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“Our Views Are Clear.”
Summer 2012
VOLUME 6.4
THE TRESCO TIMES STILL FREE AND STILL MAKING SENSE OF SCILLY
Sea Garden Cottages Open
May 2012 saw the completion and opening of the Sea Garden Cottages, providing Tresco’s guests with sixteen stylish new rental cottages and nine timeshare properties. It was also the opening month for the island’s new beachside restaurant, Ruin Beach Cafe.
After a two year project, the Sea Garden Cottages opened their doors to Tresco’s visitors, while the Ruin Beach Cafe fired up its wood-burning oven for its first customers. Take a look around inside…page 5.
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Food Glorious Food on Tresco & Bryher F Find ind us us on on
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Bill Pritchard Clocks Off After 50 Years’ Service
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Uncovering an Explorer’s Past on Tresco
www.facebook.com/TrescoIsland www.facebook.com/TrescoIsland www.twitter.com/Tresco_Times www.twitter.com/Tresco_Times
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Insular Things
Crowds gathered at Gallery Tresco on 2nd May for a momentous event ... the retirement of Bill Pritchard, after 50 years service to the Estate.
Bill was one of the Estate carpenters for much of his career and for the past 14 years he was maintenance guru for the Cottage Department. Bill started working on Tresco at the age of 15, with a special dispensation from school and has remained an Estate employee ever since.
As well as commending Bill for his great contribution to the Estate, Robert Dorrien Smith reminded guests of Bill’s prowess as a rower in the Czar and as Tresco’s wicket-keeper, as well as reminiscing about their time together as boys in Tresco’s Scout Troop.
Not since the time of Augustus Smith himself has Tresco had its own resident MP but since the beginning of this year Tresco’s political profile has been given something of a boost.
Alice Chuter (aged 13) has been elected to represent the Isles of Scilly as a member of the UK Youth Parliament. Elections are held every year. Elections were held in February this year and at the heart of Alice’s campaign was the issue of boating costs for local children, creativity in the classroom and the provision of evening activities on St Mary’s.
“Being an off-islander, the cost of boat fares can make it difficult to see friends on other islands. From talking to friends throughout Scilly I knew that this was an important issue for all of us growing up here. Beyond the social side, transport is an important educational issue whatever stage you’re at.” Alice’s points struck home at the Five Island School and she was duly elected MYP in March. Equally persuasive were the cupcakes that Alice handed out before voting. The snappy message “Vote for Alice!” had been iced on to every one.
Already her official duties have included opening the new Prothcressa playpark on St Mary’s and a residential MYP conference in Dorset.
The Editor looks forward to Alice becoming the Tresco Times’ Westminster correspondent.
2012 World Pilot Gig Championships
Bill was presented with a painting and a mounted clock and barometer set, from Tresco Estate and islanders.
Bill took the opportunity to thank the assembled company. “Tresco is a wonderful place to live but its not just the island, it’s the people that make it special. People have been very important in my life, both locals and visitors, residents and holiday makers. Thank you all.” Wise words indeed. Testament to Bill’s great popularity was not only the number but the variety of people who attended the party, from some of the more senior islanders to many of the young seasonal staff - all came to wish him well. The Tresco Times would like to join the rest of the island and congratulate Bill on his “retirement” and hope he enjoys a bit of extra time for fishing and tending his highly-productive vegetable garden. Below: Bill at his party with island girls, Teona Dorrien Smith and Michelle Oyler.
Scilly’s 23rd gig championships proved to be as popular and exciting as always. This year 120 men’s crews and 125 ladies’ crews took part in a rowing extravaganza, which brings an estimated 3000 people to the islands. St Mary’s is the event’s epicentre, with no beds available and one pub ordering an extra 1000 gallons of beer to keep up with demand.
The off-islands remain as tranquil as always but there is no lack of enthusiasm from the inhabitants. This year Tresco and Bryher Rowing Club put out four crews, all of which did us proud.
The Men’s A crew is a new ensemble featuring both youth and experience. After a brilliant and vigorous first race from St Agnes, they held on to finish 23rd overall in the Alfie Jenkins. (Pictured top from left are cox Steve Parkes, Alex Christopher, Will Ash, Jamie Parkes, Jake Newton, David Reiss and Andrew Hulands).
The Men’s Novice crew were equally impressive - they finished 65th overall which is quite exceptional considering they are a genuinely novice crew. A great effort by the lads but also by their steely cox Susanna Gates, who has coached them superbly. Pictured below right, are from left Alex Prain, Peter Kiss, Tomas Chytra, John McMurray, Zoltan Gal, Jonny Fisher and Susanna Gates.
The Ladies’ A crew had a storming first race coming in 32nd out of 125. Competition was fierce and though their final position slipped to 48th was a valiant effort, not least by the crew’s youngest paddle, Connie Lawson aged 16. Rowing in the Alfie Jenkins at the foot of the page are, from the bow, Connie Lawson, Edit Toth, Michelle Oyler, Kairen Carter, Alison Douglas, Lisa Roberts and the cox, Jack Carter.
The Ladies’ Novice crew also performed well and came a creditable 108th. Pictured above - from the front - Sam Reed, Jana Chytra, Kate Clement, Katalin Kurko, Helen Wilson, Stephanie Williams. The cox and photographer of all the gig images is George Kershaw.
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With some rather grand events taking place this summer, not least the celebration of Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we look back 25 years. By the time this Tresco Times is hitting the doormats, the island will already have enjoyed its Jubilee celebrations. In anticipation of events, the Editor has been sifting through the archives in the Tresco vaults. Royal Jubilees are popular events on Tresco and the Island Fancy Dress Procession is something of a tradition. The photographs are from the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and were taken by the late Roy Cooper. The Editor was particularly pleased to find this photo of a young horsewoman...familiar to anyone?
All the Bells...
