St Tudy Historical Society
Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/sttudyhistory
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HOW WE STARTED
Some years ago, conversations about the War Memorial led to a desire amongst some of St Tudy’s residents to know more about the men who had lost their lives during the two World Wars. Soon after, a meeting of this group of villagers was held and Chris Selby agreed to set up the St. Tudy Historical Society to discover, preserve and disseminate the history of the Parish of St Tudy while also fostering an interest in Cornish and wider history, in addition to honouring our Fallen.
REMEMBRANCE EVENTS
The Society have been pro-active in honouring the individual 100th Anniversaries of those who died in the 1914-1918 War.
In 2018/2019 fundraising events were held so that Lt Atkinson’s name could be added to the War Memorial.
After the Remembrance Day service commemorating the end of the Great War on Sunday November 11th, 2018, a display of the biographies and photos of those who gave their lives in that conflict was displayed in the Village Hall.
In June 2019 we commemorated ‘D-Day 75’ with a garden party at the Village Hall and an exhibition of the events of June 1944.
In 2020, due to lockdown, VE75 and VJ75 were commemorated with outdoor services and exhibitions.
In addition, the Society has produced two volumes of ‘The Fallen,’ being booklets about the lives and military service of those named on our War Memorial.
OTHER PROJECTS & EVENTS
The Society undertakes projects of a wide variety. The aim of many of these is to add to our understanding of the history the village and parish of St Tudy, and to share this with village residents through social events.
We assisted the ladies of the St Tudy Women’s Institute to replicate, reprint and digitise the WI Scrapbook which had been handwritten in 1951.
In 2017 the Historical Society compiled an updated guidebook to St Tudy Parish Church and, in conjunction with the Parish Council, we participate in an on-going project to map graves in the Churchyard.
The group has compiled a history of several buildings in Churchtown to create a Village Trail. This was the basis of a walkabout tour in June 2018 for members of the Cornwall Association of Local Historians.
Two Archaeological projects have been undertaken in the parish. ‘Digging for History’ in 2017 involved scientifically digging test pits in three locations within the village, and in 2019 a geophysical survey was undertaken at Tinten Manor Farm, to locate the site of the medieval Manor House.
We have an Annual Outing. Our visits have included the Cornwall Records Office, Wetherham, Killerton House, Pencarrow, Finches Foundry, Kresen Kernow and Hartland Abbey. These outings usually take place during the third week in July and are open to all.
With the lifting of Covid restrictions, 2022 proved to be a very busy year.
January saw the inauguration of a monthly Members’ Newsletter, full of history related articles and snippets.
On 26th February 2022 we arranged a village get together to see the re-planting of our famous Chestnut Tree. This sapling was the third generation of the original tree, grown from a conker collected near Ypres in WW1 and planted near the War Memorial in 1921.
Our first May Day Fayre was held on Sunday 1st of May with displays by Morris Dancers, Cornish Wrestlers, stalls, various entertainments, and refreshments. It proved to be so popular that we aim to make it an annual event.
On June 9th we celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with the lighting of a Platinum Jubilee Beacon on the highest point of Head Hill, close to a field named Beacon Park on the 1839 Tithe Map. It was clearly visible from the Village Hall where we held our evening celebrations, enhanced by a display of the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
In August, another new venture when the Historical Society published their first Calendar, full of village ‘Then & Now’ photographs.
In October 2022 we installed a replica of the vintage AA road sign that had ‘gone missing’ in the 1970s. In attendance were a motorbike and sidecar from the Historical Department of the AA, the 1932 Austin Burnham once driven by Dr. Bailey, the village doctor, and several members of the Austin 7 Club. The cavalcade drove around the village before repairing to the St. Tudy Inn for refreshments
OUR MEETINGS
The St Tudy Historical Society meets in the Village Hall at 7:30pm on the last Monday of each month (except August and December) at which non-members are very welcome to join us. We always have a speaker, usually a guest but sometimes a member of the group, in the hope that everyone will find something of interest in our programme.
Talks given by members have covered the History of St Tudy School; Colonel Toots Williams' trek across Italy to escape in WW2; Bell Ringing, and many other historical subjects. Our guest speakers have always given us inspiring informative evenings, which have included:
The prehistory of St Tudy and its locality
The Clink and Church Houses
The rebellious Cornish, including Trelawney
Cornish Droll Tellers
The History of the Royal Cornwall Show
Town Houses of the Robartes
400th anniversary of the Mayflower sailing
History of Women in the Police Force
South – The original film of the 1914-1916 Antarctic exploration mission of Sir Ernest Shackleton
A full list of our talks including those of the coming year are on our website.
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