Classic Cottages has pledged support to Cornwall’s rich and distinct heritage by joining the top level of Cornwall Heritage Trust’s business sponsorship programme.
Dominique Adams from Classic Cottages said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring the wonderful Cornwall Heritage Trust this year. With our head office being based in Cornwall and many staff members living and working there, we are passionate about protecting Cornwall’s special heritage and environment. We really admire the work of the Trust and everything they do to preserve and restore heritage sites, provide education for Cornwall’s residents and visitors, and support inspiring projects throughout Cornwall.”
Cathy Woolcock, CEO at Cornwall Heritage Trust said: “As a small, independent charity, partnerships like this make a huge difference to our charitable work, and we’re hugely grateful for Classic Cottage’s support!”
More information about Classic Cottages can be found on its website: www.classic.co.uk
Are you aged 14 – 18 and want to make a difference to the environment this Summer?
Our Climate Action Youth Group Young Rangers Project is hosting a mid-week Summer session at Caer Bran near Penzance on Wednesday 21st August, and we would love as many young people as possible to get involved.
Running from 11am – 3pm, the session will be focussed on grassland management, which aims to encourage wildflowers to improve the biodiversity of the area.
There will also be the chance to learn more about Carn Euny ancient village, which is located nearby.
Anyone aged 14 – 18 is welcome to attend to get a taste of what this environmental project is all about and develop their skills in countryside management.
Whilst the group does meet once every month, if you only wish to join us for this one-off session our team would still love to hear from you.
This project is supported by English Heritage’s national youth engagement programme, Shout Out Loud: http://shoutoutloud.org.uk/
A project to explore the potential for Minions Heritage Centre to be reopened has been given the green light thanks to a grant from the Community Capacity Fund.
Minions Heritage Centre was a free-to-enter visitor attraction located in the restored Houseman’s Engine House of the South Phoenix mine on the eastern edge of Bodmin Moor. It has been closed since the start of the pandemic.
The building is currently in the ownership of Cornwall Council and this project, which is being undertaken by Cornwall Heritage Trust in conjunction with the Council, aims to establish solutions to the issues with the building which could potentially result in its reopening.
Cornwall Heritage Trust CEO, Cathy Woolcock said: “This project is the first step towards hopefully reopening this invaluable visitor attraction so that it can once again provide interpretation and information to visitors to Bodmin Moor and the surrounding area. It is a fantastic resource for raising awareness of the historic landscape and the rich mining and industrial heritage it contains.”
“We hope the space will help facilitate activities both for ourselves and partners such as the World Heritage Sites and Cornwall National Landscape (AONB) teams. We also hope that it will be used by local groups and organisations too and will be consulting them throughout the development stage of the project.”
The project is located within the Tamar to Moor Community Area Partnership.
This funding has been allocated from Cornwall Council’s Community Capacity Fund. The Community Capacity Fund is part of the Good Growth Programme, which is delivering the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
“Fantastically bonkers!”
“Fresh approach, well acted, best performance I’ve seen for ages!”
“High energy and fun. Such a wonderful venue.”
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our open-air improvised retelling of Tristan & Yseult at the end of last month! It’s wonderful to receive feedback like this, and we’re so glad to hear how many of you enjoyed the show.
The entirely improvised take on this beloved legend was fun, fast-paced and had our audiences in fits of laughter throughout. Eggy, Eilish and Rachel from Smashed Window Community Theatre were truly fabulous – we’re thrilled to have collaborated with them for the show!
Indian Queens Pit provided the perfect backdrop for the production too. Thank you for hosting us!
This event has been made possible by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and we’re hugely grateful for its support.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for an Open Garden this year – your generosity has helped us raise a truly phenomenal figure to help our work protecting Cornwall’s heritage. We’re hugely grateful for your support!
We’ve been overwhelmed by the popularity of this year’s events and have welcomed over 1000 visitors across the season.
Our dedicated events volunteers did sterling service helping set up, directing traffic, welcoming visitors, serving cream teas, and so much more, and we would like to thank them for all their hard work! A special mention goes to Keith, our volunteer photographer, who captured fabulous images of the days at Boconnoc, Trevince and Trenarth.