July sees the opening of the 2012 Olympics. The Editor is still bristling with indignation at the exclusion of Scilly from the Olympic Torch route (Isle of Man and Jersey? I mean really...) but his mood has been lifted by timesharer Peter Gibbon, who introduced him to Work No.1197. As part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Turner prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed has created this musical piece to celebrate the first day of London 2012. Work No. 1197 is described as “All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes.” At 8am on 27th July this work will be performed by you, me and anyone in Britain who has a bell and rings it. Doorbell, bicycle bell, hand bell - it doesn’t matter just ring it like crazy for 3 minutes! Peter has already engaged the support of Eve Cooper and Canon Peter Walker, so St Nicholas’ church with its bell will be the rallying point. There are already ten Tresco bell ringers signed up, as well as the Scilly Bells
on St Mary’s. Peter said: “It's a matter of getting as many folk as possible involved and joining in with whatever bell they can find. We’ll collect around the church at the allotted time and then go to the pub for coffee and bacon sandwiches. Graham the Bikeman has been warned to have the bells in tip-top condition!”
Peter will welcome other ringers on 27th July and for further information visit: allthebells.co.uk
Campanologists Bob Nelson and Philippa Gibbon.
Dummy Run For Tresco’s Coastguards
The Tresco Times’ Search and Rescue Correspondent reports on the rigorous training undergone by Tresco’s crack Coastguard unit… Looking for all the world like a refugee from Guy Fawkes’ Night, this impressive specimen was found at the very back of Piper’s Hole in April. The dummy had been deposited there as a “prank” and its presence was duly reported by a visitor to the Island Office. Tresco’s wily Coastguard supremo, Nick Shiles was informed. Not being one to miss an opportunity to test the mettle of his team, Station Officer
Shiles paged Tresco’s Coastguards. Once assembled, he informed them that there was a suspected body in Piper’s Hole. Unaware of SO. Shiles’ subterfuge, the unwitting team made their way to the north of Tresco to investigate, on a rather blustery, rather wet and very miserable day. Entering the dank and dismal cave, the team scrambled down its dark granite passageway to the underground pool at its rear. The pool is about thirty feet long and ends at a small gravel beach. It was here, across the chill waters, that the jaunty form of the dummy was illuminated by the Coastguard torches. Everyone was greatly relieved that there was no human casualty. S.O. Shiles insisted that the exercise must be completed, as the dummy needed to be removed. What had begun as potential tragedy now
Eddie’s Tours
Not content with literary fame as the Tresco Times’ Transport and Heritage Correspondent, Eddie Birch has branched out as a local tour guide to raise money for the RNLI. The Tresco Times sent along young journalist Amber Rees to investigate: On one of the most breathtaking and idyllic islands of the UK, Tresco is known for its subtropical features, warm breezes and beautiful beaches. However, I imagine that not many people know what Tresco looked like over 70 years ago. Well currently, Eddie Birch, who has been living on the island since his childhood days, is leading insightful tours of the Island, to widen visitors’ (and some locals’) knowledge on the history of Tresco. He takes his guests on a magical tour that lasts for approximately two hours, offering a journey back in time and an insight as to how everything was. From famous historical characters that walked the paths to in-depth facts of which no-one would have ever thought, Eddie Birch gives people a different way to view Tresco. He displays his wide knowledge of the subject in a friendly and down-to-earth way. The tours themselves only take two hours of your life and will give you so much in return. They are completely free but Eddie will be taking any donations for the RNLI – a charity that is very close to him and to which he’s been raising money for over 10 years. Last year alone, he collected over £1600 for the lifeboats. As well as getting new information pumped into your brain, you will relish the friendly atmosphere that Eddie creates, allowing you to ask any questions you wish, which he answers without fail. Another attraction of coming on these highly-informative tours, is the chance to mingle with other people and make friends within the island. If you are interested in joining one of Eddie’s Tours, then you will need to go to the Tresco Stores at 10am on either a Wednesday or Friday. Eddie will be there to give you a charismatic welcome and a chance to become better acquainted with the island’s history. slipped quietly into potential farce. A child’s plastic inflatable boat (pictured beneath the dummy) had been left by the “merry pranksters” but quickly proved to be an untrustworthy craft. The nearest alternative boat was back at wet and windy New Grimsby and would have to be manhandled into Piper’s Hole. A general groan echoed around the cave. It was then that one of this happy band volunteered to swim across the murky waters to fetch the dummy. Clad only in his regulation Coastguard underpants and appropriate safety equipment, he gingerly edged into the chilly waters and swam across to the beach, with all the speed and grace of an arthritic sloth. Returning with the sodden dummy, the shivering Coastguard emerged from the subterranean pool to be rewarded by the warm tones of Station Officer Shiles : “Well, at least you won’t be needing a bath tonight.”
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An Autumn of Food, Glorious Food!
September and October this year have a distinctly foodie flavour on Tresco and Bryher. To kick things off we have something altogether new … The Tresco & Bryher Food and Drink Festival!
On the weekend of 15th-16th September 2012, the Tresco & Bryher Food and Drink Festival will be celebrating the fantastic produce, chefs and suppliers on Tresco and Bryher. It's aimed at encouraging visitors and islanders to eat and buy local food from the two islands which are separated by a channel, have very different landscapes but share so much.
How will it work?
The food festival will be fun, relaxed and inspiring. As well as promoting the fabulous chefs and small producers on both islands, it will also promote some of the Cornish suppliers that help to make Tresco and Bryher foodie destinations. It will give visitors the chance to meet some of the chefs who produce their favourite holiday meals and learn about cooking with island produce. The festival will take place on Tresco on Saturday and Bryher on Sunday.
What will be happening?
Sat 15th September: Eat, drink and be merry on Tresco with tastings, demonstrations, music, walks and workshops.
With local experts, learn how to dress a crab or how to make traditional Scillonian delicacies like Tatie Cake, find out about Tresco Beef, roll up your sleeves for some artisan bread-making or design and cook your own Tresco pizza in a traditional wood-burning oven at the Ruin Beach Café. There’ll be wine-tasting with the island’s knowledgeable vintners and the opportunity to sample the very finest South-West cheeses. There will also be the chance to develop your creative skills with workshops on the art of cupcake decoration.
In the evening there will be a special gourmand dinner at the Flying Boat Club with a tasting menu prepared by a Tresco and Bryher culinary dream team – each of the seven courses cooked by a different island chef.
On Sunday 16th September there will be a festival at the community centre on Bryher for Bryher and Tresco Food Producers (much like a good quality farmer's market). With demonstrations from local chefs, there will be a series of work shops and talks for visitors.
