Court Goodwill 5077, the East Cornwall branch of the Foresters Friendly Society, held a successful annual general meeting on Sunday, April 6, at Liskeard Town Hall.

Outgoing Chief Ranger (chair), Sister Pat O’Connor, opened the meeting at 2pm and led members in a minute’s silence in memory of a recently departed member.

The meeting concluded with the annual change of officers, with Sister Joan Thomas installed as the new Chief Ranger. A raffle held in aid of Cornwall Hospice Care, Joan’s nominated charity for the year, raised £37.

Trish Shanks opened the February meeting by welcoming some new members and visitors along with regular members. Our speaker was Katie Mansford-Clark. She was a veterinary nurse for 25 years in Surrey before she moved to St Giles. She now runs her own mobile Pet Service. She came and gave us a talk about pet first aid. She showed us a pet first aid kit including items for minor stings, wounds and some bleeding. She talked about bandages and the "cone of shame" to stop pets licking their wounds. She also dealt with major wounds, seizures, abscesses, snake bites, poisoning and heat stroke. It was a very interesting and informative talk even if you didn't have a pet at the moment. We all thanked her for coming along.

The flower competition was 1st Sue Williams, 2nd Maxine Towl and 3rd Liz Fisher.

In the March meeting Wendy Redwod gave us a talk about "Caring for our precious feet", she runs the South West Podiatry Clinic at Homeleigh .

We then had a Bring ad Buy sale with proceeds going to the community group we are supporting this year, the Launceston Youth Musical Theatre.

The flower competition was: 1st Margaret Ellacott, 2nd Maxine Towl and 3rd Sue Williams. The next meeting was due to be held on Tuesday April 15, with Graham Parker on "Nina the Barn Owl".

The meeting closed at 9.30pm.

Bude-Stratton Old Cornwall Society held its March meeting at the Parkhouse Centre on Monday, March 31.

The chairman, Alan McIntosh, introduced the speaker, Carole Wakefield, who gave a broad ranging talk entitled “Bude from backwater to up and coming resort in one century”. There were 35 members and visitors in attendance, and they were treated to a gallop through Bude in the nineteenth century peppered with anecdotes drawn from newspapers of the time.

The talk was a series of snapshots of Bude as a tourist destination across the century. It’s two main premises were: that the scope for tourism increased as Bude became easier and quicker to get to, because of improved roads and the railway network becoming ever closer over time and that the range and volume of visitors increased as legislation gave greater time off to workers and it became more common for them to take holidays.

Sketch maps were used to explain the growth of the town including homes, tourist accommodation and facilities. The types of visitors were examined and their expectations from a resort were compared against the facilities Bude provided. From this the talk described the changes that occurred across the century, highlighting both the structures in place to drive improvement (or in some cases hinder it) and some of the main characters involved. The sorry state of drainage and its slow and sometimes contentious improvement was used as a case study to explain the transition from the Board of Guardians to the Bude Improvement Committee. John Arscott of Tetcott, the Reverend William Maskell of the Castle, the Acland family, the Thynne family, Nanny Moore and her daughter Harriet Brinton, the Brendon family and Arthur Mills, among others, all featured.

The talk closed by highlighting the major impact the railway arriving in Bude in 1898 had on tourism. It reflected that at the end of the 19th century there was still a lot more to be done to turn Bude into a holiday resort – there was no running water, the ever expanding town was overloading the sewage system which had been introduced in the late 1870s, there was insufficient reasonably priced short-stay accommodation for visitors and much more was needed to keep visitors entertained.

After the talk there was a lively discussion among the audience helped by long standing Bude family members, including David Thorn, Michael Heard and Mike Keat amongst others. Finally the raffle was drawn by Dennis Balsdon with help from Alan McIntosh, and Rose McIntosh kindly served refreshments. The next talk will be at 7pm on Monday, April 28, by Philippa Gerry Fitzpatrick and Val Russell entitled “George Hambly’s Book – The Life and Times of the Master of Bude Hobble Boat”.

