UK Brewer of the Year Award

St Austell Brewery named regional UK brewer of the year | Business Cornwall

St Austell Brewery has been crowned the UK’s Regional Brewer of the Year.

The Brewery beat off competition from some of the biggest names in the business to clinch the top title at The Publican Awards 20009. It marks national recognition of how St Austell Brewery has transformed its business over the last decade, with its flagship Tribute Ale now among the UK’s biggest selling premium cask ales, a vibrant and successful estate of 169 pubs and a raft of awards for the quality of its beers, staff, food and training.

James Staughton, managing director of St Austell Brewery, said: “This is a massive award for us and really cements the Brewery’s growing reputation nationally for our beers, for our pub estate and the forward thinking way we run our business.

“Perhaps more than any other industry, our business is all about people and this award is a tribute to the whole team who work for and are involved with St Austell Brewery and our pub estate. It is also a great day for the South West and the principle that a family-owned, independent business from Cornwall can lead the way nationally.”

Honours also went to Stephanie Todd, manager of St Austell Brewery’s Atlantic Inn, on St Mary’s, on the Isles of Scilly, who won the Newcomer of the Year title for her ‘enthusiasm, creative energy and determination’ in transforming the pub in her first year.

The Brewery has enjoyed a busy start to the year with two significant investments. Work started on a major £700k project to build a new in-house bottling line and the doors opened on the Brewery’s new Cornwall Distribution Centre in St Columb Major to serve as a regional hub for all of the 2,000 pubs, clubs, hotels and other licensed premises across the South West.

Sales of St Austell Brewery’s flagship Tribute Ale have risen for eight consecutive years since its launch in 2001, and by 20% in the past 12 months, continuing the meteoric success of the beer which has become the first and only Cornish beer to make it into the UK Top 10 of premium cask ales.

Technorati Tags: uk, cornwall, brewer, beer, tribute ale, st austell brewery

Photos from the farm...

Free Family Attraction in Cornwall

days out, free, south west, let's go with the children ¦ This Is North Devon

FAMILY attractions can sometimes make for expensive days out – after all there's petrol, meals out and entrance prices to consider. You may be surprised to discover, therefore, there are still some family-friendly places that don't charge you to get in. Here are a few ideas selected from the 2009 South West edition of Let's Go with the Children. This useful nationwide series is unique in comprehensively searching out things to do and places to go with children aged between three and 16 years of age.

In North Devon, of course, we are extremely lucky to have some of the best beaches in the country, the beautiful Tarka Trail and Exmoor on the doorstep. Here are some other fabulous free days out for those of you wanting to explore more of the South West.

CORNWALL

Cardinham Woods, near Bodmin PL30 4AL 01392 832262 There are waymarked trails for all abilities and an exciting children's play area. Look out for special wildlife events.

Roskilly's Ice Cream and Organic Farm, Helston Tregellast Barton Farm, St Keverne, TR12 6NX www.roskillys.co.uk 01326 280479 Watch the milking, explore the woodlands, feed the ducks on the ponds and look out for the giant rhubarb trees on this working organic farm.

Cornish Gold and Treasure Park, near Portreath Tolgus Mill, TR16 4HN www.treasurepark.co.uk 01209 218198 Lots to see including James Bond's Aston Martin and the car from Back to the Future. Brave the Tolgus Tin Haunted Mine.

Perranzabuloe Folk Museum, Perranporth Ponsmere Road, TR6 0BW 01872 573321 Find out about the 'hidden churches' lost in the sand dunes and see parts of the Spitfire found after it had crashed on the beach.

The Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro River Street, TR1 2SJ www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk 01872 272205 See amazing objects, including an unwrapped Egyptian mummy. Learn about Cornish history and archaeology, natural history, minerals and fine and decorative art.

Technorati Tags: cornwall, family attractions, free, museum, park, farm, woods

Port Eliot Festival

Port Eliot Festival 'Hot 5' Literary Picks

PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 24, 2009 – Hot off the launch of the new website, this magical and truly original festival, which takes place from the 24th to the 26th July 2009, is pleased to announce its ‘Hot 5’ literary stars. Sarah Waters, Kate Summerscale, Alain de Botton, Mohsin Hamid and Alexander Waugh will all be bringing their way with words and something just a little different to this hidden part of south east Cornwall.

