Both of the following reports are mentioned in the Federations Folksong / Music Recorders report presented to the Spring Gathering in Truro on Saturday the 6th of March 2010. Click to see his full report.

From Audrey Aylmer Member of Bude and Stratton OCS.

This carol came to light some time ago and  one of our members, Mike Richardson, did this arrangement for us to sing at our Christmas celebrations. I thought you may not have it in the Federation archive.

Click on music for larger version.

  Modrep Maria - Aunt Mary by Rev. R.S. Hawker 1838

So, of all that grow by the king's highway,

I love that tree the best;

'Tis a bower for the birds upon Christmas Day,

The bush of the bleeding breast.

0! the holly with her drops of blood for me:

For that is our sweet Aunt Mary's tree 2x

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St Columb OCS 7th March 2010

Talskiddy Sunday School Anniversaries were a feature of village life dating back to 1834, but with dwindling attendance and the eventual closure of the Chapel in the early 1980's the anniversary became a thing of the past. In its hey day the attendance was well over 100 with people travelling from all the surrounding farms and villages. It was said that on Anniversary day, Talskiddy "assumed an importance far beyond it's size".

The event was last held was in the year 2000, when local residents re-enacted the tradition with a special 'one off' open air service. It was led by Mr. John Bennallick of St. Wenn, with accompaniment from St. Columba Male Voice Choir and Indian Queens Youth Band. The day was rounded of with a traditional Cornish tea treat in the garden of Talskiddy's oldest resident, Mr Jim Ellery (who was 100 years old at the time). He had lived at Talskiddy all his life and could recall fond memories of his childhood where the anniversaries were the highlight of the year for the village children. 

The Ellery family have retained several photos of the event over the years; some of which are shown below. Click on photo for larger view.

Phil Ellery - Member St Columb OCS

The following reports are mentioned by Andrew Langdon the Federations Archaeological Recorder in his report presented to the Spring Gathering in Truro on Saturday the 6th of March 2010. Click to see his full report. also in his Local History Report presented to the same meeting.

MADRON OLD CORNWALL SOCIETY

RECORDER - ARCHIE RICHARD'S REPORT FOR 2008/09

In 1878 it was proposed extending the railway to Penzance onto St Just via Morvah and Rosemergy including Madron, Sancreed and Dowman. The Tregeseal Valley was to be crossed by a viaduct. At Penzance it was proposed siting the station (first or second?) where the West Cornwall Hospital stands. The St Just Station was to be near the Church.

In Tregonbric Farm wall there are two sections of a cider press; a member of the Bolitho family lived here many years ago. On a recently cleared old path down the western side of Galvers (Hannibal's Cam?) there is a stone with `Z' on one side of it and `M' on the other. I take it marks the boundary of Zennor and Morvah. I walk this area often but it was new to me. (Grid reference would help)

Many years ago I recorded a slate plaque on Ennis cottage at Sancreed. Recently was visiting this area and there was a sale sign on the property. As this plaque was not in place, I knocked the door. The householder told me that, as the fixings were rotten, it had been taken down but was lying against an outside wall. I went into the estate agent's office and asked that, when sold, the new owners would take care of it as it was a piece of Cornish history. The plaque reads, "George Grenfell - Born here 1849. Missionary and Explorer. Presented by the Baptist Missionary Society 1949.

Stiles across our fields are varied, some having five steps and those crossing streams have an iron railing. One example is between Rosehill and Parc-an-Grouse. A few paths still have kissing gates ; there are two in fields from Mount Misery to Treeve (Trereife?) One which is made of iron is in very good condition. The one nearest Treeve (Trereife) is a different stile, the one on the Treeve to Tregavarah path is made of wood. The stream here drains (from?) Tremethi? Moor.

There used to be a mill on the site where the Pirate Inn, Alverton stands now.

The thatched cottage on the A30 leaving Penzance has been called Tredarvah Farm since 1908; before that it was known as Luke Rowe's Cottage. The floor of the cottage is 4' below the surface of the present road.

There was a ford across the river here before a bridge was built in 1885.

Two hundred yards east of Tredarvah Farm is an 1865 boundary stone which is built into the wall opposite the YMCA.

