The Cornish Chronicle

15/06/2024

My father J. C. Hoskin was born on June 15, 1891. Happy 133rd birthday, Dad!

24/05/2024

We're looking forward to a special meeting this Monday, May 27th. Professor Jonathon Cullick of NKU will conduct a ZOOM workshop on "How to critique without being critical". Sharing feedback is the best way we help each other improve our writing, so this will be great for MMWG. Guests welcome, email [email protected] for an invitation.

10/05/2024

Someone out there has hacked my account. Please do not respond to any friend requests from me. I was even asked to “friend” myself. 🙄

18/02/2024

In a recent announcement from Redruth Town Council, the iconic Miner statue, a symbol of the town's hard work and resilience, has undergone a thorough cleaning, bringing a fresh sparkle to this beloved monument. The cleaning process was carried out by the town's dedicated Facilities Team, who employ...

02/01/2024

Today I moved into my three month rental. Had an amazing latte and a Cornish pasty for lunch, then unpacked every suitcase - so happy to land in one place for more than a few weeks.

Getting ready to go to bed and spend my first night here in my “home “. Love is the answer” – the wall says it all.

31/12/2023

Another complete rainbow - this one outside my airbnb window.
&
Sometimes I just gotta wonder…did my Camino in 2009 sew the seeds for this dream to move here - I’ve walked the St. Michel’s Way from Leland to St. Michaels Mount at least 4 times - each time feeling a connection to the Camino I walked in Spain and France. Funny how things unfold!!

29/12/2023

We are here. 🌀🌀
Wonderful journey lovingly supported by friends and family, and my angels on either end who helped with 9 suitcases, a massive dog crate and Rupert - Thank you Michael (US) and Phillip (UK). Couldn’t have done it without you.
Rupert and I arrived last night, warmly welcomed by John Wills and Paula Wills as we drove into town. Thank you. You both have been more a part of the magic than you could ever know!
🙏♥️🙏
Today we drove into town to get stocked up and also took a walk on the coastal path. We were greeted by a perfect rainbow!🌈 Rupert did great on the flight and today was happily chasing a stick-like piece of seaweed. Always a Lab! 🐕‍🦺 (That’s St. Michael’s Mount behind Rupert and me.)
So happy and grateful to be here.
Living into the dream. 😍🌀✨💖

28/12/2023

Tonight’s the night I make the leap! Rupert and I are crossing the “pond” and moving to the southwestern tip of Cornwall! Im sitting at the airport gate as I type. Rupert is already in his crate in the cargo area - please send love to him - this is a brand new experience for him! I wrote a note to the captain and crew to let them know that rupert will be down below. We arrive in London tomorrow morning and then drive down to Penzance - a 5-6 hour drive. I will check back when I get down there!!
New life! New adventures. Going home. ♥️✨🌀♥️🐕‍🦺

20/09/2023

Another big birthday, Penny. Much love!

05/03/2023

Want to learn more about St Piran?

Our 'The Tale of St Piran' film tells the story of Cornwall’s Patron Saint and was commissioned by us in 2019 so that children could learn more about him.

The film is 10 minutes long, suitable for primary school-aged children and above and free to watch on our website.

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone that made this project possible! The film was produced by Bookshelf Productions and directed by Joe Inman. We were very fortunate that the poet, writer and actor Pol Hodge agreed to play the role of St Piran and wrote the script.

Watch the film here https://www.cornwallheritagetrust.org/learn/resources/st-piran-film/

28/02/2023

28/02/2023

Listen to Richard J. C. Hoskin give his lively invitation to join him on the virtual lecture series of Cornwall: History, Mystery, Mansions, Mines and Modernity through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UM - MOLLI. Sure to be an informative and jolly good time!

11/11/2020

Bert Biscoe, Mayor of Truro, read his poem at the Cathedral Remembrance service on Sunday, A Ballad of the Fallen. A Ballad of the Fallen:

You never know when you stop
On a corner to enquire the health
Of a cousin and his own, if he
Loiters occasionally, a watcher

In long light, a survivor of the fight,
On a corner of this deserted street
In our old town of memory – Ah!
Such a place! Windows and bells!

Familiar shadows, muffled yells,
The thud of lead entering flesh,
Cloud-parted mothers reaching –
‘I only aimed at their legs!’ Patch

Protesting from his enemy’s stone,
Hands clasped in forgiving prayer.
A c***k of glancing volition, a lucky
Deflection, and the longest life

In the village, following the stream
Day by day to its spring. O! It must be
Not the Fallen who gather, for this
Is the moment to run regret’s

Melancholy finger over tobacco-tin dents
Buttoned by heart’s miracle breast,
To stand in the chill of November,
Colours dipped, and tight-lipped bugler,

And children to chatter on corners
Of perpetual towns, and ghosts
To run from bar to bar, from aunt
To uncle, from childhood to battle,

To stand bareheaded, free to speak,
To stand with Binyon on Beeny cliff,
To peer across a steely sea, to ask
‘What if?’ and remember, r+emember

Not merely the Fallen, but to stand
Quietly on November’s Fallen street,
To stand each year with the survivor,
To hear the children on the swings,

To know that all, beyond Binyon’s
Northerly horizon, will once more,
When bugles fade on silent fields,
That all, in No-Man’s-Land, will meet.

