BALWEST HERITAGE SOCIETY: Members enjoyed a showing of a Windows Media slide show entitled “Mining Heritage as it was ...One Man's View”, by Tony Clarke at their September meeting. Tony Clarke is an expert in mineral processing, having worked at Camborne School of Mines for more than 25 years as Senior Technician. Over the many years that Tony has been interested in mining, he has compiled a comprehensive catalogue of monochrome and colour photographs that capture evidence of nearly 300 years of mining activity in Cornwall.

By cleverly combining the spectacular and vivid scenes of Cornwall's mining heritage with the emotional music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and through the judicious use of modern photo media effects, Tony brought to life an industry that shaped many of our most familiar industrial landscapes.

Travelling from Cape Cornwall to the Tamar, this show displays a fully comprehensive inventory of surviving mining structures and detritus including all types of engine houses, chimney stacks, stamps, buddles, leats, launders, winding heads and waste tips. Along the way we saw beautiful moorlands, barren wastelands, verdant pastures, spectacular seascapes and a seductive golf course, all playing host to the mining artefacts that were the subject of Tony's study.

The October meeting will be held on Friday the 31st at Balwest Sunday School starting at 7.30pm when antiquarian book dealer Kelvin Hearn will present a talk entitled “Do Books Have A Future?”.

PRAA SANDS & DISTRICT GARDENING CLUB: There was a superb turnout at the October meeting to hear John Mann give an interesting and informative talk about Perennials using illustrations and examples from his own lovely garden. Among the tips he gave were: perennials need deep soil and good soil preparation; if you lift and divide you should treat the ground; leave hellebores and peonies; deadhead for flower continuity; leave seed heads on for winter; sow perennial seed in autumn; always sow cold - never supply heat; and Ranunculacae need to be sown green.

John recommended some perennials which he felt were reliable and rewarding to grow in our gardens and showed us examples of plants in well known gardens such as Powis Castle, Oxford Botanic Garden and Aberglasney. He showed us styles of garden planting at his favourite gardens from all over the country, viz island beds, borders with mirror images, prairie planting, ageing borders contained within yew hedges and herbaceous planting, all using perennials. The suggestions made us re think just how we use these versatile and useful plants.

Members were reminded that next month's meeting is the AGM. The chairman is retiring so members needed to consider election of officers for a new committee. The subscriptions need to rise to £14 or £25 for two people at the same address. The annual Christmas Dinner is scheduled to be on the evening of December 4 at the Sand Bar, Praa Sands.

The last trip of the year is a full bus taking some members to Lanhydrock. The AGM will be held on Monday, November 3 at 2pm in the Praa Sands Community Centre and the speaker will be John Price ‘New Zealand – Gardening Upside Down’. New members and visitors welcome.

CHURCH OF ST GERMOE: The Rev Len Jepp presided at the parish eucharist service, assisted at the altar by Grete Imbrey and Anna Harry with the chalices, and servers Chris McCormack and Bette Owen. The lessons were read by Joy Gunter and Tom Dearden; Diane Whitehead led the intercessions; sidesmen were Muriel Somerfield and Tom Dearden; Gwynneth Willett played the organ and the sacristan was Chris McCormack. At a Harvest Festival assembly in Germoe School, the children brought non-perishable goods as their Harvest offerings. These will now be taken to the Foodbank in Penzance. The response from the children and their parents was amazing and there is a lot of produce to be delivered.