For those unable to attend the festival itself – do not fear. We have some other foodie treats in store – we have tempted some West Cornwall local food heroes to come over to Tresco and share their expertise and knowledge:
28th-30th September - Baker Tom will be providing guests with the chance to learn breadmaking skills in the new Sea Garden Cottage, Sunfish. Baker Tom (Tom Hazzledine) now has a bakery in Pool and shops in Falmouth and Truro. Tom’s bread and pastries are also available through Riverford Organic Farm boxes and Cornwall Food Market, delis, restaurants and hotels across the South West. www.bakertom.co.uk
5th – 7th October- Mathew Stevens has given demonstrations of fish filleting and preparation for years, most recently to chefs at Rick Stein’s. He is a master of his craft, as you might expect from Cornwall’s Mr Fish. His family business, Mathew Stevens & Son is one of the most respected in the UK and one of Tresco’s longest-standing suppliers, dealing in fish from Newlyn, St Ives, Mevagissey and Looe, as well as a number of other ports in the South West.
Mathew will be delivering his entertaining, hands-on demonstrations of fish preparation in Sunfish between the 5th-7th October, any Tresco guests will be welcome but booking is essential. There will be no charge. www.mstevensandsons.co.uk
the Choaks’ bakery:
12th-14th October Charlie Choak (the pasty bloke) has been making pasties in Falmouth for over 50 years. As they say at
“We’ll tell you something for free, a Choak’s pasty ain’t like no other. Made to the same Cornish recipe for nearly 65 years, a Choak’s pasty is about as traditionally Cornish as a traditional Cornish pasty gets.”
Charlie runs his own pasty school and will be offering tuition. Each session will be for a maximum of four - £10 for the workshop, pastymaking certificate and a pasty of course! www.choakspasties.co.uk
For further information please call The Island Office 01720 422849
Heavenly Dining at Hell Bay
Due to demand special evening boating between Tresco and Bryher is on offer every Monday and Thursday this summer to allow Tresco’s guests to enjoy a dinner at Hell Bay. Tables either in the bar or the restaurant are available. Reservations are essential and 7pm is the recommended time to ensure a relaxed meal. To make a booking please call Hell Bay 01720 422947.
Gourmets Go Wild!
After the success of previous holidays and featuring in the Independent on Sunday and The Lady, the Hell Bay Gourmet Foraging Break begins once more on Bryher 21st-24th September with wild food expert Rachel Lambert. which includes four half day guided wild food walks across four different islands, afternoon tea and evening meals incorporating the day's wild foraged finds. For more information please call Hell Bay 01720 422947.
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The Sea Garden Cottages
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The Sea Garden Cottages are a collection of twenty five stylish new-builds and renovations, situated in landscaped gardens, only yards from the sea. Elegantly furnished, decorated with original artwork, the Sea Garden Cottages are idyllic island retreats. Complementing Tresco’s new cottages is the informal-chic restaurant, Ruin Beach Café. Set within the grounds of the Sea Garden Cottages, just above the sandy curve of Raven’s Porth, Ruin Beach Café has a Mediterraneaninspired menu with a range of dishes and pizzas cooked in its wood-fired oven.
The Sea Garden Cottages are built on the footprint of Tresco’s renowned Island Hotel. The Island Hotel first opened its doors to guests in 1961. The man behind the hotel was Tresco’s owner, Commander Tom Dorrien Smith. At the time, his decision to convert cottages into a luxury hotel on one of Scilly’s “off-islands” was seen as bold to the point of foolhardy.
The Commander’s forward-thinking and imaginative response to economic challenges proved to be a huge success.
Over the following decades, the Island Hotel flourished and grew to become Tresco’s flagship. Tourism on the Isles of Scilly became mainstay of the Scillonian economy and the Island Hotel was its yardstick for quality.
In recent years, visitor trends have changed and the attraction of traditional hotel holidays has waned. Many of today’s visitors to Tresco look to enjoy far greater flexibility, in particular wishing to have the option of self-catering.
With this in mind, the Commander’s son, Robert Dorrien Smith, has transformed his father’s hotel into holiday accommodation for today’s discerning visitor. The hotel has been turned back into cottages.
Fifty years on from the Island Hotel’s inception, an investment of £10 million and the reshaping of an icon of island tourism have proved just as bold and imaginative. The project took two years
and at times employed sixty builders working 12 hour days; now it is complete.
The old Island Hotel has gone but the Sea Garden Cottages usher in a new chapter for Tresco. Founded on quality, choice and continuity, The Sea Garden Cottages provide a new benchmark for the great British holiday.
The Sea Garden Cottages
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The Sea Garden Cottages
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Sea Garden Cottages Rental by the night
The nine one-bedroom Sea Garden Cottages can be rented on a nightly basis.
The nine one-bedroom Sea Garden Cottages can be rented on a nightly basis and are named Compass, Gimble, Cockle, Cowrie, Spindrift, Shrimp, Scallop, Clam and Crab. Each cottage has an open-plan sitting room and kitchen which look out on a garden terrace. Upstairs is the bedroom and ensuite bathroom. The bedrooms all enjoy magnificent sea views and their own balconies. There is a sofa bed downstairs suitable for children and some of the cottages have interconnecting doors for families.
Special introductory rates available on selected dates for 4 night breaks, dinner bed & breakfast, return helicopter flights from £700pp. For further information please call the Island Office on 01720 422849
A wish to provide our guests a more flexible style of holiday was one of the key elements in the creation of the Sea Garden Cottages and the nine one-bedroom cottages are all about style and choice.
With the Ruin Beach Cafe a minute’s stroll away, guests can book one of these cottages by the night on a bed and breakfast or dinner, bed and breakfast rate.
As each one has its own fully-fitted kitchen and open-plan sitting room,guests can also choose to cook for themselves on a selfcatering rate.
The photographs are all of Compass. The seascape below was taken from the bedroom balcony.
Dinner, bed and breakfast tariffs start from £185 per person per night.
Self-catering tariffs start from £150 pppn.
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The Sea Garden Cottages
Sea Garden Cottages Rental by the week
Seven of the Sea Garden Cottages are available to rent by the week. Six cottages, Lobster, Oyster, Samphire, Seapink, Starfish, and Seahorse, sleep six to eight guests. Sunfish can accommodate up to ten guests.
