A local author recently deplored that there is no active society dedicated to preserving Virgin Islands heritage, history and culture. Perhaps we might learn something from the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, formed in 1924 to collect and maintain “all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall — its traditions, its old words and ways, and what remains to it of its Celtic language and nationality.” Its motto is “Kuntellewgh an brewyon eus gesys na vo kellys travyth,” meaning, “Gather up the fragments that are left that nothing be lost.”
The ancient Celtic traditions of lighting bonfires on June 23 (the evening before both midsummer’s day and St. John’s Day) and celebrating through to June 28 (St. Peter’s Eve) were very popular until the late 1800s, particularly in Penzance. They centred on lighting bonfires, fireworks, tar barrels, and torches after dark. Local youths then led the ancient serpent dance around town and jumped through the dying embers. However, Penzance’s Golowan was banned by the local council in the 1890s due to the town’s increasing insurance premiums. From 1929 onwards, FOCS gradually revived these traditions in different towns.
Cornish Diaspora
Since 1991, the Golowan festival in Penzance has become one of Britain’s greatest community and arts festivals. This year’s took place from June 23-28 under the theme “Golowan Goes Global.” It focussed on world cultures and the Cornish Diaspora, especially descendants of the “Cousin Jacks” who took their mining expertise worldwide during the1800s and early 1900s.
Golowan is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, the town’s patron saint, but the early Celtic church superimposed it on the pagan festival of midsummer’s eve. Pagan traditions, Christian music and performing arts events lead up to a weekend packed with traditional events and entertainment. Schoolchildren lead parades, and visiting contributors this year included a Scottish pipe band, Morris dancers and native American chant singers.
The election of a Mock Mayor on Friday night is celebrated by residents and visitors meandering around town in the serpent dance, led by Penglas the grizzly-headed “’obby ’orse;” and an all-night party to a local band, with fireworks. On Saturday, Mazey Day, the Mock Mayor delivers a jocular speech which includes jibes at the real town mayor, seated nearby. That day alone now attracts tens of thousands of people.
‘Hello to Cornwall’
I was asked at short notice to submit a message for a souvenir booklet for 2014. Following the organisers’ guidance, I wrote along these lines:
“Hello to Cornwall. Greetings from a descendant of William Glanville and Joan Kerret (married: 1785 in St. Winnow)!
I live in the British Virgin Islands, home to the remains of the only copper mine in the Eastern Caribbean. It was built and operated on Virgin Gorda by 36 Cornish miners, who sailed from St. Austell in 1836, and 138 local workers. The ore was marketed in Swansea, Wales, but mounting losses led to the collapse of the Virgin Gorda Mining Company venture in 1842.
The mine was reopened in 1858 by The Virgin Gorda Mine Adventure and operated under the benevolent gaze of Thomas Price, president of the Virgin Island Council. He was the younger son of Sir Rose Price, a former Jamaican sugar planter, who established the magnificent formal gardens at Trengwainton House, overlooking Penzance (now owned by the National Trust).
The mine closed again in May 1862, and the equipment was dismantled and returned to Liverpool for sale. However, the miners left behind a few offspring and possibly the oldest surviving Cornish beam engine in the world, built at the Perran Foundry in 1836. Thomas Price’s wife and a miner or two lie buried here as well.”
My message was accompanied by photographs that illustrated the article on our copper mine in the Winter 2013 issue of “Cornish Mining” (http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cornish_Mining_winter_2013.pdf).
Copper Mine
Meanwhile, there have been some interesting developments since I wrote the commentary titled “Potential seen in ‘friends’ groups” in the July 18, 2013 edition of the Beacon.
The National Parks Trust has awarded the contract to build a visitors’ centre at the mine with European Union funds, to be completed by the end of March 2015. It will include displays of artefacts and be powered by solar panels and rentable for community events. If might also showcase our historic and cultural links with Cornwall to local people and tourists.
Several boxes of archives and artefacts that belonged to the dormant VI Historical Society were recently identified in the VI Folk Museum and moved to storage elsewhere. It will take some time to catalogue and index their contents, but they may include a reference to the missing Virgin Gorda Mine Company’s cashbook I mentioned. The society used to meet in the public library. It should be revived.
The Cornwall Records Office holds some of the archives of the Perran Foundry that built the historic engine beam on the beach below the mine, but it is unlikely that we shall find out much about it without the mining company’s records as it was bought second-hand.
The Porthcurno Telegraph Museum won a prestigious award and reopened earlier this year after an extensive refit. Sadly, however, the flagship Poldark Tin Mine had to close after unsustainable losses.
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