Harvest thanksgiving was celebrated on Sunday, October 6, and the chapel had been beautifully decorated for the occasion. This included colourful arrangements of autumn leaves which had been completed by members of the monthly Friendship Group recently.

The service was led by Andrew Baker and he referred to Genesis Ch 1 and the verses relating to God’s creation, also Genesis Ch 8.

The organist was Mary Stoneman and all the traditional harvest hymns were sung including, Come Ye Thankful People Come and We Plough the Fields and Scatter. Andrew then blessed the offertory in his final prayers and thanked everyone for the amazing contribution of non-perishable goods as displayed on the heavily laden table at the front, through the generosity of the congregation. This was delivered to the Launceston Food Bank the following day where it was gratefully received and weighed in at 47.35kg. The service concluded with the hymn, To Thee O Lord Our Hearts We Raise. The flowers from the windows were distributed to local households.

The new priest at St Mary Magdalene Church, Launceston, Fr Michael Dobson, took a festival choral evensong last week in which he also preached and acted as cantor in the Responses by Sanders.

Some invited guest singers also joined St Mary’s choir under the direction of choirmaster Dr Sean Sweeney in singing psalm 127 and then the canticles to the second arrangement by Charles Wood in Eb major.

The augmented choir also sang the well known unaccompanied anthem, “Locus iste a Deo factus est” by Anton Bruckner which featured the basses and later the tenors.

The lessons were read by Sharron Wormald and the guest organist was Josh Hughes who played a fugue in E minor By Felix Mendelssohn as a recessional after the service.

IT has been a very busy and enjoyable few weeks for president, Linda Willan, and the members of the Coad’s Green WI.

At the end of September, they had the pleasure of welcoming members from Altarnun, Lezant and Launceston to the first of the newly-formed local group meetings. The evening took place in the Village Hall where a table groaned with a buffet supper of cakes and pastries. The well-attended event was extremely successful, as everyone was more than happy to mingle and chat, enjoying the delicious refreshments prepared by the hosts. One of the highlights of the night was the entertainment provided by theLaunceston Pop Choir, under the enthusiastic directorship of Sarah Bradley. The choir sang a variety of catchy tunes, with songs from ABBA, particularly, receiving enthusiastic audience participation.

The monthly meeting on Wednesday, October 9, was both interesting, informative and heart-warming when members welcomed Cym Downing who founded the Memory Café in Launceston. The café was set up after she took on the role of carer for her mother-in-law, who suffered from dementia. The café has been running for the last seventeen years and offers support and a safe environment for the carer and the sufferer to attend together. It is to her credit that there are now forty memory cafes in Cornwall and over six hundred volunteers. Advice is given for claiming benefits, entitlements, accessing social services and respite for the carer.

Cym brought along a picture board to illustrate the variety of activities that take place at the Memory Café to create an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment, despite the obvious difficulties.It is to her credit that Cym has been awarded the Dementia Care Award for Cornwall 2024 and was highly commended in the BBC Radio Cornwall, ‘Let’s Make a Difference Award’ in the same year. Cym was also invited to a Royal Garden Party, in recognition for her work, and had the great privilege of meeting Queen Elizabeth 2nd.

The café, which meets on alternate Saturday afternoons from 2.00 until 4.00 pm, welcomes anyone living with memory problems and their carers.

Pat Mallett thanked Cym for her heartfelt talk.

The Coad’s Green Annual Dinner will be held on Thursday, October 24th, at ‘The Archers’ in Lewannick.

The next monthly meeting will take place in the chapel parlour at Coad’s Green on Wednesday, November 13th, at 7.30 pm, when guest speaker, Carol Horsington, will be giving a presentation on the art of Willow Making. Visitors and new members are always welcome.

Bude, Stratton & District Old Cornwall Society held its first meeting for the 2024/25 session on Monday, September 30, at the Parkhouse Centre.

The chairman, Alan MacIntosh opened the meeting by welcoming and introducing the guest speaker - David Naylor from North Hill. His subject was the “Uranium Mines of Cornwall and Glass Blowing”. This was well researched, and augmented by a visual display.

He stated that his grandfather was a glass blower, explaining the techniques of glass blowing, and displaying the chemistry of coloured glass, showing some of the chemical elements that are used to colour glass.

Two percent of glass is made up of uranium, and green glass also has uranium in it.

Cornwall produced the most uranium. When the hands of clocks and watches illuminate green in the dark, shows that there is mercury present.

South Terras Mine, near St Austell was the most radio active mine in Britain. Altarnun was the closest mine from here.

There followed a short questions and answers to the appreciative gathering. Alan gave a vote of thanks to David for his excellent display and knowledge of his subject.

Den Balsdon then proceeded with the raffle, followed by refreshments, served by Rose MacIntosh

The next meeting is on Monday, October 28, at 7pm, when Adrian Wilton will give a talk on “Churchill’s Secret Army.”

