What we do in St Austell
Club activities
ParkinsonsRotarians have given their support to helping to run a monthly Club at Bethel Chapel in St. Austell We will continue to support Parkinsons through Parkinsons UK. A new monthly Hub will take place at Bethel Chapel, St. Austell with the support of our Rotarians starting on Wednesday 14th January, 2015 at the new venue. We look forward to assisting Parkinsons UK as best we can and are delighted to have been asked to continue our support for what is a very worthwhile charity. More information can be obtained from the Parkinsons website; www.parkinsons.org.uk They are Nick and Jan Wilder on 0172661502. e-mail nickwilder@tiscali.co.uk
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Memory CafeSt Austell memory cafe is one of twenty-four in Cornwall, where people with memory loss and thier family or carers can socialise, take part in meaninful activities, and enjoy 'home made' cakes and refreshments. The St Austell memory cafe operates on the first and third Monday in the month at Cuddra Hall, Holmbush from 2.00pm to 4.00pm, all welcome! Memory cafe's can help refresh and reweave the relationship between people with memory loss and thier carers and also build mutual support. Knowing that others really understand makes a difference, and this can grow into a support network that exists outside the cafe. For more information on REPoD ( Rotarians Easing Problems of Dementia ) click here.
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BARREL PIANO
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For two weeeks at Christmas we roll out the old barrel piano for our annual collection. Members of the public often comment on seeing the barrel piano collection in their youth and are glad to see it is still continuing.
Barrel Piano History
Bulit in the early 1900 by Italian craftsmen working in the Clerkinwell Road area of London Itinerant musicians played the instruments in streets and pubs to earn a living. Some time around 1919/20 Keith Prowse and Co (now famous for theatre ticket sales) announced that it was moving out of the business of selling and hiring barrel pianos. A person called Canon Wintle of Lawshall, Bury St Edmunds saw an opprtunity to buy the machines (about 200) and re-build them. They beacme hand turned, put in carts and pushed around the streets providing employment for ex-servicemen after the Frst World War.
Our instrument had a wooden barrel, pinned with ten tunes, including ' Some Enchanted Evening','Sometheing About A Salior' and 'Blaze Away'. It was spotted for sale in a London newspaper advertisment by a St Austell Rotarian, Bernard Probert in the early sixties. A group of senior members of the Club, now sadely all deceased, raised the necessary cash of £100 and arranged purchase and transport to Cornwall.
The piano became a feature in Fore Street leading up to Christmas each year with the original tunes. It was cranked by hand for up to eight hours a day by a rota of Rotarians and sometimes other volunteers, including Pensioners fro Sedgemoor Priory.
In 1975/76 the Club was very fortunate in finding Harry Woodhouse who was willing to rebuild the barrel to play Christmas tunes and maintain this fragile instrument.
What we do in St Austell sub-pages:
Memory Cafe Rota 2011
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