All the cottages are beautifully appointed with wonderful sea views. Light and airy interiors are complemented by specially commissioned fabrics and original artwork. The design of the properties has not been focussed solely on comfort and style. All heating for the cottages is
from air-source heat pumps which, along with the high degree of insulation, dramatically reduces the Sea Garden Cottages’ carbon footprint.
Guests have use of the on-site indoor swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi and gym.
Rental tariffs start from ÂŁ1,615 per week.
Cottage interiors pictured above are, from the top, Samphire, Seapink and Lobster.
The cottages pictured below are from left: Seapink, Samphire, Starfish, Sea Horse & Sunfish.
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The Sea Garden Cottages
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Sea Garden Cottages Timeshare
The completion of the Sea Garden Cottages sees Abalone and Nautilus become the newest additions to Tresco’s timeshare portfolio.
With four bedrooms and a sofa bed, Abalone can sleep up to ten guests. The cottage has two sun terraces and a balcony off the main bedroom to make the most of the handsome sea views. (Abalone’s sitting room is pictured below.)
Nautilus can accommodate up to eight guests and has already received acclaim for its extraordinary balcony with a panoramic view from Men-a-vaur to the Eastern Isles, pictured above.
For further information please call Dean Whillis on 01720 424111.
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Open from eight o’clock in the morning until 10pm in the evening, Ruin Beach Cafe is the Sea Garden Cottages’ new restaurant.
Serving breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner the Ruin Beach Cafe has already proved to be hugely popular with both visitors and locals alike.
The culinary centrepiece is the hearty wood-burning oven that is producing succulent steaks and roasted asparagus, as well as delicious pizzas.
For those who might want to breakfast at home, the oven is also being used to bake special Ruin Beach Cafe bread to take away.
The Ruin Beach Cafe also has wellstocked bar and serves coffees, teas and even cakes in the afternoon. Inside there is room for 60 diners, while outside there is seating for 80 available.
The decor is cool, beach-chic with original paintings like the huge James Dodds’ boat that hangs above the bar, as well as shell mosaics and hand-made toys.
The Sea Garden Cottages
The Ruin Beach Cafe
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Island Design
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Inside the Ruin Beach Cafe
Artistic Graffiti Shells, mosaics and the Ruin Beach Cafe by Amber Rees
Thousands of beads, hundreds of pieces of glass, sackloads of shells and days of devotion have all led to the creation of some of the most unique and inspired pieces of artwork to be seen on the island of Tresco. Although she has had no professional training, Lucy Dorrien Smith has managed to express the philosophy of Tresco through her beautiful mosaics, which are not only a true representation of the island and extremely eco-friendly but also raise money for charity through the sale of cards in the gallery and shop. Lucy started creating her mosaics, or ‘artistic graffiti’ as she now refers to them, when she first came to the island as the wife of Robert Dorrien Smith. She would collect bags and bags of shells; however she had no apparent need for them until she discovered an old shed in the Abbey Gardens, which, like her shells
had no obvious use. So, being an avid recycler, Lucy began work on her first creation, the ‘shell house’, which now proudly stands in the middle of one of the best horticultural sites in the world.
As Lucy developed her skills, she moved on from the ‘shell house’ and started work on the three mosaics that would end up at Smith Square, which, up until then, was crying out for some sort of decoration. It was here that Lucy’s family of ‘artistic graffiti’ was born. Peace, Love and Happiness were the mosaics that bore and still resemble the motto of Tresco. Little did Lucy know how much they’d be appreciated, and how successful they would be, in the form of merchandise, at raising money for the Precious Lives Appeal for a children’s hospice in the South West). As well as creating money for those who need it most, Lucy’s mosaics are fully made out of recycled materials; the shells were all handpicked from Tresco’s secluded beaches, or were brought in as discards from seafood restaurants. The small glass chips were all recycled from old swimming pools and Jacuzzi tiles, and the large, polished pieces of stained glass were all off- cuts from the work of Joan Bose – who coincidently was using the glass to decorate the mirrors that are inside the
Tresco cottages.
Recently, Lucy has been working on a range of mosaics for the Ruin Beach Cafe, with three walls to cover and the next member of the ‘artistic graffiti’ family to be created. With the wall mosaics completed (all of which owe their inspiration to Tresco), the last big project she now has to do is the ‘Friendship’ montage. It will hang at 150cm (long) x 100cm (wide), mounted on a piece of marine plywood that has already been recycled from the building project. It will sit comfortably in the Ruin Beach Cafe; a place designed for friends to meet and bond. As well as using the materials that she had to hand in her other pieces of artwork, Lucy has also asked her friends and family to give her something glass or metal that is meaningful to them, so that she can attach the pieces to her mosaic to show the gift of ‘friendship’. Who knows what else is to come, however one thing is for sure, Lucy Dorrien Smith has managed to create some of the most eco-friendly and emotive artwork on Tresco, designed not only to captivate those who look at it but to also raise money for a very special charity!
Island Toymaker’s Work Goes on Show In addition to the general coastal-chic of the Ruin Beach Café, there are some ornamental touches of a decidedly local and playful nature…Dick Bird’s handmade toys take on a new lease of life. Born in 1929, Dick Bird first came to Scilly from Yorkshire in 1955.
“I saw an advert in Farmer’s Weekly. An assistant was required on a St Martin’s flower farm, no experience necessary. I wrote to them in October and received a reply in December. Over one hundred people had sent in applications and I had been chosen. I was told that I’d got the job because I was the only one who hadn’t asked what the wages were!”
Dick worked for Rodney Ashford at Middle Town Farm for a few seasons before moving to Tresco to help lay out the gardens for the brand new Island Hotel. Once the landscaping was completed, Bryher was Dick’s next Scillonian home, where he lived for ten years, working for Arthur Jenkins.
In the early 1970s, Dick returned to Tresco, where he has remained ever since. Until his retirement, Dick worked in the Abbey Gardens, looking after the fruit and vegetable garden. Horticulture was not Dick’s only talent.
“I have always enjoyed working with wood. My father made all our toys when we were kids and
when my own children were growing up I made toys for them too.”
Since then toy making has become something of a hobby for Dick, most particularly for charity auctions such as Children in Need. At each event, Dick would donate a wooden lorry or train to help raise money and it soon became clear that one particular island family took a special interest in the toys.
“The Dorrien Smiths would always bid for whatever it was that I had made. So over the years they ended up with quite a collection at the Abbey!”
