Category Archives: People

Church Matters


Church Matters

There are times when I’m intrigued by the lives of well-known personalities. So often they can be seen to be achieving so much in their lives, and yet at times there emerges the frailties that they can suffer in their more private moments. There can be no doubting the influence and success that they have, but we don’t often catch a glimpse of the inner person that may be quietly plagued with doubt and fear.

I recently came across a Guardian newspaper interview with Lisa Brennan-Jobs. I suspect that name will not be instantly recognisable, but Lisa is the daughter of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, the company that is now the largest in the world by market value (over 1 trillion dollars). He was in many senses a brilliant man – a visionary of how technology could be designed and produced to not only look and feel good, but effectively support new and effective ways of doing things. One well-known example was the launch of the iPhone back in 2007, a totally new approach to the mobile phone which changed the market completely. Since that time most mobile phone manufacturers try to out-do the latest iPhone with each release of a new product. Continue reading →

Minefield


Minefield

How can a soldier deal with memories of war? What memories do they repress – and which do they cherish?

Three Argentine and three British veterans from both sides of the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas conflict came together for this remarkable show exploring the treacherous minefield of their memories, through theatre, film and live rock music.

MINEFIELD is an enthralling piece of documentary theatre by Argentinian actor and director Lola Arias – compassionate, cathartic and astonishingly moving. Performed to enormous acclaim in both Britain and Argentina and have taken the crew on tour to Paris, Frankfurt, Angers and Montpellier. The show takes you from the horrors of the battlefield to today’s uncertainties, with brutal honesty and startling humour. See more here

Cast: David Jackson, Lou Armour, Gabriel Sagastume, Ruben Otero, Sukrim Rai, Marcelo Vallejo

Dave Jackson lives in Trevigro, Congratulations on the success of Minefield and the wedding of your daughter in September. What an amazing time for you all.

Third Light


Third Light A play by local Linkinhorne resident and historian Simon Parker was at The Minack Theatre September 10 -14th.

Amongst the 13 soldier cast, is local lad Thomas Bariball from Polhilsa.

Imagine a Cornish village whose men all came home from the trenches. Imagine a war memorial honouring the living, not the dead. Imagine a place symbolising hope amid horror. Through immersive drama, live brass band and contemporary dance, Third Light tells the unique and moving story of Herodsfoot. A play based on the true story of the thirteen men of Herodsfoot, who went to serve in the First World War and all came home. Conceived and written by local Linkinhorne historian, directed by Nicola Rosewarne, choreographed by Ben Dunks, designed by Meier Williams, produced by Sarah Pym. Performed by an ensemble of professional and community actors and dancers, with music played live by St Pinnock Brass Band led by David Johnson. Continue reading →

Commonwealth War Graves


Commonwealth War Graves

Some of you will have seen the Commonwealth War Graves Commission sign which has gone up outside St Sampson’s church. If you try to find the usual Portland stone headstones you will search in vain.

John Henry Rogers and Aaron Dennis are commemorated in the churchyard not with official war commission memorials but with personal gravestones.  There are no Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials in St Sampson’s churchyard.

John Henry Dennis was Chief Stoker aboard HMS Earnest when he died on Tuesday 8th February 1916, age 39.

Aaron Rogers was a Petty Officer, on HMS Vivid, who died on Thursday February 10th, age 40.

For reasons unknown, neither of these men’s names appears on the war memorial in Golberdon.

Their graves can be found in the churchyard next to each other in the row of graves nearest to the road wall.

 

Thank You Miranda Lawrence-Owen for this information.

Percy Jenkin


The final resting place of Percy Jenkin

Percy’s parents, James and Mary Jenkin lived at Lower Downgate with their four daughters and five sons, most of whom who were born there and all baptised, either at home or Downgate Chapel, as Bible Christians. James was a miner although a few years later, he was recorded as being an invalid. That didn’t stop his eldest son George working in the mines too. Next in the family was Alfred who joined the Territorial Force. Then came Ephraim who joined the Royal Navy and was a stoker, first class, on HMS Vivid. Percy was next and he went to work for Mr. Lawry Rickard as a live-in waggonner at Manaton. The youngest brother Stanley got work at Trewassick for Mr. Nicholas Coad. He lived in, and looked after their cattle. Continue reading →

Adventures in Portugal


Some of you might remember me

as Fiona Petto, from the days of the Scorpion Inn back in the 60s when my parents (John & Toinette) bought it and built on the Yew Tree dance hall but that is another story. Years past, I married Adrian (Adie) Wisher, had children and moved to Dorset where this story begins.

