Morning prayer will be held in St Melor’s Church on Monday and Wednesday at 10am.

On Sunday, August 11, Holy Communion with Canon Richard Maynard at 11am.

There will be informal worship on Sunday, August 11, at 10am in St Paul’s Church, Upton Cross.

The Art and Craft Exhibition and Sale will take place on Saturday, August 10 to 17, in the parish hall at Upton Cross from 10am to 6pm. Light refreshments available. This is a constant changing exhibition and sales items replenished daily.

This event took place on Saturday, July 27, organised by members of the Rilla Mill Village Hall committee.

A small carnival took place, assembling in the usual Rillaton field for the judging by Zena Jones who also crowned the King and Queen. At 1pm the procession led by a small number of musicians organised by Chris and Tamara Mercer to Parson’s Meadow by the River Lynher. Unfortunately as the original date of the event had to be postponed due to the weather, meant the full Launceston Town Band was unable to attend.

The procession was led by the decorated vehicle carrying the King and Queen, Harry and Merryn Davy, who presented prizes to the winners. The MC for the afternoon was local resident Chris Nicklin who kept everyone well informed of the proceedings. There were various competitions, BBQ, the annual Model Raft Race & Duck Race.

The results are as follows: Carnival — Family group, 1st Little Links (The Ugly Bug Ball); Adult, 1st Harriet Stephens (Slug and Snail), 2nd Mel Kilby (Bee); Over 12, 1st Josie Dent; Under 12, 1st Beck and Jen Bettinson, 2nd James Dent; Under 5, Ebony Mills (Weather Girl), 2nd Caden Fisher (Fireman Sam).

Model Raft Race — 26 models were placed in the river at the far end of the meadow to make their way to Rilla Mill bridge. They were judged by Peter Sharp and winner of the Best was “Penguins” (Alex Towers), 2nd “Wildfire” (Caden Fisher), 3rd “Sculaflingarama” (Ruby Wheeler). Winners of the fastest: 1st “Penguins” (Alex Towers), 2nd “Sculaflingarama“ (Ruby Wheeler), 3rd (Jack Kilby).

Skittles — Highest score, adults, Andrew Davy; junior, Alex Towers

Welly Wangin — adults, Jason Peters 28.2 metres; junior, Toby Bond 17.4 metres.

Competition results:

Guess how many buttons in the jar — (total = 254) nearest guess = 247 by Sophie Pemberton; Hook a Duck — Natalie Kilby; Guess name of duck “Jocelyn” — Callum Brooks; Find the duck — Helen Gribble.

Duck race winners — 1st prize Fastest duck to the finish line - No. 1280 Chris Walley £100; 2nd No. 39 Simon Morse £50; 3rd No. 145 Jack Kilby £25; 4th No. 82 Derek Davey £10 & 20 winners of £5.

Many thanks to everyone who helped in any way. Money raised will be announced later.

Temporary priest in charge at St Mary’s Rev Mary Williamson led a “Songs of Praise” at the weekend.

She chose the little known hymn, “O Lord, all the world belongs to you” to open the service and after the collect Rob Tremain introduced his choice, ”I cannot tell”, a hymn set to the Londonderry Air which got the congregation singing.

After the first reading by James Wonnacott the congregation sang, “Will your anchor hold”, a good non-conformist hymn chosen by Rev Jess Lancaster. Then Alice Horn explained why she had chosen the next hymn, “How great thou art”, after the second reading.

After prayers Rev Mary Williamson chose “Brother sister, let me serve you”, otherwise known as the Servant Song because of the words. The final hymn was chosen by Andy Dunning, ”The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended” which he chose for the music rather than the well known words.

The church at St Mary’s is grateful to Rev Mary Williamson for stepping into the breach for three years and taking many of the services at the church where she was once a parishioner pending the appointment of Rev Dr Michael Dobson as full time priest in charge.

For their July trip members of Launceston Old Cornwall Society travelled to St Keyne Church. Where they were met by a former County President, Mr Duncan Paul Matthews of St Cleer. He gave a short history of the church, believed to be the second smallest church in Cornwall, although some of the members thought Tremaine church, Temple church and the little church of St Anne at Widemouth Bay, were smaller.

St Kayne seems to be the most ancient spelling and is derived from the patron said to have lived in the fifth century, being one of 24 children of King Braghan and Queen Gladwisa of Brecon in Wales. St Keyna is sad to have lived like a hermit. She is also said to be responsible for the construction of St Keyne Well, situated just outside the village which was the old baptismal well.

The hood moulding of the present church indicates that there was a Norman Church. The building appears to be mainly constructed in the 15th century as indicated by the piers, the font and one of the bells, although the west aisle window dates from the 14 century. The church was ruthlessly restored by J P St Aubyn between 1868–77 which left none of the old woodwork.

Today the church consists of the chancel, the nave, a short north aisle, south transept, porch and west tower.

It was then on to St Keyne Holy Well, famed for it ability to ensure the first of a newly wed couple to drink the water will become the dominant partner.

