WI members across the county have been treated to cookery demonstrations over a number of years when Coad’s Green cooks, Alison Gribble and Pat Mallett, have posed the question to audience members, ‘What’s in my Trolley?’. The question has been asked in a variety of ways, with Alison demonstrating the use of traditional techniques and ingredients and Pat demonstrating a contrasting approach, often introducing food stuffs that are less well-known.

This September, members were asked the question, ‘Should I put an Air Fryer in my Trolley?’ Two very successful demonstrations were held, one at Coad’s Green Village Hall, to an oversubscribed audience of seventy-five and a second one at Carnon Downs, to an audience of sixty. Alison made drop scones, Biscoff Rocky Road and barbecue pork. Pat used the air fryer to make chocolate brownies, cheese scones and meatballs. The audience were kept highly entertained with the rapport and banter between the two cooks and were very appreciative when taste testing the results.

Recipe sheets were made available and donations for these have raised the sum of £71 for the Cornwall Air Ambulance.

Pat and Allison are both members of the County Federation Craft and Cookery Committee and have announced, to the disappointment of those who have supported the occasions over the years, that this will be their final joint ‘ trolley’ demonstration. They wished to thank W.I. members for their help in setting up and providing refreshments at both venues.

Cornwall Councillor Adrian Parsons held an impromptu question and answers session at the September Altarnun Parish Council Meeting. Eighteen members of the public attended, and most, if not all, were up in arms against what looks like a ‘fait au complet’ in regard to National Highways proposed safety remedy for the A30 between Kennards House and Altarnun. Leaked plans and documents have revealed that these proposals definitely will close the central crossings and therefore redivert traffic through our rural communities. Former county councillor Vivyan Parsons pointed out that not only are the bye ways inadequate for the volume and size of vehicles, but it has been proven by past events that lengthy gridlocks can be guaranteed and there is likely to be constant maintenance and repair costs. A facet confirmed by Adrian, who advised that, within the proposals, £200,000 would be contributed by National Highways to Cornwall Council, a figure he deemed insignificant against the true cost which will fall back onto the Cornish Council Tax payers. The mood of the meeting was sour because after a period of more than 20 years, during which substantive schemes for a flyover at Plusha junction had been tabled by National Highways predecessors, we are now faced with a cheapskate solution to the safety issues that plague the A30 but possibly faced with far worse elsewhere. Whilst National Highways still threaten to engage with the local communities there appears to be a reticence on their behalf, being fully aware of the underlying feeling endorsed on many occasions by our elected officials. The groundswell within the room hoped that our new MP, Ben Maguire comes to the fore and will forcefully represent the views of his constituents to force a rethink, in whatever future negotiations National Highways see fit to enter into. Adrian confirmed that Ben fully understands local concerns.

Elsewhere in the meeting the clerk reported that Cornwall Council have received contact from the owners of the Methodist Chapel in Rose Hill, Altarnun, acknowledging the bad and dangerous state of repair that the building has fallen into. Apparently, they still live remotely, and it has not been advised what their clear intentions are. The parish council is keeping a close watch on things and will liaise with the local authority to ensure pressure is maintained to seek remedial works. Also reported was the conclusion of the removal, by Cornwall Council of all dangerous and unroadworthy vehicles from behind the flats at Penpont View.

The clerk also reported that Altarnun War Memorial will be the final parish heritage asset to be registered at the Land Registry. A move entirely supported by the War Memorials Trust who have granted custodianship of the memorial to the Parish Council.

Once again only two planning applications required councillors consideration, and they agreed consultee comments in support of both. The first being the redevelopment of a site at Moor View Barns to provide a rural supervisory dwelling for the applicants, Craig and Helga Crosland, and also for Shared Lives service users, referred by the Shared Lives Charity, who are under the care of Helga, who provides them with therapy at the property. Public comments of support have been received by Cornwall Council and councillors were all too pleased to follow suit. The second application related to a grant funded scheme for the construction of roofing to a cattle loafing yard at Dryworks, Bolventor intended for the reduction of fouled water runoff.

In conclusion to the meeting it was confirmed the next parish council meeting will be held on 2nd October 2024 at 7.30pm in Altarnun Village Hall. All are very welcome.

The September meeting took place in The Manor Suite at the rear of Holsworthy Memorial Hall attended by a number of members and visitors.

The speaker this month was Mr Paul Watts from Shebbear who gave a very interesting talk on ‘Drinking in Shebbear through the ages’ focusing on the public houses in the village and their numerous and varied landlords and ladies. It seems nothing is new in the behaviour of patrons and owners of such establishments.