On March 16 the village WI celebrated its 80th birthday at the Parish Hall.

As you would expect it was done in style with guests including the two co-chairs of Cornwall Federation and representatives of Bude, Marhamchuch and Morwenstow WI's. Eightieth anniversaries are “oak” and, as there are ruby oaks, the theme for the party was oak and red with these displayed in abundance in the table decorations and the clothes and accessories worn by the members and their guests.

After the singing of Jerusalem, everyone sat down to a high tea beautifully prepared by the Entertainment Committee. This was followed by an address from our President, Sue Dickenson, who gave a very brief history of the WI which was formed on March 16, 1945. Amongst it’s many achievements was the weekly fish delivery to the village by McFisheries. Immediately post-war this very important as no fresh fish was available. It also contacted the Telephone Exchange Manager for the restoration of the light in the village telephone kiosk as well as arranging for the path to the Rectory Room to be repaired.

Following a toast (with Prosecco!) to the next 80 years, the president asked Linda Cobbledick, one of our members and whose grandmother had been the very first President back in 1945 and Valerie Wonnacott, a member of Marhamchurch WI and whose grandmother had also been a member of that first WI, to jointly cut the birthday cake. The joint co-chairs then very kindly held a brief question and answer session emphasising that, although the Federation head office is in Truro, they wanted WI's in the north and east of Cornwall not to feel left out of activities. Sincere thank you's were given by them and the other WI's for the welcome and food they had received. An afternoon that was enjoyed by all.

Holsworthy Hamlets flower club welcomed Charlotte Dawe for our April meeting, who entertained the audience with her demonstration “April availability “

Charlotte’s first arrangement was a spring design created using chicken wire in a pink trough. Forsythia, Butterfly ranunculi, anemones, hyacinths, narcissi and double headed tulips alongside Tom Thumb pittosporum and thlaspi filled the container, with moss placed in among the flowers to finish off.

The following three arrangements consisted of an Easter themed design constructed within and around an egg shaped metal frame encased in a birch circle, a trailing arrangement hanging from a tripod which was decorated with twigs and a contemporary vertical design in a tall, round pink receptacle. The array of flowers and foliage used included griselinia, conifer, euonymus, pussy willow, Lillies, lemon germini’s, Lisianthus, stocks, viburnum opulous, alliums, snap dragons, anthuriums, China grass, eucalyptus parvi, pinhead protea’s, French tulips, cymbidium orchids and orange chincherinchees.

The final masterpiece was constructed in a tin bucket, it was a tall traditional design using modern materials, and a stunning colour theme of peaches and blues. The flowers and foliage of choice this time were ruscus, blossom twigs, eucalyptus, skimmia, philodendron leaf, delphiniums, hydrangeas, peach roses, chrysanthemums, sea holly, hypericum berry’s and Sandinista chrysanthemums.

The evening concluded with Sylvia Harris thanking Charlotte for bringing to Holsworthy such beautiful and different flowers and floristry styles.

Following the business meeting including future events taking place over the next couple of months, Craig Lang from the Devon and Cornwall Cyber Crime Unit came to give us some extremely helpful information to keep us safe from cyber crime.

We were told that there were five major mistakes people make when online, these were:

Having a weak password, not having antivirus, not updating software, not backing up data and clicking on links and attachments: You wouldn’t let a stranger into your home. Why let them onto your computer?

Victims of cyber crime or fraud Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre, or report online at www.actionfraud.police.uk or telephone on 0300 123 2040.

April competition winners were:

Flower of the month 1st Jean Hoare, 2nd Sue Turpin, 3rd Verna Dawe.

A hand-made lavender bag: 1st Alison Willis, 2nd Verna Dawe.

Next meeting Wednesday, May 14, 7.15pm in Millennium House, which will be the AGM and birthday social evening with a bring and share supper. Competitions: Flower of the month and ‘my most treasured possession’.