SHEILA AND STEVE’S 2011 CHRISTMAS
NEWSLETTER – EXTRACTS FROM ‘A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A GUEST HOUSE’
Chichester Guest House, 14 Bay View Terrace,
Newquay, Cornwall TR7 2LR
Phone 01637 874216
It’s December 9th, 5.30 pm. I walk into the bar and Steve has a
fishing programme on the tele. ‘I’ve had one fish rise to my flies’ the
fisherman says. Whatever is he using as bait? I am still laughing.
January Talking of fish – on January 1st I walk down to Newquay Harbour and there is a chap down there with
his dog dashing about
the beach. Then the dog leaps on something a fisherman has chucked out of his
boat. Rover struggles with the item, shaking it in his teeth, then outs a paw
on it and pulls and chews and bites and snaps and nothing happens. It’s a Trigger
fish and they have very tough skin and scales. The dog owner says when they get
home the critter will probably throw up on his lounge carpet! We have had our drains fixed.
We have been having blockages for years –inconvenient rather than painful. So I
make a few phone calls and these nice cheeky young chaps turned up who despite
rain, wind and sun did an excellent job. I take up jogging – all their get up and
go reminds me mine has gone. We visited Dave and Chris Brannan’s garden at Newlyn
East. They have three granite ‘gateposts’ in their garden,
two inscribed. We came to the conclusion they are boundary markers for a mining
sett. What
fantastic things to have in the back yard.
February It’s
Steve’s mum Elsie’s birthday on the 7th. She doesn’t want a fuss so
I order a largish cake from the bakers. The volunteer ladies at Newquay Hospital want to give her a party and
Margaret and George, mum’s relatives turn up secretly. I smuggle the cake down
to the hospital and we all go for lunch at a pub and then for tea at the
Hospital Bungalow where 16 or so people turn up to wish Elsie well. Like the
queen Elsie rose to the occasion and I hope she enjoyed herself. Later on in
the year she took the post of Vice President of the League of Friends of the
hospital which isn’t bad for a 90 year old. Having formed an archaeology group
within the Newquay Old Cornwall Society (NOCAG) we needed something to get the
group going so I ran a flint identifying afternoon at our guest house. Newquay
and it’s surrounding area is an archaeological and
historical hotspot and we hope to help make it more so.
March After living here for 30 years we
had the last wooden windows replaced with UPVC ones. The chaps were a different
kettle of fish from the drain lads so I give up jogging. Steve redecorated the
‘Bar’. I spring cleaned the house and we were waiting for our first guests to
arrive. Old Bob Snowball and Martin and
Phyllis Stolworthy came to visit for the week from Norfolk. Our friend Alan also stayed with us
and we visited Caerhayes Castle to see the garden magnolias and
minerals on display in the house. The whole collection had been assessed by
Courtenay Smale and more were now on show. This included some more of the
wonderful copper arsenate minerals that turned up during mining in the Gwennap area. We were part of a tour but in the end the
guide left someone with us as we kept lagging behind as we wanted to look at the
minerals properly. Before the tour Mrs. Williams - the lady of the house – saw Bob and
offered him a wheelchair which was very thoughtful of her but we made Bob walk!
At the end of the week Martin went snake hunting with Robbie Selley. I
volunteered myself to accompany them down to the Red River Valley. We saw 5 female adders. Wow. The NOCAG team had
it’s first outing and cleaned up an old pack-horse bridge at Trevemper.
April Angie and Dave Shelverton, who used to come on our walking
weeks, were visiting their son and family who live in Cornwall. We agreed to meet up for the day
and I say ‘Lets go down the Red River to photograph adders. I know exactly
where to look for them’. I remembered where all their basking spots were that
Robbie showed myself and Martin. Well we didn’t see
one snake. Luckily we went on to Godrevy and saw the seals in the photo. May be
it was seeing Dave – all fit and slim – Steve went on a diet on April 20th
and came off it on April 21st. I went mineral collecting to Bamfylde in Devon – Nigel Hoppe and Avril Woodburn gave me a lift in their
car – much appreciated as the site is somewhere on Exmoor in the woods. I found most the
minerals noted there except for gold! Towards the end of the month I went ‘mineralling’ with Russell Society friends in the grounds of
Restormel Castle where the gorgeous Dryads Saddle
fungus was growing.
May Most of the guests staying with us in the spring are for one
or two nights and are walking the coast but we kept a week free to go bug
hunting with Maria Justamond and Graham Bell. Maria is magnificent at spotting
insects and identifying them. Steve, Graham and I followed her around. We did
find some bugs on our own but really the week was made because of Maria.