The next meeting is to be held in the same venue featuring a talk by David Kendrick about Winston Churchill, the parliamentarian on October 10 and 7pm when visitors and members alike are welcome.

The Holsworthy Hamlets Flower Club met at Holsworthy Methodist Church Hall on Tuesday after a summer break. They were very pleased to welcome Julia Harrison from Exmouth. Her title "Through my Garden Gate" was the inspiration for all the arrangements. The first one depicted the Garden Gate with a selection of foliage and smaller garden flowers to complement yellow and orange carnations, with red, orange and striped germinis and yellow antirrhinums.

Many areas of the garden were visited, including the Raised Bed, in foliage and flowers and concluded with two arrangements depicting The Garden Arch. Amongst the foliage for this arrangement Julia used Acacia, Mimosa, Abelia and a herbaceous clematis to which she added white and pink carnations, lisianthus and roses. The members were interested to see Julia use foliage she could grow in South Devon which will not grow in our area. The chairman, Sylvia Harris thanked Julia for all the lovely arrangements, her gardening tips and entertaining thoughts throughout the demonstration. The members waited eagerly to see who may take home one of Julia's creations. A most enjoyable evening.

Members were reminded the next meeting on Tuesday, October 8, 7.30pm will be the AGM and members were encouraged to bring a six inch dish and foliage to take part in the 'Have a Go' workshop after the business meeting.

On Saturday, October 12, 6.30pm, at Stratton Community Hall, St Andrew’s Church there will be a Harvest Supper with table quiz and raffle.

Ploughman’s Supper with salads, pudding and first glass of wine. Tickets, in advance only, £12.50 from Jennie Coles 01288 359601, Val Barker 01288 353435, Stratton Stores or Ark Angel Bookshop in Bude. Licensed event wine £2.50 per glass or £10 a bottle.

On Thursday, September 19, the West Devon Walkers visited St. Swithin’s Church, Launcells, to have a guided tour of this ancient building. This came about because a few of the walkers came to enjoy our Flower Festival in July. Then they expressed the wish to visit the church again and learn more about its history.

The walkers came with necessary wet weather gear and walking boots in preparation for their day. They were welcomed by Margaret Bond who handed the proceedings over to Lilian Quinn and to Margaret Cleave who supplied the group with coffee and biscuits as Lilian began her talk.

Lilian began by talking about the Saxon beginnings of the church going on to the present day. After the brief talk, the visitors were invited to wander around the church, and to ask questions, which Lilian was able to answer as they all walked around the church. Interesting details were pointed out as they went.

The walkers visit ended with a ‘thank you’ to our St. Swithin’s members for their warm welcome to our visitors to this fascinating and historic place of worship.

Some of the walkers explored the churchyard, (always worth doing), before commencing their walk away from the church through the beautiful, scenic countryside surrounding the church.

THE village monthly Coffee Morning for the month was held on Thursday, September 5, in the Social Club.

Thank you to Lesley Coxon and John Cleave for hosting this month.

THE local arrangement service at the Methodist Chapel on Sunday, September 8, was led by Ruth Bealing and Karen Shepherd. Karen gave the welcome and Ruth read verses from the Bible.

The singing was led by Christine Tratt and Sandra Shepherd playing the keyboards and with Pamela Newton, Avril Glessing and John Cleave as vocalists.

Prayers of intercession were led by Karen. The lesson was read by Sue Banks.

Ruth gave an interesting PowerPoint presentation on literacy, showing that many hundreds of years ago, people suffered in their endeavours to translate the Bible from Latin into English.

Mary Care spoke on the benefits of literacy. The closing prayers were by Karen.

Tea and coffee were served after the service.

Our new Superintendent Circuit Minister, Rev Meg Slingo led her first service at Chilsworthy Methodist Chapel on Sunday, September 15. Karen Shepherd highlighted notices for the week and welcomed everyone to the service of Holy Communion.

The singing was led by Dionne Bere on the keyboard and Mark Shepherd on guitar and with Geoff Broome as vocalist.

The lessons were read by Lesley Coxon and Ros Watson.

The Holy Communion was administered by Rev Slingo and Karen Shepherd, with Mary Care acting as Communion Steward.

The tech desk was operated by Tim Watson.

Coffee and biscuits were shared after the service.

The Community Breakfast was held in The Chapel Stable on Saturday, September 21. Thank you to those responsible for preparing and serving the Breakfast. Community Breakfast's continue to be served in The Stable on the third Saturday of each month, There is no need to book and all are welcome.