Freshly confirmed for the Port Eliot Festival (http://www.porteliotfestival.com/) is acclaimed novelist Sarah Waters, her first three novels, which include Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, have received high praise from both mainstream reviewers and the gay and lesbian press. In 2003 she was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. Sarah will be presenting a very special event based around her new novel The Little Stranger, which is due out in June 2009.

Technorati Tags: port eliot festival, authors, literary picks, south east cornwall

Photos from the farm...

Portishead Pool to be on TV

Portishead open-air pool campaign pins hopes on TV makeover show | Bristol News | This Is Bristol

Portishead's neglected open-air pool could be restored to its former glory within weeks if it is chosen to feature in a TV makeover show.

London-based independent production company Twofour Broadcast has shortlisted the pool as a possible community regeneration project for a series it is filming for UKTV Style this year.

The pool is one of six community projects across the UK being considered for the programme, called Ty's Great British Adventure.

If chosen, the pool would undergo a makeover that could see it upgraded and returned to its glory days.

Trustees who want to take over the management of the pool from North Somerset Council have already put together a five-year plan of improvements at the Lido, including installing solar panels and a pool cover, refurbishing the changing rooms and re-opening the children's pool.

Technorati Tags: portishead, tv, pool, outdoors,

£5,000 Raised for Cancer Research

Sidmouth Herald - Sidford friends raise £5,000 walking SW Coast Path

FOUR friends from Sidford have completed a two-and-a-half year challenge to walk the 630 SW Coast Path, raising £5,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Roger and Dorothy Davis from Byes Lane were joined by Keith and Sandra Blanshard of Sidford Road, for the walk, which runs through much of Dorset, all of Devon and Cornwall and part of Somerset.

Technorati Tags: cornwall, fundraising, cancer research

Holiday in UK

Think Local: holiday local

COUNCIL leaders are urging holidaymakers to spend their tourism pounds in Britain during the continuing recession.

According to the Local Government Association (LGA) holidaymakers keen to save money on summer breaks should think about staying in Britain this year.

The move would give a boost to home-grown businesses in Devon and Cornwall.

Technorati Tags: UK, holiday, devon, cornwall

Region not Ready to Switch to Digital

The Cornwall Blog: Two Thirds Of Tourism TVs Still Need Switching

Many West Country hotels and B&Bs still receiving analogue, in fact, two-thirds of tourism businesses in the West Country have televisions that risk going blank when the region switches to digital later this year – at the height of the summer tourist season.

Latest research from Digital UK, the independent switchover body, reveals that only 40% of hoteliers and B&B owners across the region have fully converted televisions in all guest rooms – up from 27% in January 2007. A quarter of the respondents (25%) had partly switched to digital and more than a third had analogue only.

Technorati Tags: digital switch, analog, digital tv, cornwall

Happy riders take to trails

'Chatter happy' horses and riders from the West Penwith Bridleways Association meet for one of their social rides at the Engine Inn, Nancledra.

THEY call themselves 'chatter-happy' –– and that includes both the horses and riders who take part in a Horse Hike programme.

The programme, organised by West Penwith Bridleways Association (WPBA), involves people enjoying friendly rides at locations as diverse and scenic as Drift Dam, Nancledra, Chapel Carn Brea, Polgigga and the newly-renovated Wheal Peevor mine stacks in Tehidy Park.

Next Tuesday, March 24, the WPBA is holding its AGM at the Yacht Inn at 7pm. Anyone interested in finding out more about the association is welcome to attend.

Peta-Jane Field, from the WPBA, said: "If you enjoy riding the tracks and bridleway trails which criss-cross West Penwith's moors or wriggle through our little woods, did you ever wonder who keeps them cut back, who discovers new ones to use or who worries about the ones which are blocked with brambles, trashed tractors and broken bikes?

read the entire article

Technorati Tags: cornwall, horse, riders, west penwith bridleways association, engine inn, nancledra,

Exploring the Cornish links to Titanic tragedy

THE story of the sinking of the Titanic has gripped the imagination of people throughout the world for almost 100 years, but few would have realised how many connections there were with Cornwall.

A major new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall puts that right, with wonderful stories and amazing artifacts linked to the famous ship, some of which turned up at virtually the last minute.