Whilst the Harvey family was having their house, Tredarah, in Hayle built, they lived in Trevear House in Alverton Terrace.

Archie Richards - Recorder

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Penzance OCS Recorder's Report.

Dear Andrew,

I am afraid, through illness, I have not been able to do a great deal of groundwork but a few things have come up.

Reports made in connection with the proposed developments of the Penzance harbour area Nick Cahill has confirmed that the block on which the war memorial at Battery Rocks is built was also the block on which the guns of the battery were mounted.

The south pier of the harbour built of granite has a history of extensions using the same material from medieval times and is listed Grade H. Nick Cahill has made a very thorough examination of this pier and this appears in his report.

Some years ago the horse trough which used to stand in front of the Humphry Davy statue in Penzance was removed in connection with work which was carried on there. The trough was for the cabmen and others to refresh their horses. I have been informed that it is in the Council Depot and will be replaced.

Mrs. Margaret Orchard has given an artist's impression of the West Cornwall Dispensary & Infirmary and bears the name of Oliver Caldwell, Architect. Margaret Perry has confirmed that it is the present West Cornwall Hospital. The picture, probably dating from about 1874, has been restored and framed by the Penzance Old Cornwall Society and will go on display at the Morrab Library.

A sign bearing the date 1897 was removed from Penzance Promenade but is now returned to its original position though wrongly aligned. It commemorated the opening of the new road to Newlyn from Penzance and takes the form of a direction marker pointing north with other points of the compass.

I enclose both a copy of the Dispensary and the sign on the Promenade, Penzance.

Cedric Appleby - Recorder

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St Austell OCS Recorders Report 2009/2010

The last twelve months or so have not been the best I have known but, coinciding with them, there has not been quite so much recording needed. The absence of the publishing of planning applications in the newspapers has not helped Recorders keep up with demolitions and developments and consequently some opportunities could have been missed. I have checked with the local planning office recently and have been told that, although not many new applications are appearing in the newspapers (presumably, they say, due to the economic downturn), all applications are now being published.

Photographs have been taken of the following locations :-

1.       The former printers' premises at Polgooth which the owner wishes to convert into a dwelling.

2.       The newly-constructed entrance to the development now named The Cornwall" at the White House, Tregorrick which will, in a few years, probably be obscured by tree planting.

3.       A war-time pill box at Spit Beach, Par.

4.       The cottage adjacent to Rickards Butchers, Holmbush which is scheduled for demolition.

Much of my time has been spent representing St. Austell Old Cornwall Society on what has been called The St. Austell Discovery Map and its associated website. Maps have been produced and freely distributed to encourage holidaymakers and residents alike to appreciate what St Austell and District has to offer and to make the most of the town and surrounding countryside for recreational use in a sustainable manner without the use of a motor car.

David Stark - Recorder

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St Ives OCS Recorders Report 2009/2010

"The bigger they are the harder they fall" and such was the demise of Woolworth's. Our St. Ives branch. like so many others, are now but a memory, however such instances must be recorded, as with the loss of the Stennack Post Office. This sadly culminated with the closure of the shop as well, slides have been taken of both so that their memory is not also lost.

Change is all around us, driven in these times by an affluent society, therefore any site is being built upon or any old building renovated. Some years ago I took a series of slides of the Bahavella Farm outbuildings in their ramshackle condition. This year I have taken a similar series of these same buildings, but now all are renovated for accommodation etc. Thankfully they have not been hailed down like some other buildings have just before the recession came about. These sites are being focused on by ones eye and with camera at the ready.

My last report contained the news that the flood prevention scheme had finished, but a few short months later in April. a repeat of the 1894 and 2002 Tregenna Place (Greencourt) flooding occurred once again, so the saga of recording similar scenes of damage has been added to the collection.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting A.K.Hamilton Jenkins' daughter, grand daughter and great grand son at the Museum this past summer. Apparently A.K's. wife was a Handloom 'artist-craftsperson' here in St. Ives during the I920s. They kindly brought some of her woven pieces for us and also some Leach pottery, well used and well worn as Bernard Leach would have wished.