PAUL Wreyford cycled from Bude to Chilsworthy on Sunday, September 22, to lead the service.

The welcomer was Pam Johns and the opening devotions and notices were by Ruth Bealing and Karen Shepherd.

The singing was led by Christine Tratt playing the keyboard and with Pamela Newton, Marlene Heard and Avril Glessing as vocalists.

The prayers of intercession were led by Ros Watson. The tech desk was manned by Tim Watson.

Coffee and biscuits were served at the close.

There was no service at Chilsworthy Chapel on Sunday, September 29, as we joined with our friends at Bodmin Street Methodist Church in Holsworthy for their Harvest Festival.

The latest meeting of the Bude WI was held at the Methodist Church Hall on the evening of September 10 and the president, Cynthia May, welcomed 60 members and two visitors.

She explained there was a gentlemen’s in their presence, the brother of the guest speaker, Rosemary Lee, and he was celebrating his birthday. The membership broke into an impromptu and very lively rendition of happy birthday. Everyone then stood to sing Jerusalem.

The meeting started with invitations to sign up to join in many county and local events, varying from walks and talks to theatre trips. The guest speaker was local author and well known traveller, Rosemary Lee. Rosemary’s talk was entitled “To the ends of the Earth”, which detailed two of Rosemary’s trips, one to the Falklands and the second to Antarctica. She detailed the history of Falklands Islands past, the horror of the war and its current prosperous position. This was explained in a fascinating way and illustrated with some amazing photos and videos of local wildlife. Mamie Wildman thanked Rosemary for a fascinating talk.

After a break for a drink and a chat with other members the minutes of the previous meeting were approved and signed. Then the competition winners were announced. The Flower of the Month was won by Monica Heywood, 2nd Gill Grant and 3rd Geraldine Edwards. The second competition, an unusual spoon, had the highest entry level for some time. This was won by Carol Sparham, 2nd Jackie Adams, 3rd Brenda Dunstan.

The next meeting will be held on October 8, 7.30pm and this will be the Harvest Festival with a pasty supper and a bring and buy stall. As usual guests are welcome at a small charge.

On his 14th birthday Jim Bischoff was given an 18th century French snuff box made of wood. Discovering that such snuff boxes had been made with different designs on the lid, he decided to collect all one hundred known designs. This led to a lifetime interest in antiques and collecting, and even eventually to Bude and District U3A’s September meeting where Jim spoke about his experiences and introduced the audience to mysterious objects which had been everyday household items in the Georgian and Victorian periods.

After taking part in the BBC’s Antique Masters competition in 2011, Jim, a retired teacher, became involved in valuing and cataloguing for sales at an auction house, manning a phone for telephone bidders during sales, and other aspects of the antiques trade. He still buys for others and collects for himself. He began his talk by answering the question he is asked most frequently – how to dispose of items when downsizing or clearing a house following a bereavement?

The family is the place to start, though often family members see no value in ancient furniture, in obsolete coins, or other things they’ve known all their lives. It is therefore important to get someone to look who knows what they are looking at. For example, gold sovereigns and half sovereigns are smaller than people expect, and are not necessarily recognised in a collection of old coins. Selling direct to a gold bullion dealer would avoid having to pay auction fees.

When it comes to auctions, the cost of selling on Ebay is approximately half of what it costs to sell through an auction house, but the seller has to do all the work of photographing, listing, and shipping the items. If dealing with an auction house, make sure they have a specialist – or can bring in a specialist - who can value your items and make sure they are catalogued correctly so that interested collectors can find them. Not all auction houses are so careful.

Jim then described how his French snuff box has been manufactured. Snuff boxes had previously been made of precious materials, often jewelled, and were associated with wealth. The French wooden ones manufactured between 1780 – 1840 used burl wood, heated in oil to make it pliable, then placed in a bronze press to add the design. The box would then be cut in half, hollowed out, and lined with tortoiseshell. Many of the bronze presses have been melted down but Jim has been fortunate to find one that exactly matches one of his boxes. He now has 332 wooden snuff boxes, all different designs. The book he consulted aged fourteen was inaccurate! Some boxes even have a second secret compartment.

There followed a discussion of the everyday items which U3A members had been examining and attempting to identify. Kitchen items included a marrow scoop, metal nips to cut pieces of sugar from the solid cone in which it was sold, and glass pestles to grind up the resulting lumps. Among the wooden items a pocket nutcracker and a pocket apple corer were apparently essential for country walks, and pounce pots contained ground cuttle fish bone for sprinkling onto documents to dry the ink. Go-to-beds were small pots containing matches, with a hole in the top to fix a lighted match. A page cutter/turner reminded us that often books came from the printers without the pages having been separated. There was a splitter to prepare straw for hat making, and a hat stretcher to keep your hat in shape as it dried from the rain. A skirt lifter attached to the hem of a dress was also useful on inclement days, and who could get their kid gloves on without powdering inside the fingers and using a glove stretcher?

