The Grampound Times

Have you visited the Centre based in the lower room of the Town Hall yet?  A report of progress and news follows from the Heritage Centre Friends Groups PETER WOOTTON. Before that however, I have been asked to make a small but important appeal on behalf of the Friends.

Long time residents of Grampound will no doubt remember that during the life of our previous village hall, the Grampound War Memorial Hall, teas were served there with the hall’s own china cups and plates which bore the writing ‘Grampound Public Hall’ or something like it.   Over the many years the old hall served us, most of the china went to meet its maker, but to this day a very small amount does still exist, and it is an important reminder of Grampound’s past.   The Friends would love to be able to display a single set at least in the display cabinet they have obtained. it is after all a very real item and a part of Grampound’s heritage.
Can you help by loaning to the Heritage Centre for public display any item of the china that you might hold.   If you can help  MRS. TINA TYLER  (‘phone 01726 883210 )  would love to hear from you.

The Heritage Centre has been well patronised during the summer following the opening at Easter. We have been able to put the finishing touches to the equipment and displays and the number of ‘Friends’ is now well over 60, which is very gratifying.

Open Gardens Day and Carnival Day both attracted between 60 and 70 visitors who were able to enjoy light refreshments as well as looking at the film, the photo archive and the other displays. We were particularly interested by the story of one quite elderly visitor who had travelled from Australia and was visiting Grampound for the first time. His distant ancestor had been born in the village but as a young man was transported on a convict ship to Botany Bay for stealing a barrel of cider. Further conversation revealed that he had almost certainly sailed on the first convict fleet that left Portsmouth on May 13th 1787.  These ‘First Fleeters’ are now regarded in Australia with some awe and are seen as the founders of the modern Australian nation. We all wondered whether he had spent any time in the lock-up behind the Town Hall before being taken to Portsmouth!

Our collaboration with the Victoria County History Project is progressing and the team of volunteers who are going to investigate the material about nineteenth century Grampound held by the County Records Office is meeting there in early November for a training session. We now have a display cabinet in the Heritage Centre that currently features artefacts about the Oddfellows’ Bud of Hope Lodge that was once active in Grampound. If anyone has any information about this, we would very much like to hear from you.

In the next few months we are planning to produce another batch of the information banners that hang in the Heritage Centre and to invite local residents to contribute what they know about the history and legends of their houses. Please keep an eye open for notices about this!

If you want to contact us, please email heritage@grampound.org.uk or phone the Secretary, JANE SLOAN on 01726 883214 or the Chairman, PETER WOOTTON (the author of this item) on 01726 882734