Pictured are a glow-worm larva and next to it the sheep dropping – which is the
larva of a bloody nosed beetle. Cornwall is abound with Nature reserves and
we haven’t visited them all yet. I saw things I never knew existed. Maria’s
photographs are on Flickr - user name Rockwolf(the original). Some of her pictures have been used
on Spring Watch on the TV. During that week we all also got invited to dinner
with members of the Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society and Steve and I were presented
with a selenite and winklestone
trophy bearing the club badge and a plaque – thanking us for sharing Cornwall with the club on our mineral collecting
weeks that we ran. On the Friday we had another outing to a book presentation. Finally the
archaeology of Trevelgue Head was in print. This momentous work was pulled
together by Jackie Nowakowski, County Archaeologist. I bought a red dress for the
occasion. Graham drove us all to the venue which was great as I would have
never made it in my high heels….. Steve and I were part of the gang
representing our local history society. We had been given a copy of the book as
we had made a small contribution to the work over the years. My sister Jean came to stay for a few days –
she is a year younger than me and the bossy one!!! On a sunny day Peter and Win
Hicks gave a Pasty lunch in their garden to raise funds for the Newquay Old
Cornwall Society and Steve, I, Steve’s mum and Jean attended it. Now Steve and
I have a bit more time we can support functions like this. Peter and Win’s
garden is wonderful. I still marvel at Peter’s edging for his veggie plots –
upside down wine bottles. They won’t rot in our damp Cornish climate. The
bottles were empty!
June The guest house is getting busier and we
have some week and longer bookings as well as the one night stays. Regular
visitors Janet and Phil come to visit archaeology sites. Mick and Julia Couzens visit us again even though we are not providing
evening meals anymore which is nice. Renate Ertl
comes all the way from Austria to walk our coast. Tom Walker turns
up for a couple of nights with a chap called Dave Thornley.
They are doing geophysical readings at Gwithian Towans - just like you see on TV except their equipment is
on a heavy sledge. We arrange 
to meet them to see what they 
are doing. We missed them at first and then later in the day
spotted them on top of a hill but had run out of steam so we just took a long
distance photo of them. Manela Kerber
and Nada Meisl stayed for a few days. They were
walking the coast back to Newquay when they got to above Watergate Bay and found the coast path had fallen
away down the cliff. They had to hang on
to the field fence backing the path to get across the gap where it had been. It must have been a very frightening
experience.
Sybil Eadie used to
come on our Best of Cornwall week and decided to come anyway even though we
weren’t doing anything special. We 
had some nice weather so we took Sybil to the Lizard – she
is 
sitting next to Steve in the second photo and the middle
picture shows why we love Cornwall. After the bug week with Maria and
Graham I finally bought a new camera – a Nikon P500 with a zoom lens and the sparrow is one of
the first pictures I took with it. At the end of the month NOCAG cleaned up
round the Medieval
Penrose Cross Base. It would have marked the path to St. Columb
Minor Church from Penrose Farm.
July and August Bridget and Dick Belson were in Cornwall and came to dinner with Robbie
Selley and Chris Jewson. Robbie had been back to the Red River and seen male adders and he couldn’t
believe I never found any in April! Dick and Bridget are members of the Norfolk
Mineral Society. We spent a day around Newquay 
with John and Jaime Worthington and their 
handsome daughters Nicola and Hannah and Nicola’s daughter.
The Worthington’s spent all their holidays whilst
their girls were growing up with us.
Towards the end of the month Fiona Shand and
her son Connor came to stay for the week. The weather was good so we all went
off to the Lizard again. I got out with my new camera hence the hoverfly which is
Myathropa florae. At the end of the month NOCAG
cleaned up St. Eval Long-stone which was disappearing under small trees, ivy
and blackthorn. Pictured is Richard Prestige, myself, Rachel Parry and Hilary Borket. Janet Harling took the photo.
At the 
end of July and into August our long 
term regulars appeared…Gordon Bury, Phil Radford, Freda, 
Dave and Stacey Cawood and week
later Alan Blythe and Andy, Joan and Katie Richardson. We were all very sorry
to hear that Pauline Radford had passed away. Phil coped really well
considering. His daughters were in Cornwall as well so kept an eye on him. Somehow
a competition sort of grew up between Dave Cawood and
Alan Blythe as to whose breakfast was the most tastefully decorate – samples shown.
By the time I got round to deciding whose was the best they had eaten
them. Freda had an adventure – she was a
‘ Keeper’ for a day at Newquay Zoo.
