Trelawny Plate awarded to musician and head of Cornwall Music Service Trust Gareth Churcher

The plate originally belonged to Bishop Trelawny, who was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1688, and has been donated by the Bishop's descendant Sir John Trelawny.

The Trelawny Plate Award is made biennially to the person judged by a senior and representative panel “to have contributed most to the spirit of Cornwall.” The dinner plate was the Bishop’s personal property and is kept in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. Recipients receive a replica created by the St Justin company from Penzance.

The replica of the 300-year-old pewter plate will be formally presented to Gareth, who is also musical director of St Keverne Band, at a special Service of Thanksgiving and Commemoration at Pelynt Church on July 13.

Welcoming the decision to award the Plate to Gareth the current Sir John Trelawny, the 14th baronet and direct descendant of the Bishop, said: “The Trelawny Plate was first awarded to Bishop Bill Ind in 2005. This year - following a string of worthy recipients – the plate will be awarded to Gareth Churcher the well-known and extremely accomplished musician. My father, whose idea it was for this prestigious award, would have been very proud.”

A renowned musician, conductor and composer, Gareth was the former head of brass for Music Cornwall. In 2015, following the closure of Music Cornwall, he set up the Cornwall Music Service Trust (CMST), an independent charitable organisation which offers high quality education for children, young people and adults across Cornwall.

The trust, which is led by Gareth, a parent governor at St Mary's School in Falmouth, currently provides more than 1,000 hours of music education each week, and aspires to be a leading music service in the UK. At the same time as setting up the trust, Gareth also completed a Master of fine arts degree with Falmouth University specialising in musical composition.