We ask our volunteers to write a round-up of what they have been up to over the previous month.

This month I have been working on a series of recordings that Ted Gundry made in the early 1980s for Morning Sou’West, the BBC Radio 4 opt-out programme that preceded BBC Radio Cornwall, on Lanhydrock.  He talked to Michael Trinick, the regional director of the National Trust that bought the estate and the head gardener, Peter Borlase; and had a conducted tour of the house with A L Rowse.” Go straight the the recordings here, and type Lanhydrock into the search box.

The most interesting things I found out was that the big open range in the kitchen was not the one installed after the fire of 1881; but the roasting spits are original.  The range is a duplicate fortuously found at the fire-damaged Grocers Hall in London when the hall’s successor was being built in 1970.  Also, I found out that Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook – a cabinet minister during World War II – owned a house in the Glynn Valley close to Carnglaze Caverns near St Neot; where, it is rumoured, the Crown Jewels were hidden for the duration.”