The Ruin Beach Café has now become a showcase for this handsome collection, bringing a very local flavour to the décor.
Amongst the assorted vehicles are a few Tresco classics, such as the Heliport fireengine, while the superb replica of the Abbey carriage will be less familiar.
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2012 Yoga and Spa Holiday
After the success of our previous yoga holidays we are once again delighted to host our resident instructor Lucy Aldridge but this time at our beautiful new Sea Garden cottages. We are offering 5 nights starting Friday 21st September departing on Wednesday 26th September 2012 Prices start from £860 per person, flying from Penzance to Tresco.
All rates are per person and based on two sharing a double or twin bedded cottage. The package includes return helicopter flights*, continental breakfast and a two course evening meal daily in the Ruin Beach Café, welcome reception, services of yoga instructor, ila Kundalini back massage at the Flying Boat Club Spa, use of the Sea Garden
facilities, indoor pool, jacuzzi, sauna and gym, Tresco Abbey Garden entrance, holiday insurance and VAT at the current rate. Yoga mat and other equipment can be hired for a small charge. There is a £250 supplement for single occupancy and a package excluding the yoga and spa treatment at £760 per person for non-participating partners.
Please call 01720 422849 for availability and booking information.
Should you have any questions about the yoga please do not hesitate to contact Lucy directly via email at lucy@lucyaldridge.com or by phone 07817 968 936
*Where travel and insurance are included we arrange and pay for flights and/or insurance on your behalf. Your contract for these services is with the Travel Company or insurance provider, not Tresco Estate.
gallery TRESCO Sea Garden Artists Chris Hankey
These paintings are somewhat quieter than my usual work .... They are about those quiet moments of reflection .... sometimes thinking of the past, but also just responding to nature during its quiet moments .... at dusk ....or twilight in stillness and calm. A time to just quietly exist with ones mind in free association. They remind me of how it feels when I am cycling .... when hours and hours have passed and I have been thinking of nothing at all.
Gallery Tresco’s manager Anna Parkes and assistant Lisa Roberts (pictured above) have been busy unveiling the Sea Garden Show, the final part of a two year creative process. “ Once more our artists have been invited by Lucy Dorrien Smith to use the names such as Lobster, Samphire, Cockle, Sea Pink, Cowrie, Gimble and Sunfish as their muse, and have done so to their usual exacting standard. Our brochure showcases some of the West Country’s finest makers and painters in a celebration of all things maritime.” Works by a variety of artists such as Paul Jackson, Rosemary Trestini, Chris Hankey, Wendy McBride, Will Shakspeare, Alice Mumford, Tom Leaper, Adrian Brough, Harriet Barber, Geoffrey Bickley and Rosie Jackson are on display.
SUMMER SHOWS 2nd JULY Ellen Watson, Paul Lewin and Amanda Hoskin 12th JULY Neil Pinkett, Anthony Garratt and Maggie O’Brien 23rd JULY David Rust, Imogen Bone and Rosemary Trestini
Their paintings and their words.
Wendy McBride
I wanted to do a picture of sea pinks, and spent several happy hours searching round the coast just in case. I found hundreds of mounds of little brush like seeds stiff against the November sky, and eventually, a solitary pink flower behind a rock. I had more luck with samphire; in the dunes the greeny-yellow flowers were blooming again amongst their black seed heads. Then it struck me that probably Lucy had been thinking of that other samphire, those delicious salty shoots that go so well with fish. Does anyone know where they might be? As for seahorse, I would like to think he is wound around his eel grass somewhere very close. A magic fish for these magic islands.
Rosemary Trestini
I was delighted once again to be invited to take part in Lucy's Sea Garden exhibition. I've concentrated on sea pinks and Gimble Porth, two subjects which are close to my heart and which have inspired me yet again as does the whole of Tresco and its’ infinite variety. MIXED SHOWS 2nd, 13th, 23rd AUGUST Victoria Hilliard, Gary Long, Sue Lewington, Amy Albright, Andrew Tozer, Nicky Walker and Chris Hankey
AUTUMN SHOW 9th OCTOBER Sue Lewington, Marie Mills, Tom Rickman, Teresa Pemberton, Chris Rigby, Richard Tuff and Geoffrey Bickley
For a brochure or for further information: gallery TRESCO 01720 424925
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EDITORIAL
THE TRESCO TIMES OUR VIEWS ARE CLEAR
While on a recent foray to the mainland, I was invited to a lunch party. One of the other guests was a confirmed metropolitan, who, when told where I lived, was quite perplexed. “Tresco? The Isles of Scilly? What can there possibly be to do? I mean, why would you choose to live there?” In reply I rattled off, with evangelical zeal, a long list of activities, hobbies and assorted benefits of an island lifestyle but I don’t think he was really interested. None of it seemed of much use to him.
I thought of him a day or two later. I had started reading “To The Mountains of The Moon”; its intriguing connection with Tresco is discussed below. The book recounts an exploratory expedition in Africa around 1900. Its first chapter begins “There is a wearisome kind of person who, when anybody has been anywhere or done anything, is always ready to ask what useful end such work subserves; and lest any such worthy should have the misfortune to be tempted to peruse these pages further, I hasten to tell him at once that he will find no sort of answer to his queries from the beginning to the end of this book.”
Sometimes perceived “usefulness” is much over-rated. On this theme and with Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee this year, it was with particular interest that I read this 1846 account from the Daily Telegraph of Queen Victoria’s visit to St Michael’s Mount: “The men of St Martin’s island, one of the Scilly group, were so anxious to see their Sovereign that they left their houses in two of their large gigs and rowed all the way across to the Mount. The Queen, hearing of their remarkable performance, sent for them and they were presented to Her Majesty who was so struck with their loyalty that she desired the Prince to shake hands with each one of them. They were lavishly regaled and before they started on the long row back to Scilly their boats were well stocked with beef, bread and other vegetables and the Queen herself saw then off and gave then her heartiest wishes.” (My thanks to The Scillonian Magazine No. 274 for this royal gem.)
Editor: Alasdair Moore Tresco Times, Tresco, Isles of Scilly. TR24 0QQ t:01720 422849 f:01720 422807 editor@tresco.co.uk www.tresco.co.uk
Page 12 Tresco Times
LETTERS
Vice Admiral The Hon Sir Nicholas Hill-Norton KCB responds to our Transport and Heritage correspondent’s article in the last issue...