On visiting some nearby National Trust properties I noticed some items which interested me with regards my recording of roofs and Delabole products. At Trengwainton Gardens photographed a number of slate water tanks and at Trerice the lead flashed ridges on the slated out-building roofs. Being a mason and well acquainted with Delabole scantle slate roofing, over the years I have compiled quite a file on the subject with photos from many properties throughout the county and beyond.

Some builders who are sympathetic to the remains of old St. Ives, informed me that they were working in an old fish cellar in the Back Roads. This has proved most interesting in that it was still intact beneath a concrete floor which they were breaking up. Caunse floor and train oil boards, complete with pit barrel plus two pressing poles, and with the slots in the wall revealed as well, has led me to learn a great deal relating to how the oil was led to the pit and in what manner the caunse was finished around the pit.

Another builder informed me that in a former cellar which they were renovating, they had discovered a wooden box in the sand beneath the floor. This in fact was a salting pit for crab pot bait. I can remember the fisherman who resided there and have a series of slides of him, his boat and pots that a visitor took in the 1950s. Wonderful how items can be linked together 60 years apart.

Whilst photographing in the harbour recently I noticed a dip in the sand by the Prom and a stream of water issuing from it into the harbour which gulls were drinking, obviously fresh water. Lining it up in the direction of a well in Back Lane by Barbara Hepworth's studio, this well was by a nearby property formerly called `The Pump and Sundial Inn' then I realised that this was the overflow from that source.

One is now waiting for April when it is hoped that Jonny Nance will be launching his second `Jumbo' lugger rigged craft. These were unique to St. Ives during the 1880- 1920 period. I have photographed his `Silas' punt and `Celeste' his first Jumbo, so it will be good to see the two Jumbos sailing together. Many are trusting that this will eventually lead to a new class of small lugger racing boats at St. Ives and Cornwall.

With this I close my report.

Brian Stevens. Recorder

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St Just and Pendeen OCS Recorder's Report 2009

We have received these gifts for the archives this year.

Dr Derrington — Diary of a Cornishman

— An advertisement for Richard's shop

Sheila Olds — Newspaper cutting showing Cape Cornwall Junior School 1935/6

Mrs H Derrington — An article about wash day years ago. Telling about having to fill the copper by carrying water, then laying a fire beneath in preparation for the actual washing.

— Also notes of Cornish words and historical events.

     A letter from Andy Bluer via Mrs Simon regarding lighthouse-keeping and obtaining supplies and some grocery invoices from the early 1960s

     James Bennets — Photographs of this year's snowfall in St Just — Book, A Strong and Unquenchable Race

— Photographs of the Midsummer Bonfire on Chapel Cam Brea

Justus Hattam — The obituary of Paul Mount, sculptor, St Just

Rosemary Beadle — Two framed photographs of the wrecks, Horsa and Earl of Londsdale, off the Scilly Isles.

Gillian Hocking — Two videos, Crying the Neck and Closure of Land's End Radio Station

Margaret and Ron Winterbottom — Article about Betty Lawry who died this year

Wesleyan Chapel — Door lock and piece of carpet. The Chapel is being tidied up and many items were thrown out before we heard about it.

Cyril Honey of Geevor Oral History — A copy of a disc recording Betty Lawry and Rebecca Williams talking about life in St Just

Anne Wood — History of Cornwall Domesday Book

Plan-it Earth, Sancreed — Disc called Traditions and Transitions, made in conjunction with Cape Cornwall Comprehensive School and older members of our community

Sonia Halliday — from the estate of Maggie Muspratt, a pin tray commemorating 25¹ Anniversary of St Just and Pendeen OCS

Order of Service from the 90¹ Anniversary of the Levant Mine Disaster.

Ken Olds — Pictures of Sancreed crosses

Morrab Library — Further editions of The Cornishman to bring them up to 1970. This does not represent a full set of the St Just editions from 1916. Geevor Mine Museum have arranged to store all these papers for us. We can view them by prior appointment.

Lafrowda Day — Theme, Out of this world. We now have a number of local stories of the supernatural to add to our archives. Provided by Craig Weatherhill and various society members.

Gladys Lovell Essay Competition — Life in the 1950s. We had several entries giving differing views. The competition was won by Dr Derrington.

We have had a number of baptisms and burials during the year and have added the cards to our collection.

Mrs. Gillian Hocking 

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