Vic the Vaccy

This is amazing. 

My mother gave it to me when I was back in Cornwall last week.

It's a memoir written by a wartime evacuee from London called Vic Cummings. He and two of brothers were taken in by my Great Grandfather and Great Gran who owned a multi-generational farm in Cornwall. It's where my grandparents also lived and where my mother grew up.

It is frustratingly scant being just fifty pages or so. But from just this much I've learned a lot about some of my family members that I didn't know before. And there are wonderful descriptions of a working 1940s farm and Cornish village life too. Some stories range from the whimsical - like my Grandfather claiming he'd shot down a bomber after loosing off a couple of barrels at a low-flying Luftwaffe plane out to strafe the shipyards at Plymouth - to the darker and more visceral side of farm life when the slaughtering was done on site. But it's been a wonderful read.

And it's made me wonder whether we shoud all write a 'book of my life' for future generations to read?

Let's face it, people don't keep diaries like they used to. And you won't get an accurate view of everyday people's lives in the 21st century from reading social media.

I've been to so many places and experienced amazing things and met some wonderful people. Perhaps I should make a record of it? Just my childhood in Cornwall would make interesting reading I reckon.

Hmmm. Maybe I will.

Stones and Drones

Another video from my trip to Cornwall. Apart from catching up with immediate family - like mother and brother - this was something of a working mini-break as I needed some extra material for a book I've written and which my agent is currently pitching.

Enjoy the scenery.

And some photos:

Carwynnen Quoit

I wrote a whole blogpost about Cornish quoits vback in 2022 (see here). Also known as dolmens or table stones or cromlechs or portal stones, these are structures that feature a 'capstone' sitting flat on top of several upright stones.

No one is completely sure when, why and by whom the earliest dolmens were made. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place and some may have been erected as much as 7000 years ago.

However, we know precisely when Carwynnen Quoit (AKA the Giant's Quoit), near Camborne, was erected. It was 2014.

To be fair, it was there for a long time before that but it was knocked over by a tractor back in the late 1966. It then remained as nothing but a pile of stones for a long time. However, a campaign led by archaeologist Pip Richards got the quoit re-erected a decade ago. And, thankfully, there were old photographs to help make sure it was done correctly.

Pip got to see the final rebuild but, sadly, died a a couple of years later. She's actually buried in a corner of the field - now called 'Pip's Field' and an old schoolfriend of mine called Kevin Maegor was a pall bearer. 'She had a pagan funeral,' he told me. 'Her coffin was placed under the quoit and the assembled crowd sang folk songs accompanied by a fiddle band. A very moving yet different experience.'

The world needs more Pips.

A Tour of Helston

 A video walk about in the central area of Helston in Cornwall, one of the towns in which I grew up.

And a few photos from the day:

The mysterious Stone of Mawgan-in-Meneage

I'm on a whistlestop five day trip to Cornwall to conduct some research for a book project I've been writing for the past couple of years. More news on that as it happens.

Today I was out and about on The Lizard peninsula and, passing through the village of Mawgan-in-Meneage, I spotted this stone that I remembered from my youth.

The stone is inscribed but has been so worn by the Cornish weather that it is no longer readable. However, based on an old drawing and a photograph taken in 1936, it could have been a memorial stone to either 'Cnegumus son of Genaius' or 'Genaius son of Cnegumus'. The date of this inscription is not certain beyond having been carved before the twelfth century.

These days, there's a slate plaque at its foot that carries what we believe the inscription says plus a quote that I've not been able to source. 

Any ideas?

A pretty little village too.

Another rambling brambling ramble

Another rambling ramble.

Off to Cornwall

What it says on the tin.