Rescorla Centre
The home of Cornish culture in mid Cornwall.
Find us in the centre of the hamlet of Rescorla, near St Austell.
Please have a look at our events page to find out all that's happening at Rescorla.
Walking The Higher Quarter
Higher Quarter is the old name for the northern part of the historic parish of St Austell. The aim of this innovative project supported by Arts Well in association with Cornwall Council is to develop a walking trail of heritage landmarks in this area of the Clay Country that will feature on digital platforms and on a website. Members of the public are invited to participate by a) walking the trail, b) exploring the history behind these sites and c) recording these landmarks through an artistic medium that appeals to you such as photography, drawings, paintings, poetry or music.
The use of mobile phones would be especially encouraged since we would provide ST20 Portable Selfie sticks that have 360 degree rotation and a tripod. Volunteers associated with ‘Walking the Higher Quarter’ can then make short videos that can be long the lines of the popular BBC series ???? Photographs, narratives and poems would also be collected in digital format and for a pamphlet. There would also be an exhibition of artistic work produced by members of the community at the Rescorla Centre.
Check out our website https://rescorlacentre.site123.me/, join our facebook group ‘Rescorla Centre’, email cornishstudies@exeter.ac.uk or telephone 07714210966.
Events 2022
Come and enjoy delicious food, chat and music at the Saturday Kitchen. Listen to music by our special guests this month - 'Ryb An Mor' and 'Fable'. All welcome.
Read MoreCome along to Rescorla to enjoy a High Tea and listen to music to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. All welcome.
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Celtic Service at 6pm. Refreshments afterwards. All welcome.
Read MoreThe Rescorla Festival takes place over the 3rd weekend in July - the 16th and 17th July. There will be guest performers, music, dancing, talks and delicious food. Further details nearer the time. All welcome.
Read MoreThe Cornish Studies Group will be looking at 'Roman Cornwall' with Tash Fulbrook. There will be refreshments. All welcome.
Read MoreCeltic Service at Rescorla. Followed by tea and refreshments. All welcome.
Read MoreMeet at the Rescorla Centre at 2:30pm for a guided walk of the local area. Garry will be leading the walk. Remember to bring a bottle of water with you.
Read MoreCome along to Rescorla for an entertaining, musical evening with the Hurdy Gurdies! Refreshments will be provided. Entry by donation.
Read MoreCome along to the Saturday Kitchen where you can enjoy a chat, delicious food and music. Our guest for this month is Mo Keast who will be singing and using dialect for story telling! All welcome.
Read MoreThe group will be discussing Cornish entertainment from Plen an Gwari to magic lanterns. All welcome. Refreshemnts provided.
Read MoreThe Celtic Service for Easter with David Michael will take place at Rescorla. However please note that building work to the interior walls will have started. There will be scaffolding in the building, however it will be placed to one side so that the service can take place.
Read MoreThis session will be on Methodist Heritage - buildings, customs etc. There will be refreshemnts. All welcome.
Read MoreThis month we are discussing 'The Trouble With Goats and Sheep' by Joanna Cannon. There will be refreshments.
Read MoreCome along to the Film Night where films about Cornwall are presented by Malcolm Gould. There will be refreshments. All welcome.
Read MoreCelebrate St Piran's Day! Come to St Austell Church in the centre of St Austell where a programme of talks and demonstrations will be taking place throughout the day starting at 11:30 am and continuing until 3:00pm.
Read MoreA warm welcome awaits you at the Saturday Kitchen. Special guest his month is Luna the Harp. Come along to hear music, song and dialect readings.
Read MoreCome along to the Celtic Service by David Michael. Refreshments provided afterwards.
Read MoreCome along to Rescorla to discuss an area of interest in Cornish history and culture. Refreshments will be provided.
Read MoreFilm night presented by Malcolm Gould. Refreshments will be provided.
Read MoreCeltic Service held by David Michael. Refreshments afterwards. All welcome.
Read MoreWe will be looking at Cornish family names. Refreshemtns will be provided. All welcome.