Members then went on to the village of Duloe, where they visited the stone circle, an ancient site at the Southern end of the village. The eight stones, which vary in height are of white quartzite. Before making for home a visit was made to St Cuby Church in Duloe where there are various plaques and a full length figure to Ann Smith, 1592.

John Ellacott chairman thanked Duncan for giving up his afternoon to take members around this part of South East Cornwall.

At a recent committee meeting, it was decided to change the day of the meeting to the second Wednesday of the month and to meet in the Royal British Legion Hall in Tower Street, at 7.30pm. Information 01566 776142.

The July meeting of the Launceston Stamp Club was held recently at the Methodist Church School Room, Ladycross. The dealer for the evening was Rex Eccott who stood in at short notice for the scheduled dealer who was unwell. After the formalities the chairman introduced the speaker for the evening member David Richards who presented his display - ‘Maritime Mails of the Caribbean’.

David began his talk by explaining the difference between Packet letters and Ship letters the former being carried on official government contracted ships and the latter on private ships. He also described the various postage rates payable for each method of conveyance up to 1854 when the same rates were applied. In 1858 all postage had to be pre-paid.

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was formed in 1839 and was granted a Royal Charter. Soon after it secured contracts for the conveyance of mails twice a month to Barbados via Grenada, St Thomas, Haiti and Jamaica. The first mails left Falmouth in 1842 and by 1850 their routes covered over 60 ports of call and their steamers travelled over 540,000 miles per year. The Hamburg-American Line established a service between Hamburg and New York in 1847 and was contracted by the German Government to carry mail. It extended its service to other routes including the West Indies in 1870. In both world wars ships of the line were recalled to Germany for war duties but in each case only a few managed to return. Similar mail services were provided by shipping companies from the Netherlands to service the colonies in the West Indies and South America.. The Compagnie Generale Transatlantique was formed in 1861 to provide services between France and the Caribbean. Ligne A was established 1865 to run between St Nazaire and Colon. Colon was at the start the end of an overland route to the Pacific and later at the end of the Panama Canal. Lignes B - E and L were later set up to provide a greater coverage of the Caribbean.

David provided details of several other shipping lines which were involved in the conveyance of mails, carriage of passengers, general trade and shipment of bananas. Throughout examples of the relevant postal history were shown. David explained that when mail is posted on board ship it is put into the postal system at the next port of call where the postal authority will apply a ‘paquebot’ marking and forward the item in the normal way. The display was rounded off with interesting items on the Trinidad Coastal Steamers and the La Guaira locals.

An excellent display and a vote of thanks was given by David Attwell who presented David with the club’s certificate of appreciation.

The club meets on the first Thursday of each month at Yeolmbridge Methodist Church at Ladycross at 6.30pm. New members and visitors always welcome.

The monthly meeting was opened in the customary manner by chairman Tony at 7.35pm having survived a crocodile queue at the bar. Cornwall is filling up!

The branch are pleased to welcome two new members: (Full) ex CPO Ian Taylor who resides Ilfracombe and (Associate) Rev David Saunders, incoming Padre at St Michael's & All Angels.

Apologies received from eight members due to commitments or medical. Branch financial report was healthy and our social fund equally so.

Volunteers for September Raffle prizes are s/ms Wayne Philp, Bb and Jean Price, Leon Rea, Binzy Reynolds, Graham Saberton plus voluntary contributions.

The forthcoming Trafalgar Night Dinner will be arranged via Ian and Jaqi Edwards and Jaquie Kennedy-Lorraine.

The branch had been represented at Bude Heritage Festival when it was an opportunity to raise our profile within the local area.

A new venture "Op Kernow" for the service and ex-service community will be staged on August 8 at Berries Avenue Cafe noon to 2pm.

Members are also invited to attend the RNLI "Blessing of the Sea", 5pm at The Breakwater, which will be conducted by our latest recruit: Rev David Saunders.

Membership is strong and now musters 113 both locally and more far-flung.

Bude Branch has been awarded the Area 4 Recruitment Trophy: "Mary & Mike Hanna Trophy" for 2024 with a winning 30 per cent increase, to be received in Camborne at Area 4 September Meeting.

Annual 'confidential' elections for Shipmate of the Year and Golden Spanner Award will be by ballot of those in attendance at September meeting. (No proxy votes).

Traf Night Dinner - details to follow with menu options, subsidy provision, booking arrangements etcetera.

Various items from "Slops" kindly produced via our PRO Steve for possible donation levy.

Meeting closed following the loyal toast, at 8.35pm.

We are working towards making the churchyard into a peaceful haven for both people and wildlife. This approach has meant that a new way of thinking is needed and although at times things may look uncared for this is certainly not the case. Our congregation love and respect the churchyard and understand how important it is to the community.

We have now put a plan in place to keep and maintain well used and visited parts of the churchyard accessible to visitors, while lesser used areas are to be managed as wildlife and wildflower sanctuaries. Our congregation are responsible for raising the money to finance work on the churchyard and this is proving more difficult as time goes on. We also have just a smaller group of people that are physically able to do the manual work needed. With this in mind we are asking people if they would like to adopt an area of the churchyard to care for, members of the church have already volunteered. If this is something you feel you can help out with we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact Sheila Waring email: [email protected]