27/08/2020

This year is the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the allied victory over Germany and her allies in World War II. As a boy in Cornwall I organized a big bonfire for our community's celebration. Read the story in my "Memoirs While Memory Lasts". Go to www.amazon.com/author/richard_hoskin

26/08/2020

Heartwarming response from enthusiastic readers for newly published second edition of my "Memoirs While Memory Lasts". Three new stories, many new memories — including scandalous murder on the moors involving British Members of Parliament. Enjoy the read!
www.amazon.com/author/richard_hoskin

21/06/2020

My father John Collins Hoskin with his Granfer, John Collins, in Wadebridge, Cornwall, 1891.

01/03/2018

My uncle gave me a toboggan for Christmas when I was six. I only ever used it once!

Wow! Kynance Cove's looking amazing today, a rare and beautiful...
Check out Cornwall for yourself www.selectcornwall.co.uk

Photo ~ Kynance Cafe

01/03/2018

In Search of Virginia Woolf’s Lost Eden in Cornwall

Check out this recent "New York Times" article with its glorious photographs of Cornish locations around picturesque St. Ives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/travel/virginia-woolf-cornwall.html

The vast coastal county of Cornwall, England, had a profound effect on the future writing of the impressionable young girl who would become a literary star.

18/11/2017

This is Gracie Clymer, my FTOGD (Favorite Third Oldest Granddaughter) singing one of the songs she has composed.

01/07/2017

This is the sacred St. Nectan's Kieve near Tintagel in Cornwall. Commercialization for tourism is in danger of despoiling vital spiritual and historical sites.

18/05/2017

Thursday Thought: Our Gang and Other Warfare

http://thecornishchronicle.com/uncategorized/thursday-thought-our-gang-and-other-warfare/

I am currently giving my lecture series “CORNWALL: History, Mystery, Mansions, Mines and Modernity” to OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Cincinnati). They are…

05/03/2017

Happy St. Piran's Day!

03/11/2016

Guest lecturer at OLLI at 11:00 am on Tuesday, November 8. Poet, songwriter, politician and visionary BERT BISCOE will speak to us from Truro, Cornwall, on "MODERN CORNWALL". He has some great insights on Brexit.

15/10/2016

Granite's other form – china clay – led to Cornwall's biggest industry

My lecture at OLLI on Tuesday will describe the influence of the Quakers on discovering China Clay in Cornwall and inventing Porcelain.

The origins of the industry: Cornwall is renowned for its granite engine houses, bridges, dwelling...

22/09/2016

Thursday Thought: How much did the ancient Celts influence English?

Fascinating discussion in my OLLI class on CORNWALL on Tuesday. Were the Celts pushed to the fringes of Britain? Or did they assimilate with the Anglo-Saxons? How much influence on the English language? http://wp.me/p4LySx-o7

The first lecture in my new course to the OLLI group in Cincinnati stirred a fascinating discussion. OLLI is the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Cincinnati. (For a descriptio…

18/09/2016

Looking forward to launching my lecture series "CORNWALL: History, Mystery, Mansions, Mines and Modernity" for OLLI on Tuesday. It's in the Victory Parkway Campus lecture hall at 11:00 a.m.

24/08/2016

Cornish connections even in the most unlikely places!

The fastest man in the world is… from Cornwall? When we read that Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt hails from Trelawny, Jamaica, we had to know more. Why is there a Trelawny in Jamaica? Was this a Cornish mining colony? What did they mine in Jamaica? Here’s the answer, according to Wikipedia: “Trelawny (Jamaican Patois: Trilaani) is a parish in Cornwall County in northwest Jamaica. Its capital is Falmouth. It is bordered by the parishes of Saint Ann in the east, Saint James in the west, and Saint Elizabeth and Manchester in the south. In 1770, the wealthy planters in St James and St Ann succeeded in having sections of those parishes become the parish of Trelawny as they were too far from administrative centres. Trelawny was named after William Trelawny, the then Governor of Jamaica….Trelawny is best known for its sugar estates and sugar cane mills. It had more sugar estates than any other parish, so there was need for a sea coast town to export it. Falmouth became a thriving seaport and social centre.”
Cornwall County?! Falmouth?!
Well, how about that! ’Twould be no lie to say Usain Bolt is from Cornwall! Cornwall County, that is. So while the world’s fastest man may not really be a Cornishman, we’d like to think of him as, perhaps, a son of Cornwall.

06/08/2016

Brian

An extraordinary example of the inventiveness of Cornish culture.

The 'Man Engine' visits Redruth

https://youtu.be/UkuidP1UGJk

Please feel free to share/comment/tag.

14/07/2016

Another great Wimbledon championship and for me extraordinary personal memories. In another Memoir While Memory Lasts I recall the time I brushed shoulders with tennis greats sitting in the competitors gallery right on the baseline opposite the royal box on Centre Court.

I was not a competitive tennis player myself. How on earth did this come about? Here is the end of the story:

Nowadays whenever I watch Wimbledon on television I feel nostalgic for the much more vivid and intimate view I once had in the competitors’ box. But whatever the venue, an unmistakable tickle of gin and tonic tantalizes my nostrils.

For the story behind the story go to http://wp.me/P4LySx-6I