Once
the idea had been formulated, Mavis got to work persuading villagers to either
write down their memories, or, if they did not want to do this, to talk to her
while she made notes. These were then passed on to Sue who typed up all the
articles on her computer and put them on to floppy disc.
By September 1999 everything was well under way.
Meanwhile,
precious photographs were dug out, carefully labelled and wherever possible, the
people in them were named. These were passed on to Derek Handover who scanned
them and put them on to a CD-rom. He
printed out ‘thumbnail’ pictures, each with a code so that we could paste
these on our ‘master copy’ that was sent to the printers.
Phil
Tizzard, who owns the St. Tudy forge and is also a talented artist, did a
drawing of the forge, binding stone and pump; this was then scanned on to a disc
and Sue designed the actual front cover
Word
soon got around that this book was being produced and what had been envisaged as
a ‘booklet’ soon became a 200-page book!
Articles materialised from many sources including a visitor to the
village and an evacuee who still keeps in touch with this ‘surrogate mum’.
As
the articles kept flooding in, it soon became obvious that the Christmas
publishing date was unrealistic so we aimed for around Easter 2000.
Right up until a day or so before we were due to take the final draft to
the printers in Newquay, people were still giving us ‘titbits’ which we
couldn’t leave out, so they were hurriedly added.
After
printing out the final draft and pasting in the pictures, all on A4 size paper,
the printers told us that they needed it on A5 size! (much smaller) the size of the finished book!
So Sue had to re-format all the articles, mark areas for pictures etc.
And then re-print a new draft. Both
drafts were then taken to the printers.
We
started to panic a little when we discovered that the printing costs were going
to be around £3000 so we decided to take the bull by the horns and ask for
donations – people can only say no! As
Sue was retiring from her job as an agent for a fencing company, working from
home, she persuaded some of her fencing contractor customers, some of whom have
never even set foot in Cornwall, to donate money as a retirement present!
We were also very fortunate that a person who wishes to remain anonymous
kindly gave us a short-term loan, this we were able to re-pay within a very
short time as we also
received a grant from the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Rural
Development Programme. The
notification that we had been awarded this grant arrived on the morning of the
planned launch.
Launch
day was planned for may 12th 2000, local papers and Radio Cornwall
were informed, chapel schoolroom booked, invitations sent out to all those who
had contributed and we kept our fingers crossed that the finished books would
arrive in time. They did just! With
24 hours to spare!
The
schoolroom was packed and after a couple of speeches and cutting of the cake
that Mavis had made – complete with an icing picture that matched the front
cover of the book - refreshments were served and then those who had pre-ordered
copies were able to collect them. It
was a very happy occasion.
It had been rumoured that
the Queen was to visit St. Tudy on her way to the royal Cornwall shown in June,
but unfortunately this did not materialise, so, as we had intended to present
her with a copy, instead, we sent one to Buckingham palace and were delighted to
receive a letter by return of post! We
also arranged for a copy to be presented to H.R.H. Prince Charles when he
visited Penhale farm.
At the royal Cornwall
show Phil Tizzard generously agreed that we could share his stand and try and
sell a few copies, and Sue & Mavis were interviewed live at the show on this
stand by Chris Blount of Radio Cornwall, quite a nerve-racking procedure!
We
cannot thank Shaun and Geralidine Livesey (and
Ivy & Lillian!) at St. Tudy
post office, enough for their help, they took orders and payment before the
launch, and since then have had a continuous display in their window and the
majority of the sales have come from them.
Bricknells in Wadebridge and Bodmin have also sold 60 copies.
We
have had enquiries from all over the country from ex-villagers and evacuees, and
copies have been sent to relatives in America and Australia – St. Tudy will
soon be known worldwide!