Wharf Talks

 

APR 13th KERNOW TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE: THE REMARKABLE RAM-BLINGS OF A CORNISH FISH WIFE                                                                           By Pamela Vass

PAMELA VASS :

TALK:  In August 1851 a curiously dressed, elderly woman was seen trudging along Southampton High Street. Passers by couldn’t fail to notice her, she wore a huge beaver bonnet and carried a corracle-like basket on her back. On being spoken to she said she was a Cornish fisherwoman, in her 84th year, and was walking to London from the Land’s End to see the Great Exhibition.

Mary Kelynack spent her entire life in the small community of Newlyn in the far west of Cornwall. Yet in 1851 she became so inspired by the wonders of the Great Exhibition in London that she resolved to go, one way or another. Travelling by boat or train was be-yond her means but there was one thing she could do - walk. Before long she had become quite a celebrity - taking tea with the Lord Mayor, being interviewed by the Illustrated London News, modelled by a famous sculptor, having a polka named after her… and even greeting the Queen.

This illustrated presentation delves into the Cornish legend that is Mary Kelynack, creat-ing a picture of her marathon journey and her adventures in London, including a visit to the spectacular Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace.

 

APR 20th FURTHER STORIES OF THE REMARKABLE PINWILL SISTERS        By Helen Wilson

HELEN WILSON:  retired University lecturer, who has applied her research skills to studying the life and work of the Pinwill sisters, ecclesiastical woodcarvers. This research led to numerous speaking engagements and developed into the publication of a book entitled ‘The Remarkable Pinwill Sisters’ in 2021.

TALK: Further Stories of the Remarkable Pinwill Sisters

The Pinwill woodcarving business, Rashleigh, Pinwill & Co. established in 1890, went on to become one of the best in the West Country, with over 650 pieces of work in more than 180 churches. After over a decade of travelling around Devon and Cornwall to visit numerous churches and give presentations, Helen has met many fascinating people, discovered more about the Pinwill work along the way, and accumulated many interesting stories about these remarkable women.

This presentation follows on from her two previous talks and relates further stories from her experiences.

 

APR 27th THE DIALECT IN LOCAL DARTMOOR SONGS                  By Bill Mur-ray

BILL MURRAY:

TALK:  The Dartmoor dialect lives on in the songs of our area. Bill has chosen eight songs from Dartmoor, seven are humorous, but they all contain dialect words and phrases that need to be explained in order to be understood by posh people or volks who don' cum vrim roun' yer.

Bill Murray moved to North Tawton in 1965. ''On the school bus to Okehampton all the youngsters were Devonshire born and bred; I had to learn their language to survive. I spent many Saturday nights listening to songs from older singers like Reggie Sandercock and Harry Bolt, at The White Hart Inn in the Town and in 1969, I met Bob Cann at The Seven Stars in South Tawton who drew me into his world of Dartmoor music, songs and traditions''.

MAY 4th    BANK HOLIDAY – CLOSED

 

MAY 11th HOW THE ROLE OF WOMEN HAS CHANGED IN AGRI-CULTURE                          By Bridget Cole

BRIDGET COLE: A farmer all her life, mainly in partnership with her husband for 40years, after which Bridget handed over their biodiverse Dartmoor Farms to her sons Neil and Mathew. She also ran a farm tourism business and worked to promote farm tourism in Devon. She then enrolled as a student at Arts University Plymouth, passing out in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts(Hons) in Fashion & Design majoring in wool.           

TALK:  In the 1960’s she was a known as a “farmer’s daughter”. After marriage in 1971, she was the “farmer’s wife”, never the farmer, although all her working life she worked on the farm.  In 1974 when her father-in-law retired from Greenwell Farm, she and her husband, in partnership, took over the Cole Family business. It was frustrating when a rep visited the farm or called by phone: they always asked for Mr Cole. Then there was an era of female reps which the companies used as a ploy to persuade male famers to purchase their companies’ goods!

There is a survey on this subject that supports her experience and Bridget thought that it might make an interesting topic to explore.

