The recording of Peter Herring’s Story Cafe about the cutting, saving and use of turf as the principal household fuel on Bodmin Moor is now available to watch on our Youtube Channel.
The talk by Peter Herring was fascinating. The Zoom event was fully booked and we had lots of questions and engagement from the audience watching on Facebook.
Peter talked about his research into this practice, which he carried out in partnership with Tony Blackman, former Chair of Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Peter is one of our new Trustees, and brings to the Trust his extensive knowledge and expertise as a landscape archaeologist, historian and characteriser. He worked with Historic England on championing historic characterisation approaches to place and landscape and managing expert teams undertaking research on historic places. Peter’s work with Cornwall Council included leading the historic environment policy and partnerships team, including the Historic Environment Record.
Watch the recording of the Story Cafe to learn more about this fascinating subject.
The publications mentioned in Peter’s talk are available at:
The Bodmin Moor : An archaeological survey Volume 1 The Human Landscape to 1860, can be downloaded here: https://map.cornwall.gov.uk/reports_event_record/1994/1994R034.pdf
and
Volume Two is available to purchase at :
The Bodmin Moor : An archaeological survey Volume Two The industrial and post-medieval landscapes
: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/bodmin-moor-archaeological-survey-vol-2
Thank you to Cornwall Community Foundation for helping to fund Cornwall Heritage Trust’s virtual story cafe series.

A story cafe about the cutting, saving and use of turf as the principal household fuel on Bodmin Moor until a generation or two ago. Pete Herring will talk about his research into this practice, which he carried out in partnership with Tony Blackman, former Chair of Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Pete is one of our new Trustees, and brings to the Trust his extensive knowledge and expertise as a landscape archaeologist, historian and characteriser. Pete worked with Historic England on championing historic characterisation approaches to place and landscape and managing expert teams undertaking research on historic places. Pete’s work with Cornwall Council included leading the historic environment policy and partnerships team, including the Historic Environment Record.
If you would like to join us on our Zoom meeting to learn more about this fascinating subject, please register via Eventbrite by following the link below:
Pictured is a local farmer cutting turf on Pridacoombe Downs, Altarnun in the 1940s.
With grateful thanks to Cornwall Community Foundation for helping to fund this free event.
The Story Cafe will also be simultaneously live streamed onto our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheCornwallHeritageTrust

If you missed Cornwall Heritage Trust’s virtual story cafe on Cornish Scoot Dancing last week, then you will be pleased to know that the recording has now been edited and added to our Youtube Channel.
We are very grateful to Merv and Alison Davey for kindly leading our first ever virtual Story Café. Merv and Alison are both well known throughout Cornwall and its heritage, musical and cultural worlds, and Cornwall Heritage Trust is also lucky enough to have Alison as one of our long-standing trustees.
This year we had planned to introduce build on our Story Café scheme and introduce a programme of Story Cafes throughout Cornwall, however that was not meant to be and so we thought online versions were the next best thing!
For details of future events, please sign up to our Mailing List.
Song and Dance Project on our website
Did you know that we have some wonderful song and dance resources on our website, which are free for all to use? They are aimed to be used by schools as a resource, but we thought they are also interesting for everyone to view.
Hosted by Cornwall Heritage Trust, our first ever Cornish Story Cafe held on Zoom will be led by Merv and Alison Davey. The theme is Cornish Scoot (Step) Dancing, and Merv and Alison will talk about the tradition of Cornish dancing and show archive footage.
We invite participants to join on Zoom and you will have the opportunity to ask questions and share stories, there are a few places remaining – please follow the link to book via Eventbrite.
With grateful thanks to Cornwall Community Foundation for helping to fund this free event.
The Story Cafe will also be simultaneously live streamed onto our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheCornwallHeritageTrust

Cornwall Council is undertaking a programme of improvement works in the Luxulyan Valley; as a result of this the Black Hills car park will be closed for five days from the 18th of January 2021.
Please note that the viaduct and the valley remain open for visitors during this time.
More information on the planned works can be found here.
Find out more about Treffry Viaduct here
Our office will be closed from Monday 21st December and re-open again on Tuesday 5th January.
If you need to get in touch with our staff, please email info@cornwallheritagetrust.org
Have a wonderful Christmas and here’s to a much brighter 2021!