Dear Editor, I was interested to read (Spring 2012 page10) that my father had caused some amphibious support to be made available in the 1970s. Both he and my father in law Vice Admiral Dennis Mason were Naval contemporaries of Tom Dorrien Smith and my parents had stayed with the family at the Abbey. Our generation also love Tresco and we have stayed at the Island Hotel, rented Dolphin House and also spent time on Bryher. I was reading the Tresco Times as we arrived last week in the Maldives – the only other place where the water is so magically coloured and clear. If only the sea round Tresco was as warm. Yours sincerely Nicholas Hill-Norton Hants.
Denise Jeffrey’s shares her maternal memories of Tresco and an island baby with The Tresco Times.
Dear Editor, Having a baby is always an adventure and living on the small but perfect island of Tresco certainly was for me in 1963. My two previous babies were home births with no complications but here the local doctor insisted all babies should be born in the hospital on St Mary’s. A thrust from a fist or foot, a stirring within my womb and my own restlessness were reminders that I was two weeks overdue, so high time for action! Prior arrangements had already been discussed and made with Peter Bastion, the Assistant Farm manager. Commander Tom Dorrien Smith had very kindly offered the use of his sleek launch Soleil d’Or and his boatman, Laurie Terry, for my transport across to St Mary’s when the time came. The concern and kindness of the islanders was quite moving, especially from Ann and Roger Oyler. Ann had offered to give my family, husband Jack, daughter Andrea and son Anthony, a main cooked meal each day, as well as any help that was needed. A very kind offer when Ann already had a job as a teacher at the island school! Many women have a surge of energy prior to giving birth and I was no exception, so on the morning of 10th March, after getting our seven year old daughter off to school, I calmly set to clean the house, bake a cake and cook lunch. Jack, meanwhile, had cycled to the farm (we had no telephone) to notify Peter Bastion and Laurie terry that transport would be needed at about 4pm. Early afternoon I took our blond-haired three and a half year old son down to Pentle Bay for a stroll along the silver-white sandy shoreline to look for soft pink cowrie shells with spots on top. We did find some, to the delight of us both. I had already talked to our son, explaining that I would be going away for a few days and would bring back a baby brother or sister for him. He took it all calmly and he had been told that he would be helping his dad at work in the greenhouses. Important work for this serious, small boy. My bag was packed and quite soon my transport arrived – a well-scrubbed pig cart and
tractor; placed on the cart was a comfortable armchair, no less! This had been thoughtfully provided by Peter Bastion. An increase in the maternity allowance came into force the next day, As I sat in the armchair, the last words that I heard ringing in my ears was Jack calling out “Hang on until after midnight, dear, and we’ll be a few pounds better off!” So I travelled in style from Rowesfield Cottage past the small fields of daffodils, then alongside the pool, past the farm with waves from well-wishers on to New Grimsby quay, where the Soleil d’Or was moored. Laurie was anxiously looking at the sky. “Storm coming…sooner I get you over there, the better!” Poor man! I can recall the journey over to St Mary’s, talking away to Laurie but I cannot remember anything about how I was transported from the quay up to the hospital! Laurie’s predicted storm raged all evening, which was no surprise to me as my two previous babies were also born during thunderstorms. A few hours later, with the expertise of Matron, two nurses and a mirror, I saw my baby being born: a truly wonderful experience. It was 12.12am when our son arrived, weighing almost 10lbs. “Well, Jack,” I thought “I did hang on long enough and a healthy son too!” My stay in hospital was eleven days and for a week I was the only person in the ward. Apart from cuddling and feeding my baby, the highlight of the day was watching the Scillonian sailing by at about midday on her way to the quay. I was joined by a pleasant woman, also in for the birth of a baby. She was the wife of a lighthouse keeper and she kept me entertained with accounts of their lives. About this time, I was able to go out for a walk around Hugh Town to register our son’s birth. I chose his name, Rory Jack. The local midwife, who had visited me at home, put me in touch with the manager of the Co-op and his wife as they had a pram for sale. It was lovely, just what I wanted. I returned home to Tresco with baby Rory, where he was greeted with delight – no sibling jealousy here! Rory was christened at St Nicholas’ Church. Laurie and Daphne Terry were his godparents. your sincerely Mrs Denise Jeffrey Cornwall
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Page 13 Tresco Times
LETTERS
The Sun’s Moonshadow Halo
Dear Editor, I have attached a photo from my iPad (hence the less than perfect definition) taken from the garden of Mincarlo on Sunday 6th May. We were sat in the garden enjoying the sun after having had a super lunch at the pub and just happened to look up when I saw the 'halo' around the sun. First thought was a hole in the ozone layer but having heard the news that morning and how the full moon was at its closest to the earth rising in New Zealand, I realized that the halo was actually a shadow of the earth on a very light haze of cloud. It was quite stunning and we watched for about 15 minutes before heavier cloud came along and the image disappeared. Did anyone else see this phenomenon? I forward the other two shots I took, so disappointed that I didn't have my camera with me but as I have visited the island for the past 17 years I thought that I had seen it all - how wrong can you be. Regards, Jennifer Baldwin (Mincarlo week 18)
OBITUARIES
It is with great sadness that the Tresco Times informs its readers of the recent death of Lesley Hopkins. Born in Cornwall in 1948, Lesley first came to the Isles of Scilly in the 1960s, staying at the Island Hotel with her parents. It was the memory of these holidays that encouraged her and her husband Chris to apply for the job of managing The New Inn in 1979. Lesley’s ulterior motive was the opportunity of two free helicopter flights to Tresco. Unfortunately, the interviews were held in Bath. The Hopkins were offered the positions and moved to Tresco, where they envisaged staying for around three years. In 1982 their eldest daughter Naomi was born. Chris and Lesley could not imagine anywhere better to bring up children, so they approached Robert Dorrien Smith for the lease of the New Inn, where they were to stay for the next ten years. In 1987, their daughter Kim was born and two years later, Chris and Lesley began building Fraggle Rock on Bryher. In 1992, the Hopkins moved over to Bryher full time. Lesley was quickly to become a key member of the Bryher community, organizing the highly successful Bryher Flower Festival and teaching herself to play the keyboard in order to provide music for the church services. Lesley was a keen mathematician and she soon became an indispensible tutor to many Bryher children. Dispensing her knowledge with typical enthusiasm, there are more than a few on Bryher who have Lesley to thank for their Maths GCSE. In 2000, Lesley’s natural educational verve led her to join the Isles of Scilly Council in order to manage the islands’ Lifelong Learning programme. She was to remain Manager of Lifelong Learning until her retirement in April 2011. Lesley passed away in April and her funeral reflected the high esteem and affection in which she was held throughout Scilly. Bryher church was full, with mourners spilling out onto the roadside. Every island was represented and, as one would expect for such a joyous spirit, there were tears for Lesley but smiles and laughter too. Our thoughts are with Chris, Naomi and Kim.
