Through our work we often meet people who are passionate about their heritage. This was certainly the case for our recent visit to the , where we had the pleasure of recording 4 Cornish bards. The aim of the recordings was to record memories of St.Austell, making a series of simple digital stories which could be screened on St.Pirans day 2023.
St.Austell, or should we say Ostel, has played a big role in local people’s lives. For Valarie, Mac and Malcolm, Ostel was a place that they travelled to for school, celebrations, work and leisure. For Carl, many of his 96 years have been spent in the town. With so many memories of St.Austell and collected information, creating something short was a big challenge. Indeed, we could easily have made a feature length documentary, but that wasn’t the brief! The digital stories we made provide a glimpse into each person’s connection to Ostel. Having these short, accessible films will provide a useful starting point for sparking more memories in the community.
Digital Stories
Over the years, we’ve enjoyed many an hour with Mac Waters and his vast collection of postcards. There are always new stories to hear and postcards to see. In this digital story Mac shares memories of weekend shopping in St.Austell, clay waggons travelling through and carnivals which brought all the clay villages together.
The last time we met Carl Roberts was to pick his brains about Treffry Viaduct for the Landmark Travels Project. Now nearly 96 years old, Carl’s memories were as vivid as ever. A keen scrapbook keeper, Carl shared with us a vast array of stories and information. However, it was his wartime memories that we decided to focus on for this digital story.
We remembered Valarie Jacobs stories for her contributions to the Kemeneth book we made over lockdown. So it was nice to put a face to a name. For her digital story Valarie choose to share her memories of St.Austell buildings that played a role in her childhood. Sharing her memories of these visits and the keepsakes which survive to illustrate the stories.
We’ve spent many occasions with Malcolm Gould over the past 8 years, and his recollections always leave us hopeful and with warm hearts. Very recently retired from the clay industry, Malcolm is passionate about sharing stories, films and photographs from the area. From his contribution we are creating a short audio story.
A big thank you for all who shared with us and for Garry for organising everything.