We can report that part of the bank to the rear of Trevanion Culverhouse in Wadebridge collapsed at the end of last week. It is next to a road leading into Wadebridge and the Trust is already in contact with Cornwall Council / Cormac about ensuring that the issue is investigated. We can confirm that there is no impact on the monument itself, which remains unaffected.
To find out more about Trevanion Culverhouse please click here

This afternoon saw the 35th Annual General Meeting of Cornwall Heritage Trust take place in a slightly different format than usual. Due to the Coronavirus lockdown restrictions the meeting took place online using Zoom and sadly it was not possible to invite members and friends as we usually would. Despitethis, almost a full complement of Trustees and staff joined Colonel Edward Bolitho, CHT President, to review the past year and undertake the statutory business.

Lt Col Richard Trant
We are delighted to announce that Lt Col Richard Trant was elected Chairman of the Trust; taking over from Mrs Clare Jacques who has served as interim Chair since May. Colonel Bolitho thanked Mrs Jacques on behalf of Trustees and awarded her Honorary Life Membership as a thank you for her steady leadership in such uncertain times.
Lt Col Trant has been a Trustee of Cornwall Heritage Trust since his retirement from the Army in 2014 and subsequent return to Cornwall to embark on a new career in business, however his links to the Trust stretch back far further as his Father, General Sir Richard Trant, was Chairman of the Trust for many years.
At the end of the meeting a slideshow of photographs reminded all present how successful the past year had been for the Trust and everyone agreed that we hope to get back to business as usual as soon as possible!
Did you know that you can make a quick text donation to Cornwall Heritage Trust via your mobile phone by sending a text to 70085?
All you need to do is send a text message to 70085 with CHT5DONATE to donate £5, or text CHT10DONATE to donate £10.
Texts cost the chosen donation amount plus one standard network rate message.

Following the announcement of a second lockdown starting tomorrow we would like to reassure you that it’s very much business as usual at Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Our staff have been working from home since March and it has worked well, this arrangement will continue for the foreseeable future. Behind the scenes we are working hard to provide our usual services and we are developing some exciting projects which we hope to share with you very soon.
Our sites remain open all year round and you are welcome to visit them as usual throughout lockdown, restrictions permitting. We ask that you respect the sites and keep your distance from other visitors and contractors who may be undertaking work on our behalf and that you ensure that you are following the government guidelines regarding travel. Our small grants scheme is open for applications, please click here for more information about how to apply.
If you would like to contact us, the best method is email: info@cornwallheritagetrust.org
Please stay safe and we look forward to seeing you soon!
A selection of the winning photographs in our Calendar competition are now available as a set of 8 Note Cards. Thank you to the photographers who allowed their photos to be used, and they will be receiving a calendar and cards with their winning entries this week.
“Rough Tor” by Lemi Mitchell
“Cot Valley Sunset” by Tim Pearson
“Chun Quoit” by Philip Tonkyn
“Polperro” by Laura Moody
“Men an Tol” by Tim Pearson
“Rain in 5 minutes, Porthleven Harbour” by Peter Bayly
“Hermitage, Roche Rock” by Philip Tonkyn
“Twilight in the Harbour, St Ives” by Tim Brearley
They are now for sale online on our website if you would like to order a set of cards. They make a great Christmas gift, or you might know people who would appreciate receiving a thoughtful note with a special place in Cornwall.
Notice is hereby given that the 35th AGM of the Cornwall Heritage Trust will take place by Zoom on Thursday November 19th 2020, starting at 2.00pm.
With the current restrictions we have reluctantly made the decision that the Annual General Meeting will be unable to go ahead in its usual format. Instead, Trustees have decided to hold a brief AGM using Zoom however, for this year only, it will not be possible to invite members to attend as we usually would. This was a very difficult decision to make however we hope that you understand the reasons.
A copy of the agenda for the AGM is attached below and you will see that there are no proposals requiring votes apart from the usual election of Trustees and Officers and ratification of the Annual Accounts. If you have any queries relating to the agenda or wish to propose a matter for discussion please do get in touch.