September was the realisation of a dream for
me. I finally got to the British Micromount Symposium held at Leicester University. I spent about 12 days out of the
County leaving Steve to look after his cousin Sheila and her husband who were
staying with us. Steve also volunteered to act as a steward for the Cornwall
Archaeological Society 50th Anniversary display that was held at Trerice Manor. As I hadn’t been out of Cornwall for over a decade I bought a SatNav but didn’t really work out how to use it until after
I left Leicester University….the first night I was staying with
our friend Alan in Redditch. I made it to Bromsgrove but then managed to confuse the SatNav – I probably talked it to death and 
couldn’t get it to direct me onwards so I rang up Alan and
he drove to where I was to lead me to his home. Leicester was even more fun. At one point I got
mislaid there and had to cross a three lane one way highway. The Symposium was
awesome – all those hard rock mineral collectors there and I won joint second
in the Micro – mineral competition with a tasty spangolite
from a smelter at Newlyn. I met loads of friends. The first picture shows Chris Jewson, Dick
Belson and Martin Ellams – the only one doing some
work! I was a bit overawed by it all. Then I went and spent a couple of days
with Bob Snowball in Fakenham in Norfolk. I followed Martin Stolworthy’s car to get there. Next is
was to 
Kings Lynn to see my brother Bob and his family. Bob and his
son Christopher kindly came over to Snowball’s and I followed them to their
house. After that I was on my own and I had to get to Croydon. Luckily the SatNav decided to work and I managed fine. I stayed with my
brother Mark and his family. Mark took me to the Barnes Wetland Centre where I
saw my first water vole – well just it’s fat backside
as it slipped under a bank but that’s better than nothing. I then stayed with
my best friend Rita in Tooting and finally ended up in Dibden
Purlieu with my brother Derek and his wife Sally. They took me to see their
daughter Sarah, husband Keith and children. They have a small holding with a
huge sow and lots of piglets and chickens and ponies. We also had a Britannia Class steam engine
come into Newquay Railway Station and I managed to get a picture.
October Through the year on some Wednesday
afternoons I man the Newquay Old Cornwall Society Archive Room. Room 27 is on
the top floor of the Council Offices in Marcus Hill. It was October 5th
and about 3.40pm I decided to tidy clean the floor. I got the upright hoover out of the corner. The room door was open. I was
happily vacuuming away when all of a sudden there was a great gust of dust out
of the machine that filled the air in the landing area outside the room. Whoops
thought I. Then the fire alarm went off. I dutifully
unplugged the apparatus, grabbed my belongings, locked up and made for the
exit. Outside the building I met all the other people who had responded to the
alarm. I mentioned in passing that I thought I had set off the alarm but
someone said it was something in the computer room so I was allowed off home. I
got home – then felt I ought to go back and put a note on the hoover so no-one else used it. I shot back down to the
offices and everyone was still outside including now – a lovely red fire
engine. I reported to the fire-warden who said I should go upstairs as a
fireman wanted to speak to me. That made my day – men in
uniforms….the chap was lovely and really understanding when I explained
what happened. I was ‘grovellingly’ sorry. We decided
the vacuum had had its day. So I grasped said object by its handle and carted
it out of the building and wheeled it up the hill back home to dispose of it at
the local rubbish tip. What was interesting
about the whole affair was that all the staff and presumably councillors and
may be the Mayor who stood on the steps at the front of the building – everyone
was smiling and joking so perhaps I did them a 
good turn!!!! By the way – I have been back to man Room 27
and they let me in the building. Mineral collectors Dave Evans and Steve Plant
stayed with us and Steve photographed the baby seal at Porthtowan.
NOCAG visited the Harbour of Refuge at Towan Head which Treffry was building in 1848/49. It was never finished as
he died. We were all surprised at how much of the harbour is left and the
research I did for it gave me the basis of a short talk to the Newquay Old
Cornwall Society in December. Only a few people fell asleep. I lead a field
trip into Hingston Down Quarry and Steve and I went on
an archaeological walk lead by Stephen Rose on Bodmin Moor. I demonstrated
being a crouched burial in a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age cist. I managed to
get out before Steve put a capstone over me.
November and December It was Jaime Worthington’ s 50th birthday and
she and John popped into see us. As Jaime is getting ‘older’ I gave her a
packet of liquorice to keep her going.
Janet Sharpe’s daughter and her boyfriend Dan stayed for a couple of
days. They have just got engaged. I asked if Dan got down on his knee to
propose to her. ‘Yes’, she said. ‘I thought he had fallen over’. Ron Linfield,
the photographer, came for a break around the 19th November just as
we had a pipe start leaking. The water was coming through the ceiling in the
little loo upstairs and all we could do was stick a bucket in there to catch
the water. So Steve has been busy mending things and I have been busy getting
everything ready for Christmas. We also had our roof repaired in the summer
which means we shall be running the guest house in 2012 to pay for it. So may
be we will see some of you then.
I have got to the end
of this newsletter. Just to wish you all a prosperous and healthy and happy
2012. Love, Sheila and Steve.