Wow, what an amazing evening we had at St Sampson’s Church last night. Fabulous acoustics, so no amplification needed, and a really lovely and appreciative audience, which was pretty much a 50/50 mix of loyal followers (thanks guys!) and people who had never seen the band before and were experiencing something new, so that was a lovely mix. Thanks so much to everyone who came along . . . your generosity on the night produced a stunning total of nearly £1,000 (TBC), all of which will go to the St Sampsons Unlocked Project for much-needed repairs and improvements to this beautiful old church. Well done to Judith & Mark and everyone involved in organising and putting on such a great evening, and to absolutely everyone who supported this fundraising event - thank you!A huge thank you to Barretts Privateers and many thanks to our generous sponsors: Cornish Orchards, Keltek Cornish Brewery, Rowe’s Cornish Bakery, Tesco Callington, Spar Callington, Coop Gunnislake
Many thanks to Dave Groves & the Cornwall mammal group and to Tony Atkinson of the Bat Group for a fascinating evening and morning in the churchyard on 28th/29th September. Our 'Bio Blitz' in partnership with Cornish mammals recorded common shrews, bank voles & wood mice along with a surprising number of spider species! Our survey is helping to establish base lines for mammal habitats across Cornwall in order to monitor species in future. We now have base line lists of mammals, insects, flowers and lichens in the churchyard. These are recorded and available to view at the church and uploaded to the Environmental Records Centre for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (ERCCIS) via their Online Recording Kernow and Scilly website (ORKS). Go to <a href="https://www.cornwallmammalgroup.org/">https://www.cornwallmammalgroup.org/</a> for more information and to access the system. If anyone would like to compile a list of birds let us know. We have ten bird boxes made from recycled wood to go up soon, made by wild Bytes. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wildbytesTV">https://www.facebook.com/wildbytesTV</a><br>
On Monday 14th August, we ran a Nature Detectives Day as a free holiday activity for local families. The event <a></a>attracted 48 children to make nature masks and crowns, to enjoy the fun of face-painting and even to go on a hunt for bugs. Participants could also discover the abundance of nature to be seen in South Hill’s churchyard, with the help of their St Sampson’s Explorers packs, which offer ideas for fruitful family fun for all visitors to the church and include a guide to activities, a certificate, wooden medal, magnifying glass, pencil, paper and QR codes linking to further information about the living churchyard on the Benefice’s website.The initiative was supported by the National Grid’s Community Matters Fund, and was led by Katie Stevenson, the Callington Cluster’s Pioneer Family worker, and Judith Ayers, Reader in the Callington Cluster Benefice.“We woke up to torrential rain and so based ourselves in church rather than the planned outside,” Judith says. “However the rain stopped and we were able to have a bug hunt, cardboard bugs to find and also real ones – a spider, butterfly and worm were amongst the finds! The children were keen to explore and asked many questions. If we didn’t know the answer, we looked it up!”Judith stresses the importance of such activities in the life of the parish.“These sorts of events are great for engaging families and children with church,” she says. “Children are very eco-minded and this is a fantastic way to introduce the God of Creation into their lives engaging them with their natural curiosity and care for nature. It is a fantastic way of building relationships with families and creates many opportunities for conversations. It shows the church as relevant and active in its care of the planet.”