 

MAY 18th  SWAGES AND SNARLING IRONS: 50 YEARS AS A SILVER-SMITH                                   By John Spencer

JOHN SPENCER: I started work as a silversmith in 1973 being apprenticed to my father Jack, although I had helped out in the workshop since the age of twelve so I already had a good grounding in the work. Dad's company was based in Sheffield and employed eighteen people making large silver items and a range of handmade jewellery. The family also had a retail shop but due to a combination of events, at the age of twenty- three, my wife and I ended up in East Devon buying a shop in the market town of Honiton which I ran for thirty years until I semi-retired to Tavistock seven years ago.

TALK: My talk encompasses jobs and commissions carried out during those years, peo-ple I met, disasters averted - I once made a wedding ring for a young lady the Friday teatime before her marriage on the Saturday due to the failure of the shop from where she'd ordered it to deliver. She sat on a stool next to me, wringing her hands with fret un-til it was done. I also (after the technicians had dismantled them) completely refurbished the aerial arrays and wave guides from the top of the 850-foot-high transmission mast on nearby Stockland Hill - the same height and model as the one on Hessary Tor at Prince-town. I got a couple of trips up the mast as a condition of my fee!    I shall also talk about gemmology, antiques, the total collapse of the silverware industry in just ten years in the 1960, jobs done for wealthy clients in the Middle East and of course, stories of the most difficult and demanding creatures on this earth… customers (although I do this with great tact)!

 

MAY 25th  BANK HOLIDAY – CLOSED

 

JUN 1st     WHEN I WAS IN KHASAB (STRAITES OF HORMUZ) By Paul Blowey

PAUL BLOWEY:  Paul grew up on a farm above Morwellham, educated here in Tavistock before                           training as a Land Surveyor in the early 1980’s and was working all over the UK including 6 months in the Middle East. Following a second career, teaching mainly in Okehampton, Paul is enjoying retirement and has been an active member of Tavistock Lions, for many years.

TALK: In 1984, Paul was seconded from a Somerset based Land Survey company to The Musandam Development committee in the Sultanate of Oman based in Khasab in the Straits of Hormuz.Primarily employed to undertake a number of land and Engineering surveys, Paul will talk briefly about his work, Khasab town, it’s people and the country he experienced 42 years ago making comparisons with how the country has developed following a second visit in 2017!                                                                                                                      

 

JUN 8th WAR TIME GENERATION: MASS OBSERVATIONS AND ITS DIARIES                                                                                                                                 By Todd Gray       

Dr. TODD GRAY MBE:  A historian mainly of Devon who has published widely on various aspects of the county’s history. Dr Todd Gray is a historian and research fellow at Exeter University. 

TALK:  Todd’s most recent publication is Devon’s Home Front Diaries, 1937 to 1945. His lecture focuses on the previously-unknown diaries of Devon from Mass Observation, the project of the 1930s in which the British chronicled everyday life.

 

JUN  15thA SENSE OF PLACE - TAVISTOCK AS A SETTING  By Jackie Waddle                                        

JACKIE WADDLE: Jackie has been writing fiction for several decades. She has completed three novels and a selection of short stories and poems over the years. She publishes her work under the name of Anna West and has recently revised her first novel, Breaking New Ground, for Amazon KDP. Jackie has studied through Exeter University and Manchester Metropolitan University, gaining an MA in Creative Writing with Pedagogic Studies at MMU, in 2015. Since the publication of her first novel, in 2008, Jackie has worked with medical and dental students at Exeter and Plymouth Universities, providing Medical Humanities Special Studies Units, as part of a module in the medical degree.    Among her friends, Jackie is known for her culinary art and she has hosted many meals, cake dates and buffet parties, providing home-cooked delicacies. She posts regularly on Instagram in her own name - @jackiewaddle. Music has also featured in her life: she studied flute in adult life and has played in local bands and ensembles for the past 25 years.  Both of these passions feature greatly in her fiction.

TALK: In my novels, I have created a fictitious place called Hexbury which is based on Tavistock. I will explain how an author uses location as a backdrop, and how, in a fictitious book, the setting can be moulded into a slightly different place to suit the characters and the story.

There will be pictures of the places around Tavistock used in my novels. I also talk about other authors and how they have used familiar places as settings for their novels.               I also include the connections and emotional attachments that people make with places such as Tavistock and the surrounding areas

 

JUN 22nd  DEVON AND CORNWALL AND THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC        By Harry Bennett

Dr HARRY BENNETT:  Dr G H Bennett taught history at the University of Plymouth for over 32 years and has written over 25 books dealing with maritime and military history, to foreign policy and political history in the mid-twentieth century.