Read MoreYule Celtic Service followed by lunch. There is no charge for lunch but please book in. Please book your lunch and advise of any dietary requirements. Contact: 07886734492
Read MoreMeet at Rescorla at 4pm to go Carol singing around the village! There will be mulled wine and mince pies afterwards!
Read MoreAt this session we will be looking at Cornish place names. There will be refreshments. All welcome.
Read MoreWe will be loking at Cornish family names. Refreshments will be provided. All welcome.
Read MoreCornish Carol Service on 10th December at 7pm. Come along to a Cornish Carol Service, arranged by David Michael, supported by the Red River Singers from Redruth. There will be many old Cornish Carols including those by Merritt, Broad and Nicholas.
Read MoreCome and enjoy a Christmas meal (with vegetarian option) on Saturday 4th December. At 2pm the Washaway Choir will be singing traditional Cornish Christmas Carols. A wonderful festive occassion! The Christmas meal, with tea and coffee and mice pies is £8:00. Places are limited to 30 this year so please reserve your place before the end of November.
Read MoreRichard Trethewey will be our guest performer for the November Saturday Kitchen session. There will also be readings, performances, singing and the Rescorla Band. Delicious breakfast baps by Enid. All welcome.
Read MoreCome and join us at the Cornish Studies Group when today we will be looking at and discussing paintings, pictures and photos of Cornwall. Come along and discuss your favourite picture of Cornwall and what it means to you. There will be refreshments too!
Read MoreIt's our first anniversary! We will be discussing "Into Danger" by Kate Adie. We will also discuss which one of the books that we have read over the year has made a lasting impression. There will be refreshments and cake! All welcome.
Read MoreJoin us from 10:30am to celebrate the Celtic Harvest. Our special guest today is Kathy Wallis who will be story telling and singing. There will be an open session for people to play music either individually or together and there will be music from the Rescorla Band. There will be music from The Isle of Man and Scotland, Gaelic singing and singing in Breton. We will have readings and poetry as well. We will have a pasty lunch (there will be a vegetarian option) and homemade cakes. All donations of cakes gratefully received! We are looking forward to a wonderful Celtic celebration. All welcome.
Read MoreThis month we will be discussing 'Heat and Dust' by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
Read MoreCeltic service of healing and celebration will be hosted by David Michael. There will be refreshments afterwards. All welcome.
Read MoreWe will be discussing film in Cornwall. All welcome.
Read MoreCome along and enjoy breakfast baps by Enid, enjoy music and poetry. Our guests today are Alison and Merv Davey.
Read MoreToday we will be looking at the landscape of the Clay Country. What does the Clay Country mean to you?
Read MoreSaturday Kitchen returns! Come along to chat, listen to music, poetry, dialect readings. There will be an invited guest to share their music with us. There's no charge for this, but donations are gratefully received.
Read MoreThe next meeting of the Cornish Studies Group will look at myths and legends and the landscape of the local area. Please come along with a myth or legend to share with the group.
Read MoreRescorla Festival Saturday 24th/Sunday 25th July 2021 The annual Snail Creep Festival returns with a weekend programme of music, words, dance and heritage. It will be opened by Liz Carne, Grand Bard of Gorsedh Kernow, on Saturday 24th at 1030am and will be followed that day with music from: Bagas Crowd Lamorna Spry and John Carter Kiera Smitheram Rescorla Band and others Snail Creep will be performed during the day and all are welcome. Food and refreshments will be available but any contributions to the tea treat table will be welcome. On Sunday 25th July at 1030am Doug Carpenter, Larry Mclaughlin, Audrey Caust and other friends will continue the entertainment in true Rescorla style. Malcolm Gould will then lead us on a heritage walk in the Carclaze area at 230pm. All welcome: contact us for further details. No charge but donations welcome Further details from: Rescorla Festival Office, 10 Hallaze Road, Penwithick, St Austell, Kernow PL26 8UT. Tel: 07714210966. See our Facebook site (Rescorla Centre) or check out our website for news of the festival and our other activities - www.rescorlacentre.site123.me/
Read MoreAt the next meeting of the Book Group we will discuss 'The Go Between' by LP Hartley. Refreshments will be provided and the next book will be available, with thanks to St Austell Library. If you would like to come along please get in touch with Tracy on 07761443733.
