CHP committee, 2014-07-24

Minutes of the CHP committee meeting held at Liskeard on 2014-07-24. Readership is public. This document was approved at the meeting on 2014-09-18.

Present:

Rachel Bennett          Stuart House
Hilary Taylor           Pensilva Wildlife
Jen Bousfield           Dormouse/North Hill History/Stara Woods
Frank Werkmeister       Caradon Orchards
Angus Holland           Pensilva History
Peter Jackson           Darite Heritage
Derris Watson           Phoenix 100
Iain Rowe               Caradon Archaeology
Peter Murnaghan         Informal Caradon Railway Observer
Brigitte Mann           CAGG
Lianne Crocker          Caradon Writers

Apologies:

Lorna Shrubsole
Peter Stedman
Sue Robbins
Jill Saunders
Calum Beeson

The meeting was chaired by Iain Rowe.

Minutes of 2014-05-15

Matters arising

Unfinished CHAHP projects: Cormac had planned to do them between December and March but were prevented by weather problems and so returned the money. DW has made inquiries whose results suggest that Cornwall Council and HLF would respond well if we seek to pursue the work now.
Heritage Centre at Minions: Colin Buck has inspected the site with Darrock & Brown [Who are now called Heritage Cornwall Ltd]. The money has been allocated and the work is expected to start soon. The building is in too dangerous a condition to operate until that work is carried out.
Liskeard Castle report: Iain has a draft copy of the report to check, so its completion is imminent.
Caradon Trail signs: DW reported that the Highways Department is in consultation with BT to obtain authorisation for placing the signs on BT poles.
Mapping the Sun: IR reported that a four page leaflet is being produced with the results. There was a successful day school held at Sterts/Minions on 2014-07-12 to communicate the results of the project. During the field work we noticed several circular holes cut into the turf at scheduled monument locations. IR has reported them to landowners, commoners, English Heritage and Historic Environment. We believe they are made by metal detectorists. Anyone seeing any more are encouraged to report them to us.

The Minutes were approved.

Charter Fair

This report includes a summary of our finances.

DW said it had been a good day, but because Liskeard shuts down early on Saturday people are less likely to come into town in the afternoon.

Possibly being on page 4 of the Lions programme made us more obscure. Next time it would be better to be on the back page. DW reported that Lions liked us being part of the Carnival week with events that enhanced it.

We collected £195 from the walks and talk. CHP has been paid £250 for facilitation. IR donated the money from his walks, amounting to £80, giving us a total income of £525.

Our previous balance was £28.50 so we now have £553.50 available to spend at our discretion plus £570 earmarked for project spending making a total of £1123.50.

This illustrates that we are capable of making a financially sustainable event of this magnitude.

Because the event was judged to have been successful, Phoenix 100 have been allowed to claim the balance of the funding to fund next year's event.

All the peripheral walks and events were well attended and the diversity of event topics is attractive to a lot of people. We should aim to try and have member organisation events coördinated for the event week next year.

It is useful to have walking events finishing near Stuart House to maintain a focal point.

The meeting agreed to support the Charter Fair as an annual event and thanked Derris for the energy she has put into making it happen.

Event underwriting

DW suggested that we could earmark the collected £195 to underwrite the cost of specialist talks organised by member organisations. This would allow them to engage speakers that they might otherwise feel are too much of a financial risk.

We would underwrite up to £50 at the discretion of the CHP officers. Applications above £50 would be considered at a CHP committee meeting.

The meeting agreed to support this underwriting process.

You can find a form to request underwriting here.

Member organisation plans

Caradon Orchards: Community apple day at Upton Cross on 2014-10-12;
Mark Camp's walking festival in September - this may include a Caradon Archaeology walk at Leskernick;
Caradon Writers book launch in November. There may be a competition in advance to choose a cover illustration for it;
John Manley's talk about William West in Pensilva;
John Manley's book is launched on 2014-09-13 at the Liskeard Museum. This will also be the launch of the museum's geology display;

There was a lengthy discussion about publicity. It is useful if the CHP logo is included in all member organisation publicity to build awareness of common theme.

BM volunteered to write a resources list document about effective publicity somewhen within the next three months.

HLF

Tamsin Daniel from Cornwall Council opened the Charter Fair. She is one of the HLF board members for the Southwest. She said that she was impressed with the week's events. Also, a notable success is that LC's training had been funded by HLF and she is now a fully qualified teacher. Also funded was training for "Suzanne" as a social worker.

Tamsin emphasised that there is money available for "landscape partnership" projects, especially for capital works. Similarly, money is available for matched funded capital projects from other providers such as SITA and Viridor.

Tamsin specifically mentioned the miner's cottages in Westbourne Lane and Westbourne House as potentially fundable works. These are currently owned by Cornwall Council.

There was speculation about linking the Caradon Trail to the Bodmin cycle hub. This would presumably be via St Neot.

Web update

The subgroup continues to meet with Keith Mountifield of 2KS to develop and improve the site. The hosting and support is funded for 3 years. We might eventually consider applying for funding for further development after that. This might include upgrading support of applications to use on the various evolving forms of portable device. Current work includes consideration of a site redesign and provision of a site map.

Property audit

This is not yet finished. Its purpose is to provide a common database of assets available to the members. For example, there may be surveying equipment available from the mining group. Some of the equipment may be hired when required, others may be loaned more freely.

This data might be made available through the web site if we create a closed section for members.

Any other business

IR has been contacted by Philip Lank who works in Redruth with the Mexican Diaspora. There is a possibility of twinning an East Cornwall town with some place in Mexico.

AH volunteered to communicate further and acquire more specific details.

Date of next meeting

2014-09-25 or 2014-09-18, to be chaired by AH.

The meeting closed at 20:59 BST.

Updates

This document is maintained by the Caradon Heritage Partnership. Comments should be addressed to CHP_secretary at caradon dot org dot uk.

PNJ, 2014-08-19. Made from notes taken at the meeting.