Pasty Adventures Kitesurf, Wingfoil & Windsurf Coaching specialists In Cornwall

Junior National Watersports Festival, Stithians Cornwall

5/6/2014

Joining forces with North Kiteboarding UK we attended the Junior National Watersports Festival held at Stithians Lake, Cornwall on the 3rd May 2014.
Along with demoing all the new North equipment, Pasty Adventures ran free Kitesurf Taster sessions to the future generation of British watersports entuaiasts. Over the course of the day, we had four groups of 8-16 year olds who all left grinning and smiling after experiencing the fun of flying a kite.
Hopefully some of these will take up kitesurfing in the future, or one of the other sports they got to try out over the weekend.
It was great to be a part of it and see so many brands and pros giving their time to encourage youngsters into our fabulous sports of Kayaking, Kitesurfing, SUP and Windsurfing.
Well done to all the organisers for a great event.

0 Comments

Happy Tom Bawcocks

12/23/2011

0 Comments

Mousehole Lights

Tom Bawcock's Eve is a festival held on the 23rd of
December in Mousehole. The festival is held in celebration and memorial of the efforts of Mousehole resident Tom Bawcock to lift a famine from the village.
During this festival Star Gazey Pie (a mixed fish, egg and potato pie with
protruding fish heads) is eaten and depending on the year of celebration a
lantern procession takes place.The children's book The Mousehole Cat by
Antonia Barber was inspired by the traditions a of Tom Bawcock's Eve and has now made this feast famous. The feast also coincides with the world famous Mousehole harbour lights.

There are several theories to the origins of this festival, the first
recorded description was made by Morton Nance in 1927 in the magazine "Old Cornwall". Nance described the festival as it existed at the turn of the 19th century. Within this work Nance also speculated that the name Bawcock was
derived from Beau Coc (French) - , he believed the cock was a herald of new light in pagan times and the origins of the festival were pre-Christian. The most likely derivation of the name 'Bawcock' is from Middle English use
(influenced from French) where a Bawcock is a nickname for a fine or worthy fellow. Rumours persist however that in fact the feast was "invented" in the 1950's by the landlord of the Ship Inn, a rumour which can be dismissed if you
examine the Morton Nance's writings of the 1920's. Because of the volume of people now visiting Mousehole on this date small Tom Bawcock's celebrations have over spilled into the nearby communities of Newlyn and Penzance, however these
are rarely advertised.
Click here for the recipe for Star Gazey Pie.

There is an ongoing folk music tradition associated with Tom Bawcock's Eve.
Below is one version of Tom Bawcock's Song'the words written by Morton Nance in 1927 to a local traditional tune called the 'wedding March'. It is believe that Nance first observed the festivities at the turn of the 19th Century.

Lyrics of the song

"merry place you may believe, Tiz Mouzel 'pon Tom Bawcock's eve

To be there then who wouldn't wesh, to sup o' sibm soorts o' fish

When morgy brath had cleared the path, Comed lances for a fry

And then us had a bit o' scad an' Starry-gazie pie

As aich we'd clunk, E's health we drunk, in bumpers bremmen high,

And when up caame Tom Bawcock's name, We'd prais'd 'un to the sky"

Click here for an audio file and full
lyrics of the song

The Home of Cornish Culture

0 Comments

Junior National Watersports Festival, Stithians Cornwall

Happy Tom Bawcocks

Author

Archives

Categories