Continue reading →

Callington Primary School 1975 photo


Callington Primary School Team 1975

Teacher Mr Atkinson, Chris Thorpe, Brian Rickard, Robert Smith, James Lonsdale, Paul Harrison

Glyn Reynolds, Simon Thompson, Neil Mutton, Colin Barrett, Merv Olver, Simon Robbins.

 

Marathon Runner Cllr. Sharon Daw


>52 marathons in 46 weeks<

2017 got off to the worst start and 52 x 52! never entered my mind. And only doing two marathons in the first 4 months, along with the ensuing elections, both local and general, I had a lot to get on with. On top of delivering 10 yellow pages rounds and 5000 magazines to Plymouth surrounding area I was keeping busy albeit not running. Well 52 in 52! was a wild idea, not having any idea of what it meant and number 3 came on 6th May quite unintentionally. Really I’d entered the ox half but ran the ox 12 hour instead and felt awful leggy and tired and breathless. It was a struggle. I walked a lot and was so glad when completed. As I drove home I just couldn’t understand what was wrong. I’d been ill for 2 years with many trips to doctor and consultant, never actually proving very much other than ischemic heart disease, coming about during the heart break heartbreaker. Good run to have a mini stoke/ heart attack but the tracing looked awful and sent panic around the doctors the next day!

I felt awful, ran terrible and was coming to terms that 2016 would be the last year of running marathons and just had to deal with it the best I could. Loosing Marty on 4th January 2017 just added to my torment and headed deep down to the deepest darkest place I’ve ever been, and I’ve got to be honest I still wonder today how I’m actually still here to tell this story.

Dragging my body and weak mind around races was torment. I felt terrible in mind, body and soul and just didn’t know which way to go. I had highs but mostly lows and anyone with mental health knows how low you go and how hard it is to lift one’s spirit when there is so much negativity around. I hated my life, what I did and who I was. I just could not focus or think rationally and just wondered on. To my surprise, and still taking it in, I got elected on council, I don’t know why. Such a shock and with my mental state it took two weeks to sink in. Continue reading →

Family Connections Guest Book


Family Connections.

DID YOU KNOW that there is a South Hill Guest Book linked to the South Hill Connection website?

Our Guest Book link has been tucked away at the bottom right hand corner of the Home page, and as the list of up-coming events has got longer, the Guest Book has been pushed almost into oblivion!   I will shortly be editing the page to bring it back into the limelight.

Entries are moderated, so only bona fide comments are visible to the public.

Recently, there have been a couple of new entries on the Guest Book. In September a message was left by Elizabeth Myers in Cheshire:

My paternal grandmother (nee Elizabeth Lark) was Cornish and her (very faded) baptism certificate states that she was baptised on the 14th November 1856 in (what looks like) “Lanteague” in the parish of South Hill. The minister’s name is also unreadable. Does Lanteague or a similar name ring bells with anyone please, I would love to know? My family history researches are extensive but this is still a mystery. She and my grandfather John Myers settled in his home town of Dalton-in-Furness in what is now Cumbria. Many thanks.

And in November, from Joy Hungerford in Kent:

My SYMONS family come from South Hill; earliest known, John, b about 1600, then Sampson, Sampson (whose Will mentions Higher Manaton and Maders), Rachel (who married William WEARING). Continue reading →

Astrid the Plankton Analyst


When friends ask me what I do, I normally say I work at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, as a plankton analyst. People always look at me puzzled, then I explain, and soon they are fascinated.

When at the seaside, you see the beach and the ocean, but you fail to realise the plankton that is out there and the important role it plays. Plankton comes from the Greek ‘planktos’ which means ‘to drift’, plankton are the tiny organisms that drift on the currents in the ocean. There is phytoplankton, which is plant plankton and zooplankton, which is animal plankton. They are tiny organisms, not seen by the naked eye.

The Victorians already knew about their beauty and made diatom slides, which took a tremendous amount of effort to make, shifting individual plankton cells into an arrangement. www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/slideexb.htm

People do not realise that plankton produce every other breathe we take. We worry about the rainforest, as it is so visual, but we forget about the other major contributor to our oxygen production, the tiny plankton that live in the sea.

There is more life in a drop of seawater than anyone realises. Continue reading →