The Tresco Times also very much regrets to report the recent death of John Avery. Wine merchant and a Master of Wine, John Avery was described by Jancis Robinson as a “oneoff”. Born in 1941, John Avery took over the family business, Averys of Bristol, from his father Ronald in 1966 and was one of the original European champions of New World wines. For both islanders and visitors, however, he was known for his friendliness, conviviality and great love for the Isles of Scilly. His father introduced him to Scilly, following a posting during the Second World War, during which Ronald instructed islanders in the use of radios. Lifelong friendships were made with Leonard Jenkins and his family on Bryher. Ronald took to taking his family on holiday to Scilly in one of two boats, a German patrol boat called the Blitz and a motor launch called Maiden Bower. It was from these early holidays that John’s enthusiasm and affection for Scilly were born. He was to become a familiar and much-liked figure on the islands and was honoured to be godfather to a Bryher Jenkins. John began with camping holidays on Bryher in the 1940s and went on to become a long-standing Tresco timeshare owner. As his father before him, John and his wife Sarah brought their four children to Scilly, making Tresco a second home. A keen follower of the Czar, he replaced a trophy that was jointly dedicated to Dennis Jenkins and Ronald Avery after it fell overboard. Until recently John took pride in personally delivering cases of wine to a customer on St Agnes, living in one of the last houses in England. In the Times’ obituary, John Avery is described as “Wine merchant and raconteur with an irrepressible joie de vivre.” The Tresco Times would like to add “Scilliophile” to that description and offer its condolences to the Avery family.
Ecclesiatical Announcement
Great news just as the Tresco Times was going to press... The Revd. Canon Paul Miller at present Vicar of St Mary, Shortland, in the Diocese of Rochester; Area Dean of Beckenham; Chaplain to HM the Queen, to be Chaplain to the Isles of Scilly, Diocese of Truro, and con-
tinuing as Chaplain to HM the Queen with effect from November 2012. The Revd Canon Paul Miller will be known to islanders and visitors for his abilities both in the pulpit and on the cricket pitch.
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Page 14 Tresco Times
The Dorrien Smith Aunts
Sam Llewellyn, author and editor of the Marine Quarterly, continues to trawl the archives for tales of his extraordinary great-aunts. In an excerpt from an interview by Molly Mortimer, first published in the Scillonian Magazine, Charlotte “Babs” Dorrien Smith recounts some of her memories of the First World War.
At the start of the Great War our father had permission to raise Volunteers to defend Scilly against landings from enemy ships or submarines. He somehow got some rifles and drilled his men on St Mary’s at Star Castle with the Steward, Mr Maggs. There was already a rumour that a submarine was waiting off the Eastern Isles to attack RMS Lyonesse, so a coastguard was put on Great Arthur with a rifle to stand watch. Then three German ships were sighted in Crow Sound and we went out in our launch to intercept them. They had not heard there was a war on, having just sailed from America. Their boats were towed away and the lay in the roadstead for some weeks before being towed to the mainland. Our chief defence was trawlers, and these set iron netting off the islands to stop German subs coming in. A large turtle got caught in one net and was landed at St Mary’s. The Gottland came in later, half underwater with a cargo of grain. Men in the hold were over-
come with fumes from the soaked grain. One died and another was temporarily blinded. In 1915 Cicely and I moved to Rouen to run a canteen for British and Indian troops going up to the line from Havre. Then we moved to No 1 military hospital where Cicely died, and I went back to Scilly. The Navy was very good to us, and we could go to a Naval base any time we had leave to see if there was any transport to Scilly. Once, when Commander Blair found me a small boat to travel in, he said, ‘You’ll see she goes the right way into Scilly, won’t you?’ I laughed at his chaff against the natives, and though no more till we got near St Mary’s Sound when I noticed the buoy on the wrong side. I went up to the step of the bridge (not onto it, which would be an insult to the skipper) and called, ‘Please get that buoy portside or you’ll be on Bartholomew Ledges.’ Naturally enough he turned on me angrily. So I added, ‘Commander Blair asked me to see you went the right side of that buoy.’ We sheered over. Seven
years later I met a nurse from Ceylon. She remarked that she had met a naval officer recently. He told her nobody had ever interfered with his navigation, except one - me. In 1917 seaplanes were sent to Scilly to protect shipping. They were based on Tresco and a lot of huts were put for the men to live in, with hangars for repair work. Some of the flying boats anchored out by Hangman’s Island as they had no hangars. One day after a 90mph gale, three arrived in bits on Tresco. Some of the farm buildings were used to house their bombs and one day a man was doing something with a detonator and got blown up and killed. The Bishop of Salisbury, the Rev. Anderson, was there in the RNAS and got the DSC for keeping his finger in the hole of the petrol tank of his flying boat after they had bombed a German submarine off Seven Stones. Our father was in failing health for most of the war, and while we were at Devonport Hospital in 1918 a message came to say he was worse. A trawler took me home as fast as possible. But as we came into Crow Sound, the flag on the Abbey was at half mast...
How do you find a bargain sailing dinghy, a pony for your daughter or a drum kit for your son? Some second-hand trading websites are a bit daunting, so we were very pleased to discover that a family who have spent many summer holidays on Tresco in Dolphin House run a terrific simple website called www.schoolstrader.com Initially set up for families with children at school, it’s now open to all – so Tresco Times readers can all use this fantastic free online service to buy, sell and rent everything from musical instruments, text books and bikes, to boats, motors and even houses. The site is growing fast and was a Top 10 site in The Sunday Times. Worth a look!