TALK: The Battle of the Atlantic ran from 1939 to 1945, making it the longest campaign of the Second World War. What role did Devon and Cornwall play in that campaign and how did it impact the far South West? The sea off our shores became a maritime battle-ground, but why have we lost sight of that story, and the role of our two counties in Brit-ain's struggle to maintain its sea lines of communication?

 

JUN 29th THE EDGCUMBES : the rise of a fascinating South West family and their gentle descent.                             By Clive Charlton

CLIVE CHARLTON: I taught geography at the University of Plymouth for over 40 years, but since retirement, I have also become more interested in local and maritime history. I am chair of the Bere Local History Group and have lived at Bere Ferrers for over 50 years.

TALK:  The talk will explore the history of the Edgcumbe family from their origins as Devon yeoman farmers through their rise to regional and even national prominence by the 18th and 19th centuries to their current less high-profile status as citizens of New Zealand. They became increasingly wealthy and significant, culminating in the creation of the Earldom of Mount Edgcumbe in the late 18th century. From their main local  bases at Cotehele House and Mount Edgcumbe, the family produced a varied cast of colourful characters. Their story has been of fortunate marriages, land ownership and useful connections with royalty. However, the 20th century brought a series of challenges and misfortunes.

 

JUL 6th THE HISTORY OF SWIMMING IN PLYMOUTH  By Karen Moore

KAREN MOORE: Karen Moore is an Independent heritage researcher and member of the Plymouth

Community Heritage Network. She is a Postgraduate in Social History - her specialism being

her hometown of Plymouth, in particular swimming in Plymouth.

TALK: Karen will share with us some of her ongoing research into the history

of swimming in Plymouth, through a two part presentation -‘Teaching

the Plymouth Mermaids: Madame Gent, Plymouth Swimming Teacher, 1880 –

1905’ and 'Dip your toe in the water' Swimming activities in 1920’s Plymouth.

 

JUL 13th MORE STORIES ABOUT THE LIVES OF DISTRICT MIN-ERS IN TAMAR AND TAVI AREA IN THE 19th And EARLY 20th CENTURIES       By Vanni Cooke

VANNI COOKE : Her creative and research background has shaped her interests in the social im-portance and value of local heritage empowering specific target audiences to build bridges between the past, present and the communities that they live in.

TALK:  The talk will revisit the family histories and anecdotes shared with Jo Selman and Vanni (Myfanwy Cook) when carrying out research for the Tamar Valley Mining Heritage Project report (TVMHP)Phase 1 in 2007/2008 and Phase 2 in 2011/2012  (TV01005560) on behalf of Barry Gamble of the TVMHP.

 

JUL 20th SEEKING MEA ALLEN: FLEET STREET’S FORGOTTEN PIONEER            By  Felicity Goodall

FELICITY GOODALL:  Former journalist and foreign correspondent, author of six books, a play and several pantomimes. A former BBC Radio 4 Arts Producer, she has also worked in television.

TALK:  My new book- Seeking Mea Allan: Fleet Street’s Forgotten Pioneer is out on Ju-ly 6th this year. It is the account of uncovering the life of the only woman to report from Belsen, a woman who went on to report on the Belsen War Crimes trial and after the war became a gardening writer and was known as The Gardener’s Biographer. It is also a sto-ry of forbidden love, prejudice and the treasures to be uncovered in archives.

 

JUL 27th RAILWAYS FROM LOSTWITHIEL TO CHINA CLAY    By Bernard Mills                                      

BERNARD MILLS: Railwayman of 57 years railway service, Bernard worked in the ticket office at Tavistock North for the last 18 months of the station’s life. He always took a camera to work and as a lifelong railway enthusiast has been photographing railways for the better part of 6 decades. He has written a number of books on railways.

TALK:  The talk is a look at the railways that served the china clay area, some long gone, by way of a journey from Lostwithiel to Fowey and then over the former line to St. Blazey. We then visit Par Harbour to see Judy and Alfred in action including very rare pictures of Judy working the short branch to Par Moor. We then move on up the still ex-tant Newquay branch to examine in detail the now long gone and mostly eradicated branches to Carbean Wharf and Carbis Wharf, with some eye catching views of both then and now .

 

 

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