NEWSLETTER
February 2014
Our Place on the Internet
www.calh.co.uk
CORNWALL
ASSOCIATION OF
LOCAL HISTORIANS
Chairman’s Letter
When you read this newsletter, many of you
will be attending our first meeting of 2014 at
the Kilburnie Hotel in Newquay. Our
programme for the rest of 2014 will also
have been organized and your committee
will be looking at venues and ideas for
subjects for the 2015 season, for which
provisional dates will be released as soon as
possible. It is important that you, the
membership,
contribute
ideas
and
suggestions for outings and conferences
and, hopefully, also offer to organise days in
your area or offer to talk at our conferences.
We also need your support in the form of
contributions to both the Newsletter which
is published in February, August and
November and the Journal which you
receive in May. It doesn't matter how short
or long an article or query is, our editor will
be pleased to receive it and will also help in
setting it out if required.
As your chairman I am very lucky to be
supported by a wonderful committee whose
work behind the scenes insures the smooth
running of CALH. Without them this
society would cease to be, so my thanks go
out to every one of them. As local
historians we are facing exciting and
possibly challenging times with the
proposed move from Truro to Redruth of
the Cornwall Record Office and the Historic
Environment Services. It is good that we,
as a society, are involved at ground roots
level, as it is us, as local historians, who are
most likely to use these facilities.
I have been made very aware, since I was
last your chairman, that technology has
moved on a pace. I am still coming to terms
with emails. For those of you who have
tried to contact me in this way and have
then waited, sometimes for weeks, for a
reply, I apologise. I am slowly getting better
at checking what has come in but the
quickest way of contacting me is still by
phone or a letter. Sorry, I guess I'm a bit
old fashioned. Your committee has been
discussing the possibility of sending the
newsletters, to those who would wish it, by
email. I can see this would save the society
the cost of mailing, but I do worry that it is
less personal than a letter delivered by your
postman, so it would be good to get your
views on this. Whatever happens it will be
your decision. However, as far as I am
concerned I feel very strongly that the
Journal should always be in printed form so
it can sit on your book-shelf for future
reference. Talking of reference books, you
will be pleased to hear that Sally Pocock has
agreed to update the index to CALH
Journals and a printed copy of this will be
sent when it is completed.
Although somewhat belated, may I wish you
all a very Happy New Year.
Your chairman
Carole Vivian
(01503) 272 309
Carolevuivan309@btinternet.com
Cornwall & South Africa
The CALH Autumn Conference will
explore the many historical connections
between our countries.
Joan Webb, our Hon Secretary,
encourages members to contribute to the
day by way of talks or even 10-minute
“snippets”.
Topics might include Mining, Military
Action, Exploration and Plant Hunting.
Contact Joan at: (01208) 851 498 or
jolyon.web@btinternet.com
Sat, 11 October 2014
CALH Study Days Set
Children Explore Farm Heritage
A series of fascinating study days have been
organised for CALH members for 2014.
Cornish children can explore their farming
heritage through stories on a new free
online resource at www.farmingstories.com
The year begins with a day out at Pelynt on
March 10th, organised by our Chairwoman,
Carole Vivian. Next on June 14th, we’ll be
visiting Davidstow Airfield. Then in July, on
the 19th, we’ll be going with local historian
par excellent Bill Glanville to St Columb.
Finally, on the 3rd of September, we’ll visit
Illogan to be led and entertained by the
CRO’s David Thomas.
A big thanks goes to our Events Secretaries,
Hilary and John Ballard for organising yet
another great year of days out.
WWI War Records Online
The National Archives at Kew is marking
the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the
First World War with a special series of
events, exhibitions and records online to run
five years from 2014 to 2019.
The commemoration has begun with two
exciting initiatives – release of the first batch
of digitised unit war diaries and the launch
of Operation War Diary, an innovative
project where you can help go through diary
pages and tag data such as names, places
and activities.
You don’t have to be an expert or even
know anything about the diaries. The
archive wants to pull data out of these
records and compile it for quick reference.
“We don’t know how many people are
named in the diaries or how much they can
tell us about how the war was actually
fought on the front lines,” says a
spokesperson.
You can find out how easy it is to volunteer
for just an hour or so (at home) by going to
www.operationwardiary.org .
The WWI commemoration information is at
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-worldwar/
Organized by the Institute of Cornish
Studies, the stories were compiled from a
year-long project 'Tallys an Tir; Traditions &
Stories of the Land.’ which gathered the
information from farmers across Kernow.
These resources are aimed at 7-11 year olds
and include activities for school follow-up.
Further stories and photographs collected
throughout the project, can also be viewed
at www.cornishstories.com.'
Of special interest to local historians, the
full oral history interviews will be archived
at the Cornwall Centre, through the
Cornwall Audio Visual Archive. Extracts of
these and digital stories are on the website
above.
400 Years at Lanhydrock
The archive charting 400 years of life at
Lanhydrock House will be sorted, cleaned
and catalogued by the CRO with a grant of
nearly £25,000.
The grant, from the Cataloguing Grants
Scheme administered by the National
Archives, will allow the record office,
working with volunteers, to deal with papers
covering the 1570s to the 1970s.
The archive includes documents from the
English civil war era, records relating to the
rebuilding of the house after the 1881 fire
and over 500 plans of properties and land.
The collection captures the story of the
Robartes family, including Charles Robartes
who
commissioned
the
stunning
Lanhydrock atlas dating from 1695.
The work will make the full archive more
accessible to researchers.
Over 90 Accessions in 6 Months
A wonderful range of new records continue
to be offered to the CRO and the Cornish
Centre - over 90 accessions in the past six
months! These ranged from a beautiful plan
of Boconnoc church drawn by Edmund
Tatham in the 1830s, to over 400 items,
mostly minute and record books, for 39
Women’s Institutes from Land’s End to
Stratton.