We’re incredibly grateful to Elizabeth Fortescue and the team at Boconnoc House and Estate; Richard and Trish Stone, the owners of Trevince; Jan Trefusis and the Trefusis Estate; and Lucie Nottingham, the owner of Trenarth; for all so generously opening their gates to help raise funds for our work.
We are also hugely grateful to Laurence Jarrett-Ker, the Director and Founder of Soul Farm; printmaker Lou Tonkin; artist and blacksmith Lisa Wisdom; woodturner Jamie Lovekin; basketmaker Lin Lovekin; and pole lathe woodturner Joseph Huggett; for their support in making our event at the Trefusis Estate possible.
Thanks also go to Coodes Solicitors for sponsoring Open Gardens 2024.
Photo credits: Keith Larby / Cornwall Heritage Trust volunteer
A project to make it easier for people throughout Cornwall to enjoy some of its most iconic historic sites and strengthen the rural communities which surround them has received a major boost, thanks to a grant of £241,260 from the Rural Prosperity Fund.
The project involves the 16 historic sites protected by the independent Cornish charity, Cornwall Heritage Trust. These span the breadth of Cornwall from Caer Bran in the far west, to Dupath Well in the east, and cover a broad spectrum of history; from Neolithic remains such as Tregiffian Burial Chamber near Penzance, to the 19th-century Treffry Viaduct near St Austell. They are all set within historic landscapes and are free for everyone to visit all year round.
The project will see the charity improve facilities at the places it cares for; make them easier to access and understand; and provide opportunities for the public to engage with them.
A key part of this involves the introduction of innovative on-site and online interpretation and wayfinding, ranging from digital tours and information boards to reconstruction images and a fully equipped ‘mobile museum’.
Cornwall Heritage Trust has received £241,260 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The Rural Prosperity Fund is part of the Good Growth Programme, which is managed by Cornwall Council and funded by the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The funding will also be used to help schools and education groups struggling with the cost of transport for trips to these historic places. This will include providing grants for transport hire, offering pick-ups for volunteers and groups using public transport, and introducing guided tours for visitors. This part of the project builds on the charity’s School Transport Grants Scheme, which has helped over 20,000 schoolchildren visit Cornwall’s historic places and museums since its launch in 2014.
The charity also plans to invest in accessible compostable toilet facilities, benches to enable those with reduced mobility to explore its sites more fully, a machinery shed and the creation of an outdoor classroom inspired by a Bronze Age round house.
Cathy Woolcock, CEO of Cornwall Heritage Trust said: “This is a really exciting step forward for us. Our charitable work and the team who make it happen have grown significantly over the last few years, and the Rural Prosperity Fund award will now provide us with the capital investment we need to carry out our plans and accelerate our growth in a sustainable way. Our sites are set within incredible historic landscapes and represent free to access green spaces bursting with historic and ecological significance. We want to keep growing the ways local communities can benefit from them and investment like this is going to ensure that vital work can continue to happen!”.
Cornwall Heritage Trust has launched a 10-week programme of after-school workshops for care-experienced young people aged between 16-25.
The ‘Explore Group’ is being run as part of an ongoing partnership with Carefree Cornwall.
Carefree is a Cornish charity for young people with care experience aged 11-25. It aims to help care experienced young people have a good life through positive relationships, support with transitions and helping young people improve the care system for themselves and others.
The ‘Explore Group’ offers participants the chance to discover and engage with Cornwall’s unique heritage through visits to the historic sites cared for by the charity and reflective creative workshops.
The activities on offer include investigating folklore at Castle an Dinas, foraging at Sancreed Beacon, map making at the Hurler Stone Circles, and a sensory exploration at Treffry Viaduct. The programme will be rounded off with a celebration of the young people’s achievements.
Engagement Manager, Sophie Meyer said: “The work Carefree Cornwall does is incredible and we’re so proud to be doing our bit to help. We know what a huge impact engaging with our shared heritage can have on wellbeing and social connection, and that’s why we believe offering these experiences to the young people Carefree supports is so important. The response from the young people involved has already been fantastic and we’re really excited to see how much they enjoy the rest of the programme!”