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Celtic Service to celebrate Lent at the Rescorla Centre. This will be followed by pancakes. All welcome.
Read MoreFilm night at Rescorla. Starts at 7pm. Tonight's film is 'Stocker's Copper' - a film about the 1913 strike at a Cornish clay pit and the tensions that arise when Welsh police are sent in to keep order. Light refreshments provided. Film Night is free however all donations made are gratefully received and go towards the funding of events at Rescorla.
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Come along for the Saturday Kitchen. Good food, join in with some Cornish songs, music provided by Kana Rescorla, listen to dialect readings, meet friends. There's no charge for any of the events at Rescorla however all donations are gratefully received. All the money goes towards funding the events at Rescorla.
Read MoreCome along to Rescorla for the film night with old films on the theme of Coastal Cornwall by Bob Keys and Malcolm Gould. Light refreshments provided. There's no charge for any of the events at Rescorla, however all donations are gratefully received. All money donated goes towards the funding of the events.
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Come along to Rescorla for a Cornish Hogmanay! There will be hog's pudding, haggis and a vegetarian option. Music and song provided by Kana Rescorla. All events at Rescorla are free however donations are gratefully received. All the money goes towards funding the events.
Read MorePicrous Celebration at the Kings Arms, Bridges from 8 pm
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Enjoy a traditional Christmas lunch at Rescorla. This is very popular so please ensure to book - final date to book is Saturday 30th November. Contact us via the email on the contact page.
Read MoreEnjoy delicious food - please bring something to share if you can, it will be greatly appreciated, listen to music by Kana Rescorla, hear dialect readings and join in with singing traditional Cornish songs.
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Come along to a service held in the Cornish Language. The service will be followed by a traditional Cornish tea.
Read MoreLuxulyan and District Old Cornwall Society Talk by Roger Smith “Protecting Luxulyan’s Heritage”, Luxulyan Memorial Institute, 7 pm
Read MoreFilm Night - an opportunity to see a selection of short films about the history and culture of mid Cornwall. The film that we will be showing is by Johnny Frenchman filmed in Mevagissey in the 1940s. It's a lovely film that looks at fishing and the relations with the Breton fishermen. Light refreshments are provided and a warm welcome awaits. The Rescorla Centre is a charity. There is no charge to any of the events but donations are gratefully received. All money raised goes towards the charity and funding future events.
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Come along to Rescorla for a traditional Celtic Harvest. There will be music by Kana Rescorla, delicious food - please bring along something to share if you can - a harvest auction and 'Crying the Neck'. This is a Cornish tradition to give thanks for the harvest and to look forward to next year's harvest. The Celtic Harvest at Rescorla is a wonderful celebration! We look forward to seeing you!
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Come along to Rescorla for a Harvest Celebration as part of the Saturday Kitchen. Delicious food will be provided by Enid - please bring something to share if you can, it would be greatly appreciated. Make corn dollies with Jo Tagney. Listen to the wonderful singing of Kescana and music provided by Kana Rescorla. Also if you have any donations for the Harvest auction, which will take place on Sunday 27th October, please bring them along with you. A wonderful morning awaits!
Read MoreLuxulyan and District Old Cornwall Society Talk by Hazel Harradence “The Home Front in the Great War”, Luxulyan Memorial Institute, 7 pm
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Enjoy delicious food, listen to music by Kana Rescorla, hear dialect readings and chat with friends.
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Crying the Neck, a Cornish tradition to celebrate harvest, followed by a Harvest supper at Gunwen Chapel.
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Come along to Rescorla for a one-off workshop about working with clay. Zenna Tagney is leading the workshop, in association with the White Gold Festival. Light refreshments form the Cornish kitchen will be provided by Enid. There is no charge for this workshop, but donations would be gratefully received.
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Enjoy great food, listen to music by Kana Rescorla, hear dialect readings and chat with friends.