Marhamchurch WI celebrated Harvest in their usual fashion.

Before the meeting members came along to a soup and sweet lunch. There was a choice of three soups made by Penny Hazeldine and an abundance of desserts provided by the committee.

The harvest auction followed lunch. Members had brought along produce from, fruit and vegetables, jams and chutneys and a number of interesting other items.

The auctioneer for the afternoon was Rachel Roberts ably assisted by runners, Jenny Linares Martin and Rose Pooley and Cheryl Develin who kept account of monies spent by members. The Auction proceeded with much laughter and good natured bidding and the generosity of members will have boosted the funds.

Next month’s meeting is on November 12 at 2.30pm when guest speakers will be Colin and Sheila Cholwill, founders of ‘Reindeers for Little Harbour’. Visitors always welcome.

On Sunday, October 6, the bells of St James the Great rang out a full Peel of eight ringers to call the People of Kilkhampton to celebrate their Harvest Festival.

Captain of the tower Tony Davis led the peel calling the changes and there resounded a wonderful peel of bells throughout our beautiful village and beyond.

The church had been beautifully decorated with an array of Harvest produce, sheaves of corn, wheat, flowers and both fresh and non-perishable food products. The north door of the church was festooned with Harvest decorations and bread and was a welcome treat on the eye as the congregation filtered into a packed St James through the main door, which was also a sight to behold, with photos of men and tractors working the land, together with traditional Harvest decorations.

Rev Teresa Folland welcomed a full church and introduced the first harvest hymn “Come Ye thankful people come“ as the robed St James choir led the procession with Graham Harris carrying the cross of Jesus at the helm.

Bude Metric Brass under the conductorship of Colin Gay, with Luke Francis BEM at the organ and the choir of St James the Great roused all the five splendid hymns.

With a mix of congregation from two months old to ninety years old, the Church and Chapel family sang the wonderful Harvest hymns.

We then sat down on our wonderful pews hand carved from the 13th century. We were so glad to rest our legs after such hearty singing and any place of worship would be so lost without such lovely seating arrangements, especially when people have given time and money and effort to provide these seats over many many generations and are such a part of the fabric of any place of worship.

The full choir and congregation sang “To God be the glory“ as all members of church processed (the cutest thing was the children with vegetables in their wheel barrows) up to the great altar of St James where Harvest gifts were gratefully received by our Rector and church-warden Kevin McGrath .

A welcoming warm harvest family service then prayed and thanked God for all good gifts around us, our food and produce and the Lord who has helped provide. The lesson was read by Peter Hobbs.

Hilbre Watts Lyn Mason took a large number of children into the Grenville Chapel for Sunday School, making laminated harvest pictures from leaves and beautiful collages from card.

The service included the Christening of the infant son and daughter of Dan and Anna Balsdon. The names given were Franklin Ronnie and Martha Francis. They were christened and welcomed into God's family and as we welcomed them both the rain was beating down outside, we prayed for them, their parents, grandparents and Godparents. Rev Teresa presented Franklin and Martha with gifts and Christening candles.

The Rector's theme was carrots, and we all wrote our names down on the back of a paper carrot with a prayer for Frank and Martha to remind them in years to come who was at their christening and who welcomed them into God's family.

After the service, in such pouring rain the produce and flowers were transported to the Grenville Rooms where the Harvest Luncheon was served. Wine and fruit juices were available in the foyer and Peter Hobbs took the door money. Kingsley Bryant said Grace and the meal consisted of cold meat and salad with coleslaw and chutneys, followed by the sweet trolley, cheese and biscuits, teas and coffees. After the meal, the auction of produce and flowers was ably performed by Reg Hambley, with all the proceeds going to Bude Food Bank. Thank you to the many people who made the Harvest Festival at St James the Great such a success.

A 10ft-long boa constrictor with pneumonia; a horse stuck in a cattle grid; a 17-year-old, three-legged Jack Russell who’d swallowed a wasp; a cow needing an urgent caesarean in the middle of a field; a spaniel with malformed arteries; a bullock struck by lightning; and the behavioural problems of a Rottweiler called Satan. The small-hours telephone call-out that turned out to be a bad dream... and the rewards of getting to know animals and their humans.

It was all in a day’s work for retired veterinary surgeon Mark Shepherd, the latest guest speaker at the Thursday Friendship Group at Holsworthy Methodist Church. The scars of his career with all creatures great and small include replacement hips and knee, and battered fingers and thumbs from numerous kickings by large animals. But it’s been a labour of love, said dentist’s son Mark, who’d set his heart on becoming a vet from the age of 13 – and who never wavered in that ambition. After training in London, he joined the old-established Penhales veterinary practice (now Penbode), working at first in Holsworthy with senior vet, the late David Hobbs.

