|
| Home | Events | News | ↓ Photos ↓ | Banners | Contact | Links |
| Photos 2008 | Photos 2007 | Photos 2006 | Photos 2005 | Photos 2004 |
On Thursday 18 October 2007 at the Royal Fowey Yacht Club, Professor Colin Bristow gave us an enthralling slide presentation entitled "The Building Stones of Cornwall". He started with a swift summary of Planet Earth's geology in tectonic terms, and how this had formed Cornwall. The resultant remarkable diversity of rocks was eventually to give us our mining and quarrying industry, though now working at much reduced tonnages and levels of employment compared with a century ago. In those days, such were the dimensioning skills of Cornish quarrymen and masons that it paid to quarry granite and cut every block to size and ship it out as far afield as Hong Kong in the form of a kit of parts for a harbour or whatever, rather than to rely on local labour and materials.
Many iconic buildings in the UK and beyond were constructed using stone from Cornwall - for example Tower Bridge in London. At the local level, whether it was the houses and hotels of Boscastle, Place, home of the Treffrys at Fowey, or the construction of the Treffry and Milltown viaducts, local stone extracted from several hundred small quarries has given the buildings at each location their distinctive colour and texture. He spent some time discussing a broad classification of various types of rock. showing us samples and photographs of buildings constructed with them.
Colin ended his lecture saying that many of the small quarries could be re-opened on a small scale as required from time to time to provide authentic stone for repairs and extensions. Putting up a slide he quoted William Morris, who in 1876 said:
"These old buildings do not belong to us alone....they have belonged to our forefathers and will belong to our descendants unless we play them false. They are in no sense our property to do with as we like. We are only trustees for those who come after!"
Malcolm Campbell led the applause (above) and then invited questions from the floor. One questioner asked Colin how he had got interested in geology and his answer was that he had found a strange stone and didn't know what it was. His father suggested he should ask his schoolteacher and the schoolteacher suggested he take it to the local museum were the curator explained that it was a fossil - and he has been looking at stones ever since.
Our Chairman, George Cussens, thanked Colin and drew members attention to the remaining three items, Supper and Folk, Looe Fish Auction (5.45 am start) and AGM with talk on Environmental Management - see Friends 2007/2008 programme.
Please click on smaller images for enlargement (and vice-versa)
|
This visit involved a four mile circular stroll through the Breney Common Nature Reserve to Helman Tor and back. It had rained during the previous week leaving everything soggy, and we had a few soft but wetting showers during the walk. The part of Mid Cornwall Moors known as Breney Common covers 113 hectares and lies in a shallow basin of alluvial deposits, with peaty soil sitting on top of granite. Former tin streaming has resulting in hummocks and hollows supporting a richly diverse range of vegetation including Devil's-bit Scabious which in turn supports a population of the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly. Listed as a threatened European species, this butterfly lays its eggs in large batches on the food plant where the caterpillars live as a group inside a conspicuous silken web visible during August and September. Clearly we were not going to see any butterflies in this drizzly weather, but there was a gentle magic in the air as we set off. These two noticeboards give guidance to visitors.
|
||
|
We gathered in the car park opposite Gunwen Methodist Church. Standing gauntly in the landscape this made a prominent landmark and gave us no chance of losing our cars! |
 |
|
 |
Eleven of us gathered in the car park. |
|
|
There were lots of these Orchids |
 |
|
 |
Royal Fern grew in abundance |
|
|
As we neared Helman Tor we could look back over this field towards the shallow upland depression containing the Willow Carr of Breney Common |
 |
|
 |
On the green and dreamy trail in quiet conversation |
|
|
Helman Tor |
 |
|
 |
Stone Crop |
|
|
Sharing knowledge |
 |
|
 |
Pond and Royal Ferns |
|
|
Pond and Lichen |
 |
|
 |
Spangled web |
|
|
Wonderful grasses and flowers |
 |
|
On Thursday 18 January 2007 about thirty-five of us attended a talk at the Royal Fowey Yacht Club presented by Callum Deveney, the Reserves Manager of Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
Callum started by outlining the work of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust throughout Cornwall and then concentrated on thier recent aquisition, St George's (aka Looe) Island, using it as illustrative of the whole approach of the Trust. The talk was fascinating.
FFE hopes to arrange a visit to Looe Island later this year, perhaps in May, and Callum's talk has whetted our appettites so that we will be visiting the island well prepared because by then we will have read up all about the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the history of Looe Island.
The picture above shows our Chairman, George Cussans (right), thanking Callum (left) on 18 January 2007 at 9:28 pm
Banner picture 70: Contemplating the source of the River Fowey 16 Sep 2006, 1:03 pm.