The ‘Explore Group’ has been made possible by funding from the Carew Pole Charitable Trust (administered by Cornwall Community Foundation), the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We commemorated the rescue of St Cleer Holy Well and Cross from the Heritage at Risk Register at our annual Well Dressing Ceremony last Friday – and what a special celebration with the local community it was!
Blue skies and glorious sunshine provided the perfect backdrop to the festivities, which included a parade up to the monument led by Merv Davey on Celtic pipes, readings in Cornish and English, the laying of posies, a blessing of the well, and (of course) a rousing rendition of Trelawney.
The festivities also showcased the talents of children from St Cleer Primary School. They paraded with a banner dedicated to the monument created in a special workshop with Cornwall Heritage Trust’s Education team and performed Cornish dances learnt alongside Alison Davey, an expert in Cornish dance and folk traditions.
St Cleer Holy Well and Cross is the only example of a well house with an open porch-like design in Cornwall. Its pillars, capitals and arches are carved with simple mouldings and patterns which were unusual for this date in Cornwall.
The open, arched form of the structure, with a steep gabled roof was probably intended to resemble a high-status saint’s tomb or shrine. Prior to the Reformation the interior may have been used to display the image or relics of a saint, to be viewed by pilgrims to the site, who would have had access to water from the spring covered by the building through the small double arch at the east end.
The first reference to the building was by the Cornish historian William Hals around 1700, who described it as ‘much decayed.’ In the 19th century, the spring water was piped to the roadside nearby, for the villagers’ convenience. In 1864 the well was restored by Lieutenant Henry Rogers in memory of his grandfather, the Reverend John Jope, who had been vicar of the parish for 67 years. At the same time, he established a trust for its maintenance, but by the late 20th century, with no trustees surviving, the site of the well had fallen into neglect.
Cornwall Heritage Trust acquired the site in November 2022 and took on its management. Historic England supported the charity with a grant to enable assessments of the site, tree surgery, some re-pointing, and interpretation to improve understanding and management of the site for future generations.
In November 2023, Historic England announced that the site would be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register thanks to these successful interventions.
Our charity was founded nearly 40 years ago to address concerns that far too many of Cornwall’s historic places were at risk, and helping remove this site from the Heritage at Risk Register shows just how important that mission remains today!
We’re incredibly proud to be caring for St Cleer Holy Well and Cross and keeping its story alive through community events like this.
Thank you to St Cleer Primary School, Liskeard Old Cornwall Society, St Cleer Parish Council, St Cleer Church, Jan Edmondson, and Merv and Alison Davey for helping make this event such a success.
What a difference four and a half years of conservation work has made to the 19th-century Crib Hut adjacent to Treffry Viaduct!
Work first began uncovering the building in September 2019. It was our first ever on-site conservation volunteering day – a real testament to how much our charity has grown – and since then the Crib Hut’s transformation has been truly remarkable!
September 2019
May 2024
Built between 1839 and 1842, Treffry Viaduct was designed to carry both trucks and water across the Luxulyan Valley for the mining industry. The Crib Hut is thought to have been used by tramway workers to provide shelter for them to rest in during breaks. Inside you can see the remains of a fireplace and a window, and you can imagine there would be a couple of wooden benches on either side where the workers might have sat.
Once a hive of industry, nature has very much reclaimed the landscape around the viaduct and invasive foliage and vegetation had been pulling apart the Crib Hut for some time.
Last Summer, a great deal of work to clear the area around the site and secure the structure took place thanks to the generous support of 15 new Cornwall Heritage Trust Life Members.
Further conservation work took place last week and saw our Rangers and volunteers join the Old Light Building Conservation Company to undertake some final consolidation of the outer walls and soft-cap them with turf. This recent conservation work has been made possible by funding from GWR, and we’re hugely grateful for its support.
We’re hosting a special Nature Discovery Day at Treffry Viaduct this May half term, and invite you all to join us!
