Parish Churches

[Mick F]

I work with two people born and brought up in Shetland. They consider themselves Scottish.

Ask them to cast their minds back to the referendum in the late 70s.

Many folk in Shetland refused to vote as they were't Scottish. Similar feeling in the Hebrides too.
Hit the news headlines at the time. We were living in Scotland back then so remember it.

[Mick F]

What's that current "separate government system" that isn't part of England?

One, the Isles of Scilly are not in England.
They may be English though. There is a big difference.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly is now a unitary authority.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly is a separate authority to the Cornwall Council unitary authority, and as such the islands are not part of the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall. However the islands are still considered to be part of the ceremonial county of Cornwall.

[Syd]

I work with two people born and brought up in Shetland. They consider themselves Scottish.

Ask them to cast their minds back to the referendum in the late 70s.

Many folk in Shetland refused to vote as they were't Scottish. Similar feeling in the Hebrides too.
Hit the news headlines at the time. We were living in Scotland back then so remember it.

Many is not all (and a handful is not many either, see below).

Have asked the Q of both colleagues and both reaffirmed they regard themselves as Scottish. one born in the 1950s the other in the 1990s so from different generations.

The older colleague recalls the 1970s “incident” and puts it down to literally a handful of individuals he refers to as “incomers” and “troublemakers” plus a lot of media hype.

[Mick F]

Media hype?
When don't they hype!

The people who refused to vote were Shetlanders born and bread.
Said it before about Shetland, the islands still really belong to Norway and there is still a strong Norwegian connection.

[Oldjohnw]

When I was on Orkney, the locals considered themselves to be Orcadian. They spoke of Scotland as another country just as they spoke of England. There were more Norwegian flags than saltires.

[Syd]

Media hype?
When don't they hype!

The people who refused to vote were Shetlanders born and bread.
Said it before about Shetland, the islands still really belong to Norway and there is still a strong Norwegian connection.

I can only go with what I have been told today by a Shetlander who lived there at the time.

I will do with his version of events over what I read in a newspaper any day.

[Mike Sales]

There is an interesting movement to restore the operation of Udal Law in Orkney and Shetland.
This is the Norse systtem of landowning, which was largely ignored when the Scots took over.

http://www.charles-tait.co.uk/guide/orkguide/pages/udal_law.html?fbclid=IwAR0BrriGC2Qg4Ppb0_-VxsCJqI-lH29r_sZxjjts0u4ru7xRd6wB92KOTKE

As it happens, the friend who led me to take an interest in the Northern Isles is a Tait too. I was a regular reader of The Shetland Times for some time.
If you remember Norman Lamont, family from Shetland, his name was not pronounced as if French, in the islands. Some would call him Peerie Norrie.

[Mick F]

When I was on Orkney, the locals considered themselves to be Orcadian. They spoke of Scotland as another country just as they spoke of England. There were more Norwegian flags than saltires.

Exactly.
Speak to the Scillonians too, let alone the Cornish.

Not that I'm Cornish.
Born in Wales, brought up in Wigan of Lancastrian heritage, but spent far more than half my life in Cornwall and I'm 68 years old this year.

I was once told you had to have a granny in the churchyard to be Cornish.
I offered to go up to Wigan and dig one up and bring her down here!

[Mick F]

Confession time.

I was out last week doing eleven parish churches having driven to Helston.
150miles there and back.

One of the churches was Mullion, but for the life of me I couldn't remember seeing it.
Usually, I stop and look at the churches, make a mental note and picture in my head, and know that I've stood there and seen them.

Mullion was different. I mustn't have been concentrating, coz I remember nothing about a church.
No problem eh, I went straight past it ............. but did I?
I had to be certain.

Look at the OS map and where I went and see where the church is positioned ........... came in from the left.

Mullion.jpg (74.3 KiB) Viewed 556 times

Trouble is, the OS map isn't quite correct and gives the wrong impression.
The church is here.

So ............. having fretted about this for a few days, yesterday, I drove down there again.
I'm still riding all the roads in Cornwall, so I set about working out a route that would give me more roads down at the Lizard as well as eyeballing St Mellanus Parish Church.

Did it, as well as many new roads - most of which were little lanes. 43miles done in total yesterday. Hard work, including the 150miles of driving.

This is how the Lizard and Helston area looks now.

[armadillo]

I salute you for showing true dedication to the mission...

(I seem to remember you considered photographing each church as evidence, but decided not to. Might it have helped in this instance?)

[Cyril Haearn]

I have a slightly different plan, I intend to participate in services in village churches near home, that is a good way to get to know them in detail, many are otherwise locked
Ascending church towers is worthwhile too
Just waiting for appropriate weather

[Mick F]

I salute you for showing true dedication to the mission...
(I seem to remember you considered photographing each church as evidence, but decided not to. Might it have helped in this instance?)

Thank you!

There are 226 parish churches in Cornwall, and after starting to photograph them, the album became a little boring.
Here's a couple.

[armadillo]

"...the album became a little boring."
But just think how useful it could have been to get rid of guests who out-stayed their welcome!
("And now as a special treat I have prepared a slide show of all 226 Cornish parish churches...")

[simonineaston]

My dear old dad had an interest in the special little thingies that crop up in the rooves of churches, known, with stunning inginuity I think you'll agree, as roof bosses... there's tons of them and there's lots of variety. Same applies to stained-glass windows and other fixtures and fittings, like weather vanes and sun dials, I imagine.
Back in the day, I whimped out of photographing the roof bosses, due to technical restrictions, but now with the ready availability of high-quality telephoto and a good tripod, I might just revisit that idea.

[Mick F]

My rides gpx records are enough of a record.

The Penzance 14 is all prepared, and Mrs Mick F is suggesting we go down there and stay B+B. I'll have a couple of days to do the fourteen ................ plus some new roads.

This is my map of the Far West of the roads I've done so far. There's only a few gaps.