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Page 15 Tresco Times
Rainbow House
Barbados Rainbow House is a family-owned beachfront holiday home on the island of Barbados. Considered a gem amongst the south coast villas, it is situated on a superb white sand beach looking out onto aquamarine waters. Rainbow House has 3 air-conditioned bedrooms, each with an en-suite bathroom. There is an elegant veranda for dining, with seating for 10 people, as well as a large open terrace with a gas grill/barbecue. For further details please call: 01720 422849 or visit www.tresco.co.uk/accommodation
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Page 16 Tresco Times
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Page 17 Tresco Times
Old Moore, Heloise and Osbert. Tresco and the Mountains of the Moon.
It is one of the compelling elements of living on a small island that the past somehow seems more familiar. It is probably a combination of the limited terra firma with a continuity of inhabitants and memory but things often appear simply more knowable. Be it castles or Bronze Age burial sites or nineteenth century gigs, history is often to be seen happily rubbing shoulders with the here and now.
Racket Town Cottage
It’s not just the big stuff that connects now with then. A few months ago, I was admiring the watercolours, which decorate the sitting room of Racket Town cottage. I asked Miss Helen Dorrien Smith, the owner of the cottage who the artist was . Miss Helen went on to explain how she had come to possess the pictures through a family by the name of Moore, the work of either the father or the son. The Moores were resident on Tresco for over twenty years, living in the house that was to become the Island Hotel .The brief resume of the Moores recounted by Miss Helen involved “Darkest Africa”, MI6 and a Buddhist monastery in Sri Lanka. This was clearly not a typical island family. Intrigued, I did some research and quickly discovered that the family responsible for these watercolours was every bit as fascinating as Miss Helen had suggested.
My initial enquiries led to another painting, a portrait that hung in the Island Hotel for many years. This is the man whom Miss Helen referred to as Old Moore. His full name was John Edmund Sharrock Moore and he was born in 1870. Educated at Tonbridge, Moore went on to study at the Royal College of Science and worked at the prestigious Stazione Zoologica at Naples. In the autumn of 1895 he left on the first of two expeditions to central Africa, most particularly the areas around Lake Tanganyika. Sponsored by the Royal Society and later the Royal Geographical Society, these were scientific surveys which produced numerous academic papers. After the second expedition, 1899-1900, Moore wrote and illustrated a popular account of his adventures, aimed at the lay reader rather than the zoologist. “To the Mountains of the Moon” is a remarkable book. Beautifully observed, thoughtful, humourous, cruel and unflinching - at times it reads like an off-key duet between Saki and Joseph Conrad: “The place was filthy and dirty beyond all words, and in an inner room, almost dark, which reeked of filth of every description from bad whiskey to rats, lay the engineer of the steamer, whom, according to our contract with the Corporation, I had chartered as well. He was at the time badly wounded, having, I suppose in want of something better to do, taken to hunting cockroaches on board his ship with a revolver, a practice which is not to be recommended, as game of this description is apt to run over one’s person, when shooting becomes very risky, and it had ended in this instance by the bullet passing tangentially through the engineer’s chest and into his arm.” Other passages, particularly his descriptions of landscape are nothing short of lyrical: “The noise of the thunder grew absolutely deafening, and as the rain swept over us with a dull roar, the outer world seemed to sink suddenly into a mysterious, indistinct, rustling, watery gloom, which was lit only, but lit every instant, by the blue flare of the lightning, and shaken with the continuous sonorous boom and the sharp spluttering crash of the thunder. I confess that I don’t like thunderstorms. English ones are bad enough but these tropical pandemoniums are a bit too much; they have only one redeeming point, they go almost as quickly as they come. In an hour the sky was as serene and clear as ever, while in the air was the freshness of rain; the bay resounded with frogs, frogs that piped and frogs that whistled, frogs that trumpete like elephants and frogs that banged on big drums. A superb scent of flowers and honey drifted from the warm green land, mixed with the singular scent of recent rain. Everything seemed, indeed, to have become suddenly full of the essence of all that is delightful in a country where there is always summer, summer all the year round, through all the seasons, and always has been through al the years since Africa has been Africa at all.” Geology and zoology are never far away but the book always feels like a personal account. On the surface, themes of Victorian racial superiority abound. However, the standards of the author are far from ordinary and he is no colonialist. Moore is wryly scathing about dishonesty and
weakness in all, both black and white, and the book firmly rejects imperialism. “To the Mountains of the Moon” reveals Old Moore to be an artistic, literary, ruthless, confident, tough, intellectual, honest and dedicated man, unafraid of controversy or publicity. On his return to Britain, Moore gave many talks on his expedition from London to Edinburgh, on one occasion to an audience of two thousand. His book was met with mixed reviews, some criticising his refutation of colonialism in Africa. Around this time John Moore travelled down from London to Sussex to see Osbert Salvin, a celebrated naturalist. Salvin was not at home but Moore was not disappointed. It was here that he made the acquaintance of Salvin’s daughter, Heloise. Moore would write later that Heloise was quite literally the woman of his dreams . At this first meeting, he recognised her from a dream that had recurred throughout his life, something that rendered him almost speechless. They married in 1904 and the following year, Heloise gave birth to a son, who they named after her father. By the time of his son’s birth, John Moore was a Fellow of the RGS, the Zoological Society and of the Linnaean Society. In 1906 he was to become a Professor of Cytology at the University of Liverpool. Then, quite suddenly, in 1908, J.E.S. Moore gave it all up. He withdrew from all scientific research and from all professional obligations. He resigned all his fellowships. It was the same year that his father died. The evidence certainly suggests that the family came into money, allowing John to shrug off the harness of work. In a book written over twenty years later, John Moore described the moment of receiving an inheritance from “ a lady” – possibly his mother: “We were free at last to be a perfectly idle man. The world was full of the golden, trailing glory old Death leaves behind him. We felt like the old washerwoman who, having washed all her life, when they found her dying, sang as the swans sing: Don’t mourn for me now, Don’t mourn for me ever I’m going to do nothing For ever and ever.” And so John, Heloise and young Osbert Moore disappear from public view, taking that golden, trailing glory with them. After a vacuum of nearly two decades, the Moores appear again. The year is 1927, they are living on Tresco and old Death has returned. The story of curious world of the Moores will be continued in the next issue...
The Moore's Cottage
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Page 19 Tresco Times
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Getting you to the beautiful
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