Links to Articles
The Chapel
Miracle
by Ted Curnow
Aussie's
Cousin Jacks
by Ted Curnow
Cornish Gold Fever
By Ted Curnow
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Cornwall: Land of gods and
Christian revival
Cornish News from Cr Adam Paynter who
visited Victoria
Easter 2018.
Cornish Music Research |
Read the
Article written by Ted Curnow in July 2019 Click
Here
Hot News Bites from Cornwall.
In May 2017 Liberal-Democrats with Independents
became leaders in Cornwall. Cr Adam Paynter became
the leader of the Cornwall Council. Adam and his
family visited Melbourne during Easter 2018 and
mentioned some exciting current projects.
A European Space Station.
Seven places including Scotland, California and
Mexico are bidding for the privilege to build a
space station but Cornwall with Goonhilly close by
is well positioned. The British parliament have
passed a Space Industry Bill officially allowing
for the possibility of the first European Space
Station to be built near Newquay by 2020.
The Project offers two services. Virgin Galactic
(passenger) with Richard Branson and another pilot
offering six paying passengers the ride of their
life-time. Virgin Orbit (commercial) with a rocket
launched from a Jumbo will release a White Knight
aircraft that will in turn launch satellites and
commercial, scientific devises.
The European Space Programme is separate from
BREXIT so that is not a problem. Funding is a
factor. A further announcement is pending.
Wave Hub.
An energy generator called a Wave Hub that
harnesses water flow energy has been located 7 km
off the Cornish coast has been operating for some
time but has met with limited success. The salt
water component has proved difficult. Government
has given the Hub to Cornwall Council with a gift
of ??14 million pounds. The project may have to
close and be replaced with wind turbines. An
Australian company has not helped by detracting
one financial investor.
Recycling
The recycling of waste at St Dennis has been a
success. Set up in mid 2000 it is processing
170,000 tons of waste each year and feeding energy
into the grid.
Motorways
Work on major roads and A30 continues. After
spending ??60,000,000 the roadway at Temple is now
free-moving. Of this Cornwall Council contributed
??10 million; the central government the rest.
Stadium for Cornwall
Cornwall is the only county in the UK without a
stadium and to build one would cost ??14
million pounds. It will be financed by
Truro-Penwith College and two sports clubs: Truro
City Soccer and Penzance Cornish Pirates rugby.
The venue will be used as both as a training and
concert centre.
Hall of Cornwall
The theatre venue only currently holds 900 people.
It will be closed for 2 years for expansion. This
will enable it to attract bigger productions. The
project will cost ??17 million pounds; the Council
will contribute 2 million. A vote on this project
is pending on 17 April.
South Crofty Mine.
The mineral Lithium has been found in the water
that fills the mine. Harvesting the lithium will
make the pumping out operation cost effective.
Drying the mine out will lead to the sale of
copper and tin. A New Zealand company currently
own South Crofty.
Lib-Dem???s Goals.
Goals to put people first include
(1) Pledge to build 1,000 affordable houses and to
invest in excess of ??200 million pounds. Bard
John Pollard is advocating Cornish contemporary
living at Hayle. About 175 houses planned for
Launceston.
(2) Increase Adult Social Care.
(3) Implement Foundation Living Wage. Over 4
years Council will invest millions of pounds in
this project. Average wage is currently ??17,000
while nationally the average is ??24,000. This,
with higher house prices, makes living difficult
in Cornwall. The concept is to process the minimum
wage to a realistic living wage.
E.A. (Ted) Curnow
tedcurnow.wordpress.com
As we heard at the CAV July meeting, Kate Neal is
a PhD student in ethnomusicology at Cardiff
University. Her studies centre on how
???little Cornwalls??? worldwide retained cultural
characteristics and practices from home, in
particular music. The working title for her
project is Distant Cousins: Music,
Identity and Community in the Cornish Diaspora.
While in Australia Kate attended
the Kernewek Lowender Festival and had the
opportunity to make connections with various
Australian Cornish groups. At CAV she
discovered some gems in the Library, including our
sheet music collection and was able to talk to
several members with an interest in Cornish
musical heritage.
More information is available on her
website: http://kateneale.co.uk/phd-project/
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Celebrating a
Festival Time
Cornish Conscription and new Book
Latest Cornish News
Refresh Cornish Vic
Cornish Record Office to move
Pasty Headlines
The Chapel Miracle
by Ted Curnow
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Plenty of pasty
and a good deal of excitement mark the Cornish
Copper Coast on Yorke Peninsula in South
Australia every second year at the Kernewek
Lowender. Thirty five thousand visitors
converge on Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo to
celebrate their Cornish roots and settlement
in the early mining towns. Amid the heritage
events and wide ranging commercial activities
the festival programme lists a Spiritual
Retreat sponsored by the Fellowship of St
Piran-Australia and that in the past has been
led by a number of Uniting Church ministers.
The Retreat has now taken place over three
festivals and has become a helpful
illustration of how a planned Christian
activity and presence can be incorporated as
legitimate part of what is largely a secular
festival. The focus has never been on
attracting large numbers but on injecting
something relevant of Christian content into a
celebration where large numbers of people
gather.
