Looe Old Cornwall Society.
Looe Old Cornwall Society. Meeting held on Saturday 8th May at 2.30 pm at St Martin’s Church Hall.
The acting Chairperson, Queenie Shearman welcomed members and apologised for the absence of the President, John Enever who was poorly. The Spring Evening Dinner at Kellys had been a great success and all members who attended had enjoyed the evening. The next evening meal will be in the autumn at the Rivercroft Hotel.
Under correspondence Peter King, Secretary referred to the Homecomers visiting Looe on Wednesday 12th May. John Enever and Peter King will welcome them at the station. Other correspondence was an invitation to the Sir Arthur Quiller Couch celebrations at Helston on 20th May. Also the Newsletter from the Heritage Trust on their 25th Anniversary. Members were also reminded of the sad tragic death of Joan Rendall, bard, who was a popular figure in the Cornwall OCS, who died in a fire at her home.
Nancy Jolliff read from the Minutes book of 50 years ago. A newsletter from the President was available for members to take and those not collected will be sent to their homes, after the meeting.
The secretary then went though the Outings planned for the summer period. Lappa Valley Steam Rail, Trelawne Barton Cream Tea, Cornish Orchards Duloe, King Fisher trip and Looe Island BBQ. Members were asked to sign up if they wished to join in.
Queenie Shearman reminded members that the local Museum was now being run by volunteers and more were always needed. There were no committee reports.
The acting President then welcomed Nancy Jolliff who gave a talk entitled “Curious Cornwall”. This consisted of many slides with fascinating anecdotes on each. Nancy has the perceptive eye of unusual things to be found in Cornwall. Normally you and I would pass by and say “Oh Look at that”, but Nancy will stop and investigate and find out the reason behind places and objects of interest. She began her talk with unusual stones, most of which were natural but looked very manmade. Obvious examples are the Cheesewring but she highlighted other unusual geological occurrences. For example the Giants Rock near Porthlevan, a rock of Gneiss sitting on top of a slate shoreline. This is probably the result of a passing iceberg. Then there is the Whale Back rock at Bude, an erosion of a small anticline on the seashore. Different shaped rocks were also highlighted. The Lions head at Boscastle, the Devils Frying Pan a collapsed cave near Porthlevan, all natural unusual but significant shapes carved into our coastline.
She then moved on to churches and paintings within, the shapes of some of the doors and spires. The famous paintings of “The Christ in Trades”, exhibited in two churches down towards Lands End. Also the unusual 9 holed stocks at Veryan. Then onto the longest grave of seaman who lost their lives on the Manacles, and the white figurehead of a ship at Morwenstow where the Rev. Hawker had interred sailors from the wreck. On some of the churches were to be found unusual clocks, the one handed clock on St Mary’s tower at East Looe, whilst at Godolphin there was a clock that also showed high tides. At Cotehele, a folly of a three sided church tower which presumably was built to enhance the view.
When it came to local harbours in Cornwall there was an abundance of unusual sights, from the sanded up harbour at Pentewan to the artificial island in Newquay harbour which was the end of a rail line. The white Huers hut on the headland at Newquay where pilchard shoals were announced to the fishermen below.
Nancy used many other subjects to bring together locations of fascination. She certainly had done her research. A quite remarkable and very different type of talk. She was thanked by Peter King and the members noisily endorsed their thanks. . The raffle was run by June Hyslop and refreshments provided by Queenie Shearman, Hazel Moore and Jean Flynn. The meeting closed at 4.15pm.
The following report was written by Elisabeth Hall. 13.03.2010
The AGM of LOCS was held on Saturday 13th March 2010 in St. Martin’s church hall starting at 2.30pm. The President John Enever welcomed members and outlined the afternoon’s programme. The minutes of the 2009 AGM were on the table for approval. In his address the President referred to the successes of the past year including the recent celebration of St. Pirans’s day in Looe which was fast becoming an established annual event. The Looe Junior School tableau had been outstanding and had to be performed twice by popular request. The musical entertainment and refreshments were enjoyed by all who took part in the celebration which was sure to be repeated next year. The post box survey was almost completed. Thanks were expressed to Hazel Moore and Queenie Shearman for providing the tea at that the monthly meetings. The President expressed his thanks to all members of the committee for their hard work during the last year, especially the secretary Peter King. Reports were given by the individual Committee members and Jeanne Dingle asked for members’ support for the West Looe May Day celebrations in the Square. The Committee then all stood down from their present positions. Jeanne Dingle was not seeking re-election as the Recorder and the President thanked her for all her hard work on behalf of LOCS over many years. Roger Bennett was happy to take over the duties of Recorder. Roy Perriment had volunteered to join the Committee for the coming year and all other members were voted back into their present posts. It was agreed that Les Richmond continue to act as the society’s auditor. The AGM was then adjourned until March 2011.
The President then welcomed members to the regular monthly meeting. The Secretary, Peter King read from the minutes of March 1960 which were five pages long and included reports of all the society’s summer pilgrimages by charabanc, to places of local historic importance and a reference to the Cornish Times write up on the Committee. The only correspondence since the last meeting had been outgoing; new LOCS fliers were available and members were encouraged to use them. Membership dues of £8.50 were now due to the Membership Secretary. The President drew the attention of members to the Lappa Valley Steam Railway outing on Sat. 15th May. The Looe Town bus was available at about £12 a person + an entry fee of £6.50. Members would be asked to decide between the bus and car sharing at the next meeting. Friday 16th April was the Spring Supper at Kelly’s East Looe; payments of £9.50 per person are due now to Queenie Shearman. The President then introduced the Speaker for the afternoon, Duncan Matthews, whose subject was John Passmore Edwards.
John, born in 1823 in Blackwater, was the second of four sons in a hard working family. He attended the local Dame School at 2d a week and quickly became an avid reader, walking long distances into Truro or Redruth for library books on Saturdays, while Sundays were divided between Baptist and Methodist churches. Unable to afford the train fare to Manchester to take up a position with the Sentinel newspaper, he was forced to sell his books and to travel by both boat and train via Ireland, only to lose his job when the newspaper went bankrupt. A post with the London Echo enabled him to repay his debts within a decade and to give publicity to a wide variety of social issues including the temperance movement, the opium trade and flogging in the army. As a Liberal M.P. he was an active pacifist and recovered from both a second bankruptcy and a physical breakdown. He devoted the greater part of his life to the founding of at least seventy libraries, hospitals, museums, orphanages, reading rooms and technical institutes, more than twenty of which were in Cornwall, including the Passmore Hospital in Liskeard, which is now planned to be re-developed as old peoples’ dwellings. He wrote his own biography towards the end of his life and died finally in 1911. A feeling and sentimental man, he gave away most of his profits during his lifetime, with a special concern for the education of the emigrant Cornish miners and farmers in reading, writing and mathematical skills before they set out on their new lives. ‘Do the best for the most’ was his ambition.
The President thanked Duncan for his well informed and interesting talk, which had made members much more aware of the local influence of this gentle and caring philanthropist.
The meeting ended with the raffle and tea and biscuits. The next meeting of LOCS will be at 2.30pm in St. Martin’s Church hall on 10th April 2010 when the talk will be on ‘China Clay and its origins’, given by the excellent speaker Ivor Bowditch. Please do support this event.