Then it was time for Basic/Better/Best using three of Jim’s snuff boxes – one with a phrenology design, one with a picture of Napoleon in a second hidden compartment, and one with an image of George Washington on the lid. Very few people knew that snuff boxes with American images are rare, and only three or four are known showing George Washington. Needless to say, most of the audience got it all wrong but we all learnt a lot and greatly appreciated that Jim had shared part of his collection with us.

Other Bude U3A news: the next open meeting is on October 17, the annual general meeting. A second book group is forming, and the coffee morning on the third Wednesday of the month is now at the Brendan Arms. Full details of groups and activities are available at www.budeu3a.co.uk

THE Merrytones Praise Group led the service at the Methodist Chapel in Shop on Sunday 8th September.

The prayers of adoration, thanksgiving and repentance were led by Bill Cleave.

Singing of hymns were led by Colin Tape at the organ. The lessons were read by John Cleave and Janet Ash.

Freda Olde read another of the late Lizzie Oke of Gooseham's poems. Even though Lizzie passed away in 1960, she lives on in Morwenstow through her inspiring poems, which she wrote during many years of being disabled and house-bound.

The Merrytones Praise Group sang: 'Where no one stands alone' and 'The Wonder of You'.

Prayers of intercession were led by Jennifer Vanstone.

Cath Paddon of Holsworthy led the service at Morwenstow Methodist Chapel at Shop on Sunday 15th. The theme of the service was 'Prayer'.

Colin Tape was the organist for the hymns. The lessons were read by Ken Boundy and Jill Johns.

The Merrytones Praise Group sang: 'It's about loving you'.

A warm welcome was given to visitors to the parish who joined in the worship.

The projector at both services was controlled by Stuart Ash. Both services were followed by coffee and a chance to chat in The Wesley Room.

Thanks were given to Rob and Dawn Leighfield and their team for the delicious hot luncheon at the Methodist Chapel at Shop on Wednesday, Septemvber 18. This was the first monthly luncheon at the chapel since the summer break and it was good to have our new minister, Rev Meg Slingo and her husband Graham with us. It was a pork meal with a vegetarian option, followed by delicious desserts, teas and coffees. Thank you again to Rob, Dawn and the team for preparing and serving and to all those who had laid the tables, cleared up, washed up and set the Chapel straight for worship on the Sunday. A donation from the proceeds will be sent to Cornish charity 'Active8'.

Rev Meg Slingo led her first service at Morwenstow Methodist Chapel at Shop on Sunday, September 22, with the service including Holy Communion.

The Bible readings were by Jennifer Vanstone and the projector was operated by Stuart Ash.

Rev Meg administered the Holy Communion assisted by Bill Cleave in the form of intinction. Thank you to our organist Colin for playing such suitable music on the organ during the time of Communion.

The service was followed by coffee and a chance to chat in The Wesley Room.

After a number of successful summer outings the Circle held its first indoor meeting of the season last Friday when they welcomed back Jim Collins. Jim had previously given a presentation about his time as Manager for Plymouth and Cornwall Railways. This time he covered the time he was PA to Sir Robert Reid when Sir Robert was Chairman of British Rail.

Jim started with a brief history of Sir Robert’s life. Sir Robert was born in 1921 and before the second world war he worked as traffic apprentice for the LNER.

During the war he served as Officer in the Royal Tank Regiment. After the war he returned to the railways quickly rising through the ranks. Jim first met Sir Robert in 1974 when Sir Robert was General Manger for Southern Region. Jim felt at the time this that Sir Robert was a Smart guy.

Jim started worked for Sir Robert in August 1988. He continued to work for him until Sir Robert retired in 1990.

Jim covered both the high and the lows of this period this included the Clapham rail crash in 1988. However there were also many achievements during this time like the electrification of the East Coast Main Line. Also the building of new railway line to Standstead Airport. Sir Robert also encouraged the return of steam to the national network. Jim summed up Sir Robert as a man that didn’t suffer fools gladly and felt he was The Railways Greatest leader.

The next meeting is on October 18 when David Goodyear will give a presentation “Britain’s Railways through the Seasons: Autumn and Winter” followed by “Austria’s Scenic Railways Snapshot”