Read MoreGuided Walk to Castilly Henge.
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This is a free community lunch. Booking essential. Please contact David Michael.
Read MoreSaturday Kitchen - Kegin dy'Sadorn.
Saturday Kitchen - Kegin dy'Sadorn.
Come along to Rescorla on the last Saturday of every month from 10:30am to 12:30pm for the Saturday Kitchen.
Enjoy delicious food, please bring something to share if you can - it would be greatly appreciated, however please label incase of allergies, chat with friends, hear dialect stories and readings, listen to music by Kana Rescorla and join in with the singing. We will also have a special guest each month.
There's no charge for any of the events at Rescorla, however donations are greatly appreciated. All money goes towards funding the events and maintaining the building.
Cornish Studies Group
The Cornsih Studies group meets at Rescorla. The aim is to record people's personal histories of Cornwall and to move on to looking at cultural and historical aspects of Cornwall.
We meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month at 10:30am. Refreshments will be provided. All welcome.
At our first meeting we began by looking at personal objects that tell a story. The stories were recorded and will be broadcast in a podcast at a later date.
If you feel this is something you'd like to be involved in, please get in touch either via the email on the website or via the facebook page.
Roots Music Group
Bagas Keskewsel Kernewek -Cornish conversation Group
If you would like to join please get in touch with Tracy on 07761443733.
Click on the link below to hear the interview with Jack Murley from BBC Radio Cornwall. Jack visited on Tuesday 23rd November 2021 and interviewed Kim Hopewell, Di Pomroy and Di Trudgeon.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0b68vy3
Rescorla Book Club
If you would like to join the group, please contact Tracy on 07761443733.
Book Club Newsletter
April 22
Another interesting and lively discussion about this month’s book – ‘Black Rabbit Hall’ by Eve Chase. The story was set in Cornwall in an old, rambling house. This was a setting that we all liked and there were obvious comparisons with ‘Rebecca’. It was a story that jumped back and forth in time and was told in two different voices. The plot was quite engaging with a good twist at the end. However the book provoked a range of opinions from really liking it to finding it tedious. It was compared to being very fairy tale like in its structure, and having an ending so neatly tied up with everyone being very happy – which some of us found unbelievable! It certainly provoked a lot of opinions and discussion.
Here’s a review of the book from Goodreads:
Black Rabbit Hall
by
Eve Chase
3.94 · Rating details · 13,986 ratings · 1,808 reviews
For fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Waters, here's a magnetic debut novel of wrenching family secrets, forbidden love, and heartbreaking loss housed within the grand gothic manor of Black Rabbit Hall.
Ghosts are everywhere, not just the ghost of Momma in the woods, but ghosts of us too, what we used to be like in those long summers ...
Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family's country estate, where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, of course, it does.
More than three decades later, Lorna is determined to be married within the grand, ivy-covered walls of Pencraw Hall, known as Black Rabbit Hall among the locals. But as she's drawn deeper into the overgrown grounds, half-buried memories of her mother begin to surface and Lorna soon finds herself ensnared within the manor's labyrinthine history, overcome with an insatiable need for answers about her own past and that of the once-happy family whose memory still haunts the estate.
Stunning and atmospheric, this debut novel is a thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by the dark and tangled secrets of Black Rabbit Hall. (less)
And another review:
A thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by the dark and tangled secrets of Black Rabbit Hall.
Lorna has finally found the love of her life. Her relationship with Jon has always been easy and exciting at the same time, and she can imagine spending the rest of her life with him. But, like many engaged couples, the very process of planning a wedding may prove to be the biggest test their relationship has yet faced. Lorna, who recently and unexpectedly lost her mother, finds herself inexplicably (and, in Jon's mind, irrationally) drawn to a crumbling old mansion on the Cornish coast called Pencraw Hall on the wedding website, but known to all the locals as Black Rabbit Hall. Lorna is convinced that this is the same mansion she and her mother visited together when Lorna was a child, and despite Jon pointing out the house's many leaks, crumbling plaster, and overgrown gardens, Lorna is enchanted by its romantic ambience, its beauty, and, most importantly, the fact that she feels a mysterious emotional connection to the place.