A recording of a mother from Penzance who was saved with her two infants, but lost her brother, an amazing love which ended in tragedy, the stories of people who drowned on that fateful night, the memories of those who lived, a pocket watch stopped at the time it sank beneath the waves, photographs, books, old newspaper features, even a little teddy bear which survived – this is an amazing exhibition which has to be seen.

Relatives of those who were either on board the great vessel, or on the liner Carpathia which picked up survivors, were guests at the museum at Falmouth on Thursday for the launch of an exhibition which looks set to be the most popular staged there so far.

Ken Stead, 85, from Mylor is the grandson of journalist WT Stead, who founded the popular journal of the time, Review of Reviews.

He had also written a book warning of the danger of icebergs to shipping and had lobbied Parliament calling for adequate lifeboats to be supplied.

Stead perished on the Titanic, and the family has a collection of pictures which could be shown on a kinoroscope from that era.

Great grandson Richard, who lives at Flushing, is trying to get the pictures, which include WT making a speech, put on to a DVD.

"WT was reading a book in the library at the time the Titanic started going down, but was then seen helping women and children on to the lifeboats," said Richard.

Roger Howman, of Truro, and his sister Jackie Dare, who also lives in Cornwall, are both grandchildren of Sir Arthur Rostron, the captain of the Carpathia which answered the Titanic's distress call and picked up 700 passengers.

The family has loaned a cigarette case given to their grandfather by grateful survivors and a rare copy of his autobiography.

Knighted in 1928, Sir Arthur died in 1941 of pneumonia he contracted when he insisted on sleeping in the entrance of an air raid shelter rather than inside.

"He was a gentleman to the end," said Jackie, a toddler when her grandfather died.

There is also a gold pocket watch, a gold forget-me-not ring and postcards sent from the Titanic by Stephen Jenkin, a miner who had emigrated to Michigan but had returned to see his family.

He had been concerned about his return trip and left his gold pocket watch and other valuables with his parents.

His great niece and nephew Katie Rosevear, of Mullion Cove, and Stephen Johns, who was named after him, of Praze-an-Beeble, have loaned the items.

David Caddick, from Carharrack, is a grandson of Thomas Utley, whose company made the new side-opening portholes and bell for the Titanic.

David had heard about the connection from his late mother, Utley's daughter and the widow of Cornish poet Arthur Caddick, but only started researching the history when he heard of the Falmouth exhibition.

"I rang the TM Utley company in Liverpool and asked if there was still an Utley there. The man who picked up the phone said this is Tom Utley speaking, so I had contacted a long lost cousin," said David.

Utley had been invited to sail on the maiden voyage, but his wife had a premonition of disaster and warned him not to go.

He refused the invitation.

Courtesy of,
www.thisiscornwall.co.uk

March - From the Farm...

March has come in like the proverbial lamb and at last Cornwall is starting to look its usual Spring self with all the famous Cornish gardens looking their best – camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias in full flower. Hedgerows bright with celandine's and primroses and the birdsong is fantastic. The mallards are back on John’s pond and the wild daffodils are just appearing in the bottom field.

Had a wonderful beach combing session when we went to Godrevy to see the seals. I found lots of sea glass one of my favorite finds. Lots of cuttlefish shells too – would be handy if I kept a budgerigar! Talking of cuttlefish, it was on the menu at Nathan Outlaw’s Restaurant at Fowey and it was absolutely delicious.

At last the grass is growing again and that pleases the cattle tho’ not the person behind the lawnmower!

The new stone steps near the back door starting to take shape. Richard is using some of the old granite around the place and they should look very good.

Marli molting AGAIN and the cats Sammy, Chloe, and Trevor out hunting in the milder weather .

Events Calendar March 2009

Upcoming Events

March 2009



5th - St. Pirans Day, Cornwall’s Patron Saint

6th - Titanic Exhibition, National Maritime Museum

6th - West Cornwall Spring Show, Penzance

8th - Daffy Down Dilly Day, Trebah Garden

14th - Nature Cycle Ride – Elm Farm Portreath

21st - Daffodil Weekend, Trelissick Gardens

28th - Fifteen Restaurant Farmers’ Market, Watergate Bay

28th - Falmouth Spring Flower Show