The top photograph is the first view of Blackwater gained when travelling westwards (Photo: Clive Benney)   Tony Mansell’s second article in this series places a magnifying glass over the village of Blackwater where he attended primary school, broke his leg in the playground and regularly “raided” the local shop for sweets on his long…Continue Reading “Blackwater”

In the first of the Kernow’s Smaller Villages series, Tony Mansell has chosen the village where he grew up and for which he still has fond memories. You can find last month’s introductory article here. There is nothing very remarkable about Silverwell: nothing that makes it stand out in any way. Like most villages, it’s seen its…Continue Reading “Silverwell – Memories of Pure Gold”

Much has been written about our villages and whilst the smaller ones haven’t been ignored, they sometimes fade into the background at the expense of the larger and better-known communities. In this series the contributors will attempt to remedy that by presenting a picture of life in some of our smaller villages. Whenever I deliver…Continue Reading “Kernow’s Smaller Villages”

As a follow-up to his earlier article in this series about brass bands (find it here), Tony Mansell looks at the world of contesting where bands compete for the ultimate accolade. Competitions, or contests as they are termed in the brass band world, have their beginning in the brass and reed band era of the…Continue Reading “Music Kernow – Contesting”

Tony Mansell provides our next slice of the Music Kernow pie as he explores the life and career of Cornishman Phillip Hunt. The author of three articles in the Music Kernow series, Phillip now finds himself under the spotlight. In an article in 2015, Simon Parker wrote of Phillip Hunt’s love of music which began in…Continue Reading “Music Kernow – Phillip Hunt”

Our series on Cornish Music is back, join Tony Mansell as he shares his memory of a group of musicians and entertainers that thrilled their audiences with their home-grown talent. Halls warmed only by the folk who had braved the wind and rain, curtains faded by time, paint peeling off walls but it mattered not, the entertainers…Continue Reading “Music Kernow – The Goonhavern Banjo Band”