poetry

Lucille Opie, a staunch Cornish woman with a long history of mining in her family, was born at Redruth in 1929 and educated at Truro County School. She has lived at Bude in North Cornwall since her marriage and is now enjoying her retirement from teaching. Her interests are many, being a working member of several organisations in Bude.Lucille was secretary of the Bude Old Cornwall Society for some years during which time she compiled and wrote, with fellow OCS member Kenneth Hargrove, the book ‘Around Bude’ for the Bude OCS. Recently she was persuaded to join a U3A poetry group, having written several poems over the years. Lucille has a strong love for Cornwall and its people and appreciates its beauty very much, especially that of the North Cornish coast, hence the inspiration to write this poem.

The Cornish Chough : by John Harris

John Harris was born in 1820 at Bolennowe just on the outskirts of Troon. Apart from a few years education with a pensioned off miner and other inadequate teachers he was entirely self educated. Like all children of that time he was put to work at the age of nine and was underground at Dolcoath copper mine by the time he was thirteen working with his father. John wrote his poetry on roof slates iron wedges and at croust time even on the inside of his hat. He collected Blackberries and used the juice as his ink. his day would start well before sun up with the walk from his home to the mine. He would then climb down the shaft and do a days work then climb up and walk home. This life had its affect and by the time he was thirty three he was almost spent. A local Methodist Minister saw some of John's poems and liked them. He set about raising money to have some of them put into a book and changed John's life. Altogether there were fifteen volumes of John Harris's work published and he was able to give up working in the mine and went on to live till he was sixty four.

Let's Experience Cornwall By Les Merton

Bardic Name: Map Hallow (Son of the Moor)

Les Merton was born in 1944 on Medlyn Moor, between Falmouth and Helston. He began writing poetry during a serious illness when he was just sixteen, with his first three poems being about death. Les says that they werenever submitted for publication. However, his experiences in the University of Life shows in the depth and colour of his poems. A range of diverse occupations from the youngest manager of a Co-op store, via coalman to fortune teller, and in between times being a single parent with the responsibility of bringing up three daughters is there to see, but his deep love for his homeland is conveyed in the poem chosen for this site.
His first published poetry collection, Cornflakes and Toast, was published
by The National Poetry Foundation in 2000. Since then his published works
include dialect books, Missus Laity's Tay Room and Oall Rite Me Ansum! a book on the Cornish Chough, The Spirit of a King and another on the Adder, Adders in Cornwall,
Les has now undertaken the task of editing Bardhonyeth Kernow's Poetry
Cornwall magazine, and the new anthology from Bluechrome, 101 Poets for a Cornish Assembly.
For a fuller biography and publications list click here.

The Quest of the Gwidgy-gwee: By Joseph Thomas 1840 - 1894.

Joseph Thomas was born at Clahar Garden in the Parish of Mullion, Cornwall
on July 28th 1840. He was educated at the school of Mr Robert Blight in Jordon Terrace,Penzance. Robert Blight was the father of artist and author John Blight.)
In 1866 Joseph moved to Liskeard where he trained to be a Land Agent and
Surveyor and, on completing his training, he was hired by Sir Edward St. Aubyn of St Michaels Mount.as an Assistant Agent.
He later became a lay preacher who loved to talk and mix with the working
people, from whom he collected many dialect words and phrases and also
recorded many of their superstitions beliefs and drolls. These he would
incorporate into poems which he wrote for the pleasure of his own family
and friends.When he died in 1894 his children gathered his poems together
and had them published in a little volume, with the enigmatic title
"Randigal Rhymes". The following poem is taken from the collection.
I have chosen to illustrate this with a painting by Walter Langley entitled
" The Sunny South." Whenever I see this painting - which hangs in the Penlee Gallery, Penzance - I think it perfectly illustrates the poem and its proposition of just what was a "Gwidgy-gwee".

St Ives, Cornwall : by Douglas Sladen

Douglas Sladen was born on February the 5, 1856 and christened in London. As a young man he emigrated to Australia and became a travel writer, author and editor of Who's Who between 1897-1899. In 1885 he wrote a book of poems entitled In Cornwall and Across the Sea from which this poem is taken. this was published by Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh of London and Sydney.He also wrote A Ballad for the Tercentenary of The Spanish Armada, which was published by the Alverton Press, in Penznace in 1888. He died in 1947 in Australia.

Trevithick Remembered 1801 - 2001

Cap'n Dick's Puffing Devil By David Oates, Camborne O.C.S.

Bardic Name: Kerdher Gonyow (Walker of the Moors).

David Oates recently retired as a School teacher from Camborne School. He lives at Troon and is a member of the Camborne O.C.S. He has written a number of books including "Echoes of an Age - The Story of Troon", The book traces the origins of this once great mining village on the hills above Camborne and takes a detailed and affectionate look at social life in the heyday of the mining industry. His second book was "Godrevy and Gwithian" a guided walk of the area with historical notes. His third publication is a book of poems entitled "Poems from the West" which included the wonderful poem "The Church of St Gwinear".

"Thou shoud'st have sen un Cap't Dick" by George Pritchard Redruth O.C.S.

The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies is a Registered Charity. No. 247283