We have also received the minutes of the
Society for the Astronomical Study of
Ancient Stone Monuments, Cornwall
Branch, covering 1906-1911. It is a lovely
record documenting the setting up of this
group in 1906 and its activities during the
first five years such as visits to monuments
in the Penwith area. Unfortunately the
entries stop without any explanation as to
what became of the society - does anyone in
the CALH know what happened to them?
We are very fortunate to have a dedicated
group of volunteers and work placement
students who have been helping catalogue
and research the collections. This year’s
Public History course students from the
University of Exeter are working on
promoting the Cornish Studies Library’s
literature collections related to World War I
and researching the archival collection of
the Quaker Stephens family of Falmouth in
World War I.
WW I is a theme for other volunteers who
are extracting entries from school log books
which provide a glimpse of the impact of
the war in Cornwall. All this information
will be used to create new resources.
The learning programme continues to be a
great success. More than 700 children
attended workshops in the autumn term
alone. The value of a visit to the CRO can
be seen in a report from a student, who
wrote “It made me feel very special to be
allowed to handle books and documents as
old and precious as these…". Chloe
Phillips, the service’s Learning Officer says
‘It is really gratifying to see the numbers
growing year on year showing that for many
schools a workshop from our service is
becoming an integral part of their history
curriculum for schools across Cornwall.”
It has been another busy and rewarding few
months for the teams at Cornwall Record
Office and the Cornish Studies Library.
Deborah Tritton
Archives Service Manager
Project to Remember Penhaligon
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the
election of David Penhaligon to Parliament.
Known as the voice of Cornwall,
Penhaligon represented Truro into the
1980s. He was earlier sub-postmaster at
Chacewater and an engineer at Holman
Brothers.
Now a group of undergraduates associated
with the Institute of Cornish Studies on the
Tremough campus has launched a campaign
to gather interviews with those in Cornwall
who knew Penhaligon.
The aim is to launch a website with pictures
and remembrances of him, to fill in and
preserve for younger generations the life
and times of a man considered by many to
have been a champion of Cornwall.
The students are starting by raising £5,000
to fund the project. Donations can be made
at
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/davidpenhaligon
Cornish Interest Online
There are a number of webpages beyond
ours of interest to Cornish local historians:
www.facebook.com/kresenkernow
Cornwall Record Office and Cornish
Studies Library – up to date information on
events and activities at the sister institutions.
www.facebook.com/globalcornwall
and
www.facebook.com/cornish.story
Cornish Studies Institute – photos and
activities on connecting Cornish people
around the globe to their history.
www.oldcornwall.net – Old Cornwall
Society – news and activities across Kernow
CALH Calendar of Events
1 March (Sat) – Deadline for Spring
Journal
Send
offerings
to
crown.house@virgin.net
3 April (Thurs) – CALH Committee
Meeting – 4:45 pm, Stuart House, Liskeard
10 May (Sat) – Study Day at Pelynt – 10:30
am – Carole Vivian leads visit to Pelynt
church and churchtown, 17th century farm,
pre-Norman cross and Trelawney Barton.
Booking form enclosed and online on
Events page, www.calh.co.uk
14 June (Sat) – Study Day at Davidstow –
Booking form online when available.
17 July (Thurs) – CALH Committee
Meeting – 4:45 pm – CRO, Truro
19 July (Sat) – Study Day at St Columb –
Booking form online when available
3 Sept (Weds) – Study Day at Illogan –
Booking form online when available
2 Oct (Thurs) – CALH Committee
Meeting – 4:45 pm, Stuart House, Liskeard
11 Oct (Sat) – Autumn Conference –
Cornwall and South Africa: The Many
Historical Connections – Kilbirnie Hotel,
Newquay
13 Nov (Thurs) – CALH Committee
Meeting – 4:45 pm, CRO, Truro
15 Jan, 2015 (Thurs) – CALH Committee
Meeting – 4:45 pm, CRO, Truro
7-8 Feb, 2015 (Sat/Sun) – CALH AGM &
Spring Conference – Topic to be
announced at a later date. Details will be on
the webpage
Around Cornwall
15 Feb (Sat) – Cultural Cornwall Seminar
– Hosted by the Institute of Cornish
Studies, Cornish Studies Library, Redruth,
10 am
5 March (Weds) – St Piran’s Day –
Activities & ceremonies in various venues
throughout the week honouring St Piran
30 June (Mon) – Trelawney Day – Talk on
the Bishop who was imprisoned in London
and became the subject of the Cornish
anthem, at the Pelynt village hall at 5 pm
followed by a high tea and concert in Pelynt
Church at 7:30 pm
5 July (Sat) – Old Cornwall Society’s
Summer Festival – St Agnes Methodist
Chapel – Details to be announced.
Autumn (dates to be announced) –
Conference on Global Cornwall – 3rd
annual conference sponsored by the
Institute of Cornish Studies
Cornwall Record Office
Winter – Family and Local History
Using Online Sources – Series of
workshops help at various libraries across
Cornwall. Dates, time and locations
announced locally.
4-7 Feb (Tues-Fri) – CRO Closed for
Collection Work
15 Feb (Sat) – CRO Open Saturday – 10
am to 1 pm
4-7 March (Tues-Fri) – CRO Closed for
Collection Work
15 March (Sat) – CRO Open Saturday –
10 am to 1 pm
8-11 April (Tues-Fri) – CRO Closed for
Collection Work
26 April (Sat) – CRO Open Saturday – 10
am to 1 pm
6-9 May (Tues-Fri) – CRO Closed for
Collection Work
17 May (Sat) – CRO Open Saturday – 10
am to 1 pm
Newsletter Editor: Robert Lyle
rhl@lylespride.com