Camelford and District Old Cornwall Society
Programme for 2010
Officers
President: Ethel Broad
01726 882798
Chair: Peter Ascott
01840 770338
Vice Chair: Rod Keat
01208 851792
Treasurer: Peter Broad
01726 882798
Secretary: Denis Lusby
01208 850260
Anyone is welcome to come to these meetings which are held on Mondays at The Clease Hall, Camelford at 7.30 pm or, during the summer, at other locations of interest.
Summer meetings - meet in Church Car Park at 7 pm unless otherwise arranged.
Prgramme 2010
| Date | Talk/Visit | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| January 11 CANCELLED | illustrated talk | Catherine Lorigan |
| February 8 | The North Cornwall Railway illustrated talk | Rod Keat |
| March 8 | Journeys through Cornwall talk | Mac Waters Bard of Cornish Gorsedd |
| April 12 | The Passmore Edwards Legacy illustrated talk | Dean Edwards Falmouth |
| May 10 | Visit to Boscastle | |
| June 13 | 25th Anniversary Dinner | |
| July 12 | Visit to Stannon and De Lank, St Breward | |
| September 13 | Old Photographs of Cornwall + AGM | Margaret Thompson |
| October 11 | Lanhydrock House illustrated talk | Paul Holden National Trust |
| November 8 | Humour is a funny thing talk | Farmer John Bennallick |
| December 13 | Dinner Riverside Restaurant, Camelford |
Reports 2010
March - Journeys through Cornwall
The influence of mining and quarrying on the landscape of Cornwall became very apparent as Cornish Bard Mac Waters presented an intriguing collection of slides of old postcards at the March meeting of Camelford and District old Cornwall Society. Whilst the remains of engine houses are an obvious reminder of former local industries, there are so many more works and buildings that have long since disappeared beneath the undergrowth. Mac's postcards showed many of these operations in their heyday along with the people who worked them, including a large group of bal maidens, quarry workers, miners and fishermen.
The sepia tones and gently tinted images of Cornwall in the 19th and early 20th century showed scenes of little traffic, donkeys with panniers on Trebarwith Beach collecting sand, and cattle taking a leisurely drink in the river at Wadebridge. Boscastle bustled with coasters bringing in coal, lime, stones, pottery and liquor. Horse-drawn buses and donkeys and shays were the transport of the time, and all passengers - indeed it seemed anyone out of doors - wore a hat!
February - The North Cornwall Railway
Our fascination with steam trains and railways appears to remain unabated, as a recent meeting of Camelford Old Cornwall Society demonstrated. Extra seating had to be brought in at short notice to accommodate the unexpectedly high turn-out for an illustrated presentation about the North Cornwall Railway (NCR) by Rod Keat.
The development of the NCR was traced, and nostalgia was evoked by the inclusion of video extracts of steam trains chuffing their way through stations such as St Kew Highway and Camelford. Archive photos of the old stations on this line, plus recent shots of their current appearance, brought reminiscences from several of those attending. Some were reminded of the heyday of Otterham Station in the early 1940s, when vast quantities of cement and other building materials were off-loaded and driven to the nearby construction site of Davidstowe Aerodrome. Photos of the men who dug cuttings, erected bridges and built embankments, largely by hand, brought home the harsh realities that underpinned the development of the railway link that brought commercial and social opportunities to North Cornwall.
The demise of the NCR in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Plan left miles of track bed to be colonised by flora and fauna - and housing! However, the Camel Trail, running from Padstow to Bodmin, has developed into a much used and much loved route for cyclist and walkers. What a shame that this type of development was not extended to the NCR line between Wadebridge and Halwill Junction.
Programmes for previous years: 2009 2008
Federation of Old Cornwall Societies website
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