the AGM in February. If it were to be an indoor meeting it would either be just in Cornwall or in Devon, but if we went for a day trip it would be by coach, leaving Penzance and picking up en-route.
If I didn’t see you at the Autumn Conference do have a very happy Christmas and I'll hope to see you at Newquay in February.
Your Chairman
Carole Vivian
(01503) 272 309
Yearly Subscriptions Due
The 2016 membership subscription is due on 1st January 2016. Please send a cheque for the appropriate amount, together with your name and address, to:
CALH Hon. Treasurer, 77 Bodrigan Road, Looe, Cornwall, PL13 1EH (Please supply a stamp addressed envelope if you require a receipt)
If you pay by standing order please check with your bank that you are paying the correct amount (CALH cannot do this on your behalf).
Ordinary members - £15 Joint members - £25 Corporate members - £15
If you have not paid by 15th February 2016 it will be presumed you no longer wish to remain a member of this society.
2016 Outings Planned
Your Events Secretaries are preparing a number of interesting outings from the following:
· The Chairman’s Day with visit to Talland including ploughman’s lunch and cream tea
· A day in St Day
· A day with David Thomas in the Redruth area
· A day in Newquay and the North Coast.
More details and booking forms with the next newsletter and on our webpage.
Historic Cornish Prints On-Line
Colin Nunn, the long-time proprietor of Maggs prints in Falmouth, with the assistance of the National Maritime Museum, has put more than 950 prints of Cornwall from 1750 to 1850 on-line. They are catalogued and searchable.
Go to: knownbynunn.org.uk
Kresen Kernow Success
The world’s largest collection of manuscripts, books, maps and photographs related to Cornwall will have a new home in Redruth! After more than 10 years in planning the final element of funding has been found to turn the dream for a new archive centre for Cornwall into reality.
The £11.7 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund announced in August was the final financing element needed. Construction will begin in 2016 with completion scheduled for 2018.
At the heart of the project will be the extensively refurbished historic brewhouse with a new environmentally sustainable extension for archive storage and care.
CRO officials said: “The HLF grant will also fund a wide programme of events and activities at the centre, around Cornwall and online, including workshops, training and the ‘Out of the Ordinary’ exhibition, featuring loans of significant Cornish documents from national collections. Digital engagement with Cornwall’s archives will be transformed, and a dynamic and enhanced range of volunteering opportunities will be on offer.”
You can read more about the project and keep up with developments on-line at: www.cornwall.gov.uk/kresenkernow.
Safe with Records Found Buried
During prep work at the Redruth Brewery site, CORMAC uncovered a safe containing a bundle of accounts for the Redruth Brewery Company Limited and J A Devenish and Company Limited dating from 1955-1962 which provide a detailed picture of the income and expenditure of these businesses. They show the purchase of ingredients used to brew the beer, as well as more surprising expenditure, such as the subscriptions they made to support a wide range of community organisations and events including: Constantine Cottage Garden Society, Newquay Rowing Club, and Falmouth Amateur Operatic Society.
Accessions to CRO Continue
Cornwall Record Office received 40 accessions from June to August, demonstrating the wide range of cultural and sporting activities people in Cornwall have enjoyed over the past 100 years. They include:
- Annotated programmes for rugby matches between Cornwall and Gloucestershire (1947), Dorset and Wiltshire (1948) and Monmouthshire (1949); football matches for Cornwall versus Bury, Portsmouth and Burnley (all 1948) and cricket match between Cornwall and Devon, 1946.
- Programmes for three one act plays ('The Boy Comes Home', 'Birds of a Feather', and 'Thirty Minutes in a Street'), put on by Falmouth Grammar School and a production of ‘A Hundred Years Old’ by Falmouth Drama Group, all of which were performed at All Saints Hall, Falmouth in 1946.
- Records of the Cornwall Branch of the Celtic Congress including material about the International Celtic Congress held at Bude in 2000.
- A fascinating album of photographs taken by the well-known Camborne photographer J. C. Burrow in the late 19th and early 20th century. It contains pictures of wrecks, both on land and at sea. They include photographs of the sailing ship ‘Alexander Yeats’ which ran aground at Gurnards Head in September 1896 and divers attending the wreck of the steamship ‘Escurial’ of Glasgow which was stranded off Portreath in a gale in January 1895. Land based accidents pictured include the railway engine ‘Leopard’ derailed near Camborne during The Great Blizzard of March 1891 and a traction engine belonging to Hosken, Trevithick and Polkinghorne which collapsed on East Hill, Tuckingmill after its faulty back axel broke .
- Records for Marhamchurch Parish Church, rescued from a skip in 1970. Before, the CRO only held a very small collection, which makes this a significant accrual.
CALH Calendar of Events
12 Nov (Thurs) - CALH Committee Meeting - 4:45 pm, CRO, Truro
14 Jan 2016 (Thurs) - CALH Committee Meeting - 4:45 pm, CRO, Truro
30 Jan 2016 (Sat) – Deadline for submissions for 2016 CALH Journal – send to:
6-7 Feb 2016 (Sat-Sun) - AGM & Spring Conference – “Whatever the Weather” -Kilbirnie Hotel, Newquay. Booking form and conference info enclosed and on our events webpage.
7 April 2016 (Thurs) - CALH Committee Meeting - 4:45 pm, CRO, Truro
The Trevithic Society
11 Dec (Fri) - Christmas Quiz - Liskeard Public Hall (Long Room) - 7:30 pm
16 Feb 2016 (Tues) - Miners and Migration - Liskeard Public Hall (Long Room) - 7:30 pm
Bewnans Kernow
Partnership of Cornish Heritage Orgs.
6 Nov (Fri) - George Eustice MP, Minister of State for Farming, Food and the Marine Environment talk on farm policy – Landithy Main Hall, Madron – 7:15 pm
12 Nov (Thurs) - Julian Ellis, farmer and past chairman, Cornwall Federation of YFC talk on farming – Landithy Hall, Madron – 7:15 pm
14-15 Nov (Sat –Sun) – Cornish Wrestling – Talks, films & demonstrations of Cornwall’s oldest sport – Billiard room, Landithy Hall, Madron – 10:30 am
Cornwall Record Office
(No open Saturdays the rest of the year)
3-6 Nov (Tues-Fri) – Closed for Collection Work
1-4 Dec (Tues-Fri) – Closed for Collection Work
24 Dec (Thurs) – Closed at 1 pm for Christmas Holiday
25 Dec – 1 Jan - (Fri-Fri) – Closed for Christmas and New Year Holidays
Cornish Studies Library
30 Oct-5 Dec (Sat-Sat) - A Good Send Off exhibition. The third and final installment in the ‘Life Through Archives’ series, this exhibition looks at death, burial and everything in between. Featuring burial registers, wills, photographs, books and accounts, you can read how a shipwreck changed burial history and about the aristocrat ‘buried’ sitting in his folly!
Old Cornwall Societies
7 Nov (Sat) – Winter Festival – Cornish history, stories, music and dance. St Ives Guildhall – 10:30 am to 5 pm. Details at: www.oldcornwall.net/home/4576024264
13 Nov (Fri) – Climate Change in Cornwall - H. Kernow, of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust – Public Hall, Longroom Liskeard – 2:30 pm
11 Dec (Fri) – Jews in Cornwall – Talk by Keith Pearce – Public Hall, Longroom, Liskeard – 2:30 pm
18 Jan (Mon) - Golden Manor and Cuthbert Mayne – Talk by Mac Waters – Pentewan Village Hall – 7:30 pm
(Full programs on OCS webpage above)
Newsletter Editor: Robert Lyle
rhl@lylespride