Held in the old Moonta Mines Uniting Church
hall during the first two days of the festival
the retreat provides an excellent reflective
introduction to the rest of the week???s
festivities. Co-ordinated by Rev Matt Curnow
the official Kernewek Lowender programme
described the retreat as a two day prayer
experience of listening to the story of the
formative influences on the modern church in
Cornwall in the setting when early Cornish
settlers adapted their faith to the Australian
landscape. In a diverse secular,
multi-cultural world, celebrating the
significance of our national Christian
heritage without apology is of increasing
importance.
This year the focus was on the Cornish saints
and the spiritual development in Cornwall from
the Reformation to the Wesley???s. At the end
of the period participants were invited to
express their response to the Retreat in
various forms. Three samples included the
following.
Ian from Adelaide was captured by the concept
of a new expression of Celtic monasticism. He
drew a picture of his local church as a
central community with its families and
activities linked together in a way that was
typical of the worship and practise of early
Celtic monks, the way they served each other
and the world.
Susan from New South Wales drew four boxes
with different headings. All Celtic Saints, St
Brendon the navigator, Martyrdom/ Polycarp of
Smyrna, and then Wesley???s Travels. In the
middle she placed a cross with the word
???WHY???? Underneath she wrote, ???For the
love of their Lord.???
From Victoria Rev Ted Curnow created a verse
around Wesley???s hymn, My Chains Fell Off
(MHB 375).
Following the 2015 Kernewek Lowender on 28th
May I attended the Dunstan Foundation History
Lecture delivered by Philip Payton on ???WW1
Conscription Crisis in Mining towns of Yorke
Peninsula.??? It was a stunning, animated,
well received lecture hosted by Lyn Arnold an
Ex-Premier of South Australia. Philip
explained how the link between Methodism and
the Labour movement promoted by John Veran was
split asunder in 1916 by the conscription
issue.
The 1891 Census had showed that 80% of Moonta,
Wallaroo and Kadina were Methodist. It was
clearly Methodist heartland and Methodist
leadership was strongly pro- conscription. The
Cornish however voted an overwhelming NO! The
full story will be told in a book to be
published later in the year. The evening
finished well for me because Lyn Arnold
ordered a copy of my book ???Bible Christian
Methodists in South Australia 1850-1900. A
Biography of Chapels and their
people.??? I will be sharing a few
Colonial pioneering stories at the Victorian
Association meeting in September and the
official launch is planned for October 11th in
South Australia.
European Parliament's call to protect
"endangered" Cornish language
The European Parliament is to call on
governments to do more to preserve regional
languages such as Cornish, which is described
as ???endangered.???
The move follows a report by the United
Nations cultural body UNESCO, which said the
Cornish language was ???endangered???.
Read
the full story from The West Briton
Ancient site of culture was a fine choice
for 2013 ceremony
Eighteen new bards were
inaugurated at the annual Cornish Gorsedh held in
Penryn on Saturday. (See below)
A gathering of more than 120 bards processed to
the annual ceremony, this year held on the site of
the old Glasney College, a collegiate church
founded in 1265 which could be said to be
Cornwall's first university.
Read
the full report from This is Cornwall
World War II prisoner's coded letters
Coded letters sent from a British prisoner of war
to his parents in Cornwall have been deciphered
thanks to academics at Plymouth University.
The
story is from BBC News
Over the past
couple of years, the Committee of the CAV has been looking at
ways
of promoting an interest in all things Cornish
through research, festivals, special projects
and activities as well as aiming to boost its
membership.
To this end, members were asked for ideas
through a process called, 'Refresh Cornish Vic'.
Questionnaires were completed and collated and
many suggestions made.
Click here to read
contributions.
(1) A PASTY
MUSEUM is being built in the most unlikely
place, Real del Monte in Mexico.
In the early 1800's Cornish miners headed
to the region to rebuild its mining
industry. The museum will include a
restaurant, craft workshop, a children's
play area and activity centre. Visitors
will also be able to try their hand at
pasty making.
See
report
(2) The British Government didn't realize
that in proposing a tax on pasties it
would walk into a minefield and trample on
a cherished Cornish symbol. Anyway the
Government has backed down on the idea and
an estimated 1,100 Cornish jobs are
secure.
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Ted writes:
Behind
the old Miners Chapel built on
stories of Cornish Saints and past
revivals
I
encountered another miracle true.
The long, slender arched leaf of the
eucalypt,
beautiful in proportion, diminished to
a point.
The yellow vein followed the curl in
the leaf
to merge with a bold red stalk,
a junction of four leaves and a nutty
green fruit.
From the top of the fruit five
separate explosions.
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Aussie's Cousin Jacks
by Ted Curnow
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Ted writes:
The 2011
Kernewek Lowender in South
Australia???s Copper Triangle
(May10-15) still claims to be the
biggest Cornish Festival in the world
and with some of our family in tow it
was certainly the biggest logistical
exercise we had undertaken for some
time. With growing grandchildren it
was time for some of them to
experience a little of the fruit of
their Cornish heritage.
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Cornish Gold Fever
2010
by Ted Curnow |
Ted writes:
One hundred and fifty-nine years after the first
rush, the fever struck again, and on Tuesday 20th
April at 10 am we headed north as 'diggers' with
Robin and Bronwyn Pryor to unearth a little more
of our common Cornish heritage. There are
thousands of descendants of early diggers all
around the world who have a connection with
Castlemaine.
My enquiry and interest in the Victorian gold
towns had arisen out of reasonable speculation,
where the Pryors had clear evidence of their
families' participation.......Read the article
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