Lorna's contemporary story, during which she grows increasingly entangled with the house's elderly owner and its skittish caretaker, alternates with an account of tragedy and betrayal that unfolded at Black Rabbit Hall more than thirty years earlier. Fifteen-year-old Amber Alton has always been as close as can be to her twin brother Toby. The two of them adore their much younger siblings, as well as their vivacious American mother. Their mother, in turn, adores Black Rabbit Hall, the family's wild country retreat from their more staid London existence. But during the Easter holidays in 1969, tragedy strikes the family and sets into motion a series of events that will leave all the members of the family deeply changed – and that may result in a cascade of additional misfortunes.
At first, the connection between the two stories – separated by several decades and connected only by this ramshackle old mansion – is unclear. And while it's likely that few readers will be entirely blindsided by the revelations that eventually disclose the threads tying the Alton family's harrowing past together with Lorna's more optimistic present, few will anticipate all the thorny turns that the narrative will take before its surprisingly upbeat conclusion.
Black Rabbit Hall is drawing a number of comparisons with the beloved novels of Daphne Du Maurier, not least because of their shared setting in Cornwall, but also because of a more generalized exploration of the links between a specific, evocative place and (often devastating) family history. Chase's novel rarely shifts setting from the confines of Black Rabbit Hall and its environs; when it does, the change is both jarring and a bit liberating, as if the reader can finally take a deep breath, away from the stifling and yet spellbinding atmosphere of this place.
Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Our next book is ‘We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves’ By Karen Joy Fowler. Our next meeting is Wednesday 15th June at 1:30pm at Rescorla.
As Spring moves into Summer maybe we can have suggestions for some Summer reads. I can start the ball rolling with a few books that I’ve bought and read especially for summer holidays that I’ve been on.
Looking forward to seeing everyone in June.
Happy reading,
Tracy.
Music Sessions
Rescorla Podcasts.
Films/Talks
Celtic Services.
There will be a Celtic service of healing and celebration on the 3rd Sunday of the month at 6pm here at Rescorla. Refreshments will be provided afterwards. All welcome.
Gallery
Things of Interest.
How many can you get right?
Ivan's memories, part 2.
An Eos Hweg (Sweet Nightingale in Cornish) sung by Noor accompanied by her dad Howard Tresidder Tonkin
ntroducing... #WhealMartynCreate! We challenge you to re-create our historic photographs. We will post new images each Monday and share our favourites througho... See more
Have a look at a Pathe Film from 1939 of St Enodoc on the coast. It was uncovered from sand by the 1860s.
Today's film is an excursion through Cornwall in 1916
If you are looking for something to do on the cultural front then read some of the articles on Cornish Story.
Ivan has recorded some of his memories. We will be playing them in installments. You can listen to the first installment of Ivan's memories now.
This week's Cornish language radio show - including a singing session like you would have at the Cornish language weekend. Agan towlen an seythen ma - hag ynni yma sesshyon kana kepar dell gevir dhe Bennseythen Gernewek.
A selection of Cornish songs with the words to sing-along to and some readings. Something to help break the boredom of the staying at home. Feel free to share. A collection of Cornish Songs to sing a long to with some Cornish readings too. Songs including Camborne Hill, Lamorna, Proper Job, Little Eyes, Hail to the ...
Cornish around the home.
More of Ivan's memories.
Cornish dance.
Cornish kilt in 1961.
Cornish story.
A week of 20 minute virtual talks.
A song by Viv.
More of Ivan's memories.
A new series on Cornish Story exploring the work of artists in mid Cornwall.
Another testimony film about the Gunwen area from the Institute's Tallys anTyr project by Sarah Trevillion.
Another cultural series on Cornish Story. In this case the legends and drolls of Cornwall's Wivelshire by Robert Burroughs Robert Burroughs explores the legends and drolls of Wivelshire in the introduction to a new series. South East Cornwall is often referred to as ‘Cornwall’s Forgotten Corner’ in part due to its geog…