Taking place on Tuesday 28th May from 11am – 2pm, visitors will have the chance to spot the signs of Spring at this 19th-century architectural wonder hidden in the beautiful Luxulyan Valley near St Austell.
Once a hive of industrial activity, this incredible historic place has very much been reclaimed by nature and there is a wealth of wonderful wildlife for you to discover there.
There’ll be lots to get involved with including bird identification, a nature trail around the valley, and even the chance to make your own bird feeder and wildflower pot.
There’s no need to book and you don’t need to be members. Just come along and enjoy!
This event has been made possible by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and we’re hugely grateful for its support.
The varied landscape of Cornwall has inspired people to create and share stories of giants, knockers and piskies for hundreds of years. It’s steeped in folklore, myths and legends – tales which are inextricably tied to the ancient stones, historic hillforts and maze of mine shafts which make Cornwall such a special place.
There is a wealth of stories which surround the historic sites we care for, and it was this rich tapestry of folklore which inspired students from Falmouth University to collaborate with us to create the illustrated poetry collection, ‘The Moor Dwellers’ Guide’.
This week, we officially launched the collection at our latest Cornish Story Cafe. The launch included a talk hosted by Siân Esther Powell – a Cornish museum professional, amateur folklorist and host of the Celtic Myths and Legends Podcast – which took them on a whistle-stop tour of some of Cornwall’s most iconic myths and legends.
When asked about what inspired them to create the collection, the students said: “We wanted to highlight the importance of these sites in a creative way that would hopefully engage children of all ages to think about the sites on a more multidimensional level. By introducing the stories encompassing these places, we hope people will feel inspired to visit the sites and contribute to their preservation.”
Thank you to everyone who joined us and to all of the contributors for dedicating their time and talents to the project!
The collection is now available to purchase on our website, priced at £7. If you would like to place an order, we would be hugely grateful for your support. All the profits will support our work to preserve and strengthen Cornwall’s unique heritage, and as a small independent charity, every penny really does make a huge difference!
We are hosting the annual Well Dressing Ceremony at St Cleer Holy Well and Cross next week, and warmly invite you all to come along.
Taking place on Friday 3rd May from 10.15am – 11.15am, the event is open to the general public. It will involve the children from St Cleer Primary School, Liskeard Old Cornwall Society and the local community.
The blessing of the well will take place in Cornish and English, with short prayers by the local Curate and singing. Cornish dancing will also take place.
This year’s event is particularly significant as it will celebrate the site’s removal from the Heritage at Risk Register in November 2023.
Cornwall Heritage Trust CEO, Cathy Woolcock said: “We are absolutely thrilled that our interventions have saved St Cleer Holy Well and Cross from the Heritage at Risk Register, and the Well Dressing Ceremony is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with the local community. We hope as many people as possible can come along!”
Thought to date from the late 15th or early 16th century, St Cleer Holy Well is a Scheduled Monument and also Listed Grade One – a demarcation earned by only 2.5% of listed buildings and marking it out as nationally important.
Photo credit – Steve Baker © Historic England Archive
The Well Dressing Ceremony at St Cleer was hosted for a number of years by Liskeard Old Cornwall Society and was reinstated by Cornwall Heritage Trust last year following our acquisition of the site. Liskeard Old Cornwall Society remains closely involved with the event.
Brian Oldham, President of Liskeard Old Cornwall Society said: “We are delighted to have been invited by Cornwall Heritage Trust to be involved in the St Cleer Holy Well Dressing Ceremony once again this year. Old Cornwall Societies are very active in keeping alive traditional events such as this one, others include Crying the Neck and the Midsummer Bonfire. This event in St Cleer is particularly important as, by involving them in the procession and in Cornish Dance, it gives the children of St Cleer the opportunity to learn about one small aspect of our heritage. It may encourage some of them learn more about the history of their lovely village and Cornwall!”
As part of the proceedings, posies of flowers will be laid at the monument by the children from St Cleer Primary School. If you would like to donate a posy, please drop it to the school on the morning of the event.
