The Association of West Country Tourist Guides

AWCTG

Newsletter Dec 2024

December 2024 Newsletter

 

The Committee wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Message from the Chair

 

As I hunker down for the next named storm, I am glad that we managed

the rearranged and online AGM despite the weather, and for those of

you who made it to Cornwall Gold and weren’t snowed in, the meal

and the tour looked good. Tessa has very kindly done a write up (see

below).

 

AGM synopsis, Lesley is writing up the minutes, but just as a recap, we

have 48 members (BBGs, friends, students and one life member).

CPD is being organised in the new year, fixed dates so far are as below,

and enquiries are being scattered throughout the region … just waiting

for replies. If anyone would like to organise a CPD that would be really

helpful … good to have new ideas.

 

Site Liaison, Viv Robinson has offered to be SL for St Michaels Mount,

the Guild and APTG (the London Union membership organisation) have

some very good forms which I will cannibalise in the next month to

make them relevant to our area, but full of helpful details about sites

and kept up to date as well. Offers for a site near you will be accepted

with glee, will build on our pooled resources.

 

The Guild:  Elizabeth Eastwood joined us online and outlined all the

various things that she and the others who run our Guild, have achieved

this year. The Guild AGM will be on 6th March 2025 at Methodist Central

Hall, Westminster with CPD events running concurrently. We are all

being encouraged to send fodder for our social media platforms to

Effie about anything we do.

 

The Institute:  I went to the ITG AGM at The Royal Philatelic Society in

London which had a good turnout, with 80+ present and 30+ online,

very well run. The introduction was by Lady Victoria Borwick from Visit

Britain, which will also be promoting screen tourism in the first few

 

months of 2025 #screengreatbritain Screen Tourism | VisitBritain.org

 

CORNISH GOLD & TOLGUS MILL - FESTIVE LUNCH

Thursday 21st November 202 will certainly be memorable for

AWCTG. It was the day of our AGM and Christmas meal and we

were all very excited at the prospect of meeting colleagues

and sharing early festive food. However, waking up, we found

Mother Nature had brought us plenty of surprises; NE Cornwall

was at a standstill due to overnight snow and SW Cornwall had been

battered by heavy storms. The AGM was duly cancelled with many

snowed-in/weather-bound, including Chrissie, our Chair, and Lesley, our Secretary. 

 

Those who gradually arrived during the morning from near and far, were

warmly welcomed by the Cornish Pantry staff with tea and coffee.

We eleven guides, sat down at 12.30 to our sumptuous Christmas

lunch and it was absolutely fabulous and beautifully

presented, with generous portions and so tasty. After our delicious

lunch, we retired to a roomy lecture hall to hear presentations

from Sally Weston, from Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

World Heritage site. She said that they are looking forward to the

20th year anniversary of the UNESCO inscription in 2026. She

highlighted the difficulties and pressure in trying to maintain the

sites up to UNESCO standards, as most are in private ownership.

 

 

Following Sally’s talk, we braved the weather to have a highly

informative guided tour by Jo White from Tolgus Tin.

Tolgus was a 19th Century Tin Processing Mill, where the metal

was extracted from the stream that ran down from the Redruth

area. We were told it was the last working tin streaming mill in

Europe. As we walked through the mill full of original extraction machines

and information boards, we marvelled at the last remaining

twelve-headed stamp machine in Europe: a scheduled ancient

monument. In the 19th Century it worked 24/7 crushing rock into

powder, making a constant loud deafening noise. Information boards

highlight the social and economic lives of workers, from children as young

as 6 years old. Life expectancy for males, mid 19th Century, was only

29 years. We walked through the processing mill and saw the reconstructed

Cornish round frame, where impurities were gradually washed

away.

 

Despite the challenging weather, we enjoyed a wonderful meal;

get togethers and a tour. This is a great venue for events

and visits. There is a huge coach/car park; lovely restaurant

area with helpful staff; jewellery and craft area/shop and a visit to

the Tin Mill site with original machinery and lots of information

boards.

 

Attendees: Viv, Di, Peter, Manfred, Jilly, Mark, Angus, Angie,

Alison, Sean & Tessa.

 

 

 

Christmas Quiz & Social on Monday 9th December

We had an on-line quiz evening with several of us gathered together to face some tough questions

posed by Quizmaster Chrissie!

The session began with an opportunity to catch up while some participants solved their technical

difficulties, then it was into five rounds on Devon, Cornwall, Christmas, dingbats and a

miscellany. It was good to have a chance to meet up with colleagues who we may not otherwise

see from one year’s end to the next.

There was no winner, it was the taking part that counted!

Many thanks to question setters Chrissie, Dawn, Lesley and Tessa.