To illustrate the diversity of his calling, Mark brought along a collection of “The Vet’s Gloves” – the title of his talk. The audience were invited to try for themselves these various items, including lead-lined gloves for administering X-rays, latex versions for sensitive examinations – and thick suede gauntlets for coping with jumpy cats. Gloves are mainly used of course to protect both vet and patient against “the hundreds of millions of bugs” that live on and around us.

Inevitably there are sad and difficult times in a vet’s life, such as the tragedy of the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, a harrowing and traumatic time for all concerned. And Mark recounted an incident of sheep-worrying by a dog – a dilemma which involved a practice client.

There were plenty of lighter moments too: Mark, whose father had a dental practice in Torrington, recalled arriving at a local farm to deal with a calving difficulty, to be greeted by the farmer asking: “Are you Butcher Shepherd’s son?”

Another time, while living “over the shop” at the Bradworthy branch, Mark had a phone call in the small hours asking him to come at once to a farm...putting the phone down, pre-1471 days, and stumbling out of bed, he could not then recall who had phoned and where he was supposed to go. In “a bit of a stew”, he checked the diary – no names sprang out – then checked the duty rota. He discovered he wasn’t even on call that night, and had been dreaming.

“It’s been a wonderful working life,” he said. “Getting to know people, especially farming clients, and their animals, and having the opportunity to explore the limits of surgery. Now I’m retired, I miss that relationship with clients, particularly farming clients – you become part of their family.”

Mark concluded by reading from Psalm 121: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” As a Christian, he said these verses had sustained and strengthened him throughout his career.

The real truth about Poldark. That was the subject of our latest talk from local man Terry Faull entitled “Demelza’s People – The Married Widows of Cornwall”. Fascinating but the truth is never pleasant. We are encouraged to think of Cornwall as expansive coastline views, mysterious ruins of mines, empty moors (apart from the ponies) and romantic cottages. However, in the 18th century there were more rich people in Cornwall and Devon than the rest of the country , the reason being that by the 19th century, Cornwall was one of the most industrialised areas in the country and there were over 2,000 tin mines in the county.

It was known that there was copper and tin underground both of which were badly needed all over the world. Investors/Adventurers would identify potential sites, negotiate a lease from the land owners and open up a mine. The landlords negotiated eight per cent of all the profits made without any involvement or responsibilities. So much money was made by both the land owners and the Investors that new banks were created to look after all the monies. However, this all came at a price – namely the workers.

Because of the atrocious conditions, miners were not expected to live beyond 30 years. All the family worked in or on top of the mines including the wife and children. They had to buy their own shovels, candles and gunpowder (this came out of their wages) and were paid in either Cornish or Devon Pennies; which, of course, could only be used in the local shops owned by the mine. Everyone worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week (Sundays were for church or chapel) apart from Good Friday and Christmas Day. In order to supplement their meagre wages some miners managed to lease a small plot of land and became small farmers. These were rented on a three lives lease: three members of the family were named in the lease and it had to be transferred to them. If they died – as was often the case – then the lease reverted back to the mine owner. This was also common in Devon and Ireland.

Unfortunately, in the latter half of the 19th century, tin and copper began to be mined abroad in Chile, Bolivia and Australia and these imports were cheaper. The result was that the local mine owners took risks and the mines became deeper with some tunneling under the sea in order to maximise profits. Miners could walk 5 miles from home to the mine, take 1½ hours to climb down the ladder to the bottom and perhaps another ¼ mile to the end of the seam. When they finished their shift they reversed the process. Living conditions were also frightful with tiny cottages having earth walls and floors. With lodgers (for extra income) it was known for up to 20 people to share with miners hot-bedding if they worked shifts. If a mine closed, men would have to travel to another mine, often miles away from their home. Mine owners built barracks for some of the men who would travel home perhaps once a month.

Eventually, the cheap imports meant that the local mining industry collapsed within a month and the miners emigrated all across the globe. Hence the saying “At the bottom of every mine, you’ll find a Cornish-man”. This is also where the description of “the Married Widows” came from. Husbands were abroad for some years and the women were expected to continue to support themselves and their children even though, as wives, they had no rights. Sometimes the husbands were able to send money but it was difficult and accidents continued to happen with miners being killed which left the families destitute. They were often supported by the community or Chapel. Many wives became very strong and resilient but most had to rely on the local Parish Guardians and later on, the Parish Workhouses. These were amalgamated into fewer larger wokhouses which, in turn, became hospitals when the NHS was established after the second world war. When we next look at the various mine ruins perhaps we should spare a thought for the families who worked and died there.

A post script: William Blake wrote the hymn “Jerusalem” after visiting the West Cornwall mining area. Very appropriate for the WI members listening who had just sung their anthem!