THE BOLITHO ST CLARES ASSOCIATION,
POLWITHEN, PENZANCE

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NEWS FROM 2007 - 2008

Susan Glasspool Many of you may already know that we have bought an old farmhouse near here and in fact did the deal by swopping our present house with it. This has entailed (nearly done now, contract on the 23rd) a very complicated move, in fact we have been shifting stuff since July and the final move (with muscled moving men) will be just after Christmas. As the house needs quite a lot doing to it, as well as dividing into two independent apartments (one for us and one for son Tom and his wife Cinzia and baby Elia), this means that we will be camping out in the converted pigsty until all is ready. Sounds dreadful, but it does have central heating and a bathroom and kitchen. The only problem is that it is fearfully cramped as we have lined it with boxes and as much furniture as possible as the rest of our furniture will find it hard enough as it is to fit into the two rooms that require minor restoration in the main house! It is a real hassle, also because we have had to decide what we need to use now, and pack everything else away until the spring when we hope all will be finished. It will be worth it in the end because the garden is fairly large (without being a full time job) and there is a swimming pool. It was formerly a farm holiday place (see http://www.casasodera.it/). I have more or less retired now, but still continue to do translation work from home to keep the old brain ticking over. Sid of course is retired and moaning about all the extra work the new house will entail! The boys are flourishing work-wise and family-wise. Luca and Sabrina have two delightful children, Giulia (6), her granddad's darling, has just started school though she already knows how to read and write. Valerio (3 and a half) is of course at nursery school while, for part of the day anyway, curbs his energy. We took them to the seaside this year and Giulia at last learnt to swim, and then progressed to using the mask and snorkel and going underwater, which thrilled her as she could see all the fish. Valerio is almost swimming (about 3 strokes) as he is absolutely fearless in the water (which means we have to keep a close eye on him)! Tom is now head of department in the artistic bronze foundry where he works (he has just made a life size copy of Michelangelo's David and another of Donatello's David) and his wife Cinzia works as a press agent for various town councils and theatres. Their baby Elia was born on July 10th (labour pains started 3 weeks early while Cinzia was on the phone for work with the Mayor of San Casciano who recognised the symptoms and told her to get to the hospital quick!). Elia is a delightful baby, full of smiles for everyone. So we are enjoying him to the full!

Wendy Wallis nee Gwennap There was a small reunion of our form at Dartington, Devon in December 2008 and we hope to do the same again next year. Heather nee Stephens, Sally, nee Lakeman, Sue nee Dowse, Wendy nee Gwennap, Judy nee Thorne, Julia nee Blewett, Rosemay nee Hall.

Mrs C H McClinton nee Sindall I am sorry to inform you that Carolyn passed away on 22nd June 2008 after a very short illness. She was 47. Carolyn had fond memories of her time at the school and was always very interested in any news. She maintained very close ties with Penzance which she regarded as home.Kind Regards Stuart McClinton

Jill Horn nee Boxall. I am still working full time for the NHS in Neuropsychology in Wimbledon, and have a partner, Sean, who is an actor. Between us we have four daughters, two of whom are married with 5 little ones, and two who are career girls at present. I am in regular touch with Jill Girling [nee Sinnette] and Carolyn -Kari- Higgins [nee Glasspool] from our year, and have just returned from a wonderful holiday in Mexico with Kari. Despite not having seen her for 35 years, she and her husband made us most welcome in their stunning lakeside home and showed us the sights. We spoke, of course, of friends from schooldays and would like to reconnect with Elizabeth Mumford, Juliet Matthews, Diana Cooper, Olivia Collins, Edna Culverhouse, Lynda James, Janice Menhenitt and Carol Eveson. I have been in touch with Jude Critchley and Elaine Bull through Friends Reunited [all these are maiden names]. I expect people are scattered these days, but it would be great to meet up if at all possible. If anyone would care to get in touch, my email is jillhorn@fastmail.fm

Rosemary Simpson nee Hall. Our only other news is that we sold our printing business in May ( I think just in time as far as the credit crunch goes) so have now joined the Retired !! We slept for about a month having 19 years of sleep deprivation to catch up on. Since then we are enjoying every minute. We are doing maintenance bits to the house and garden which has been sadly neglected for years and in between John plays golf and I shop ! My mother at 93 lives in Truro and I see her now a little more often but luckily she is still very very fit and well so does not call upon my services too often - just company. We have been away a couple of times for short trips and have a couple more planned over the next two months which is great - again something we have not been able to do for a long time. Who thinks having your own business is a bed or roses ??? Everyone talks about their grandchildren (lucky you) so far I feel very left behind. Our eldest Tim at 29 is still having fun in London with no serious girlfriend. Rob at 26 does have a girlfriend but they have both only recently started earning (both chiropractors) so have a bit of catching up to do. It was great to meet up with Heather again and hopefully we will manage it again now we have a llittle more time.Thanks for all the info you pass on.

Denise Rogers nee Lawrey.Thanks for all the info you send and although we live so close it seems ages since we met up and I am sorry I did not get to see Julia with you but would love to meet up with her sometime as we spent so much time in each others houses as children.I see Ginny Clotworthy at various British Eventing events which is great as she also spent weekends with me at Varfell.Ginny's daughter competes and I Jump judge up and down the country which has taken me back to my horsey roots.I get to do this in some wonderful venues which I love and meet some very interesting people. I have four grandchildren Harry,Eleanor Jane,Molly and Lottie all at The Bolitho School in the reception class and nursery.So what with Vicki and Matt both going there they haven't seen the last of the Lawrey/Rogers brigade yet!I have spent the summer breaking in a Shetland for Harry and Eleanor and Harry is going great guns on him ,of course Granny has loved it too!I've helped Vicki find a pony for her two girls and a horse for herself so what with charging around the Country listening to Matt perform and still working three days a week I keep myself busy.
Matt played a splendid Weber Concerto with The St Mary's Sinfonia on Saturday night as guest soloist on clarinet .He really did a fabulous performance and was very well received.Mrs Blundy who taught him GCSE Music at The Bolitho was there to listen to him.He is co leader of The National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and has just played for a London Opera and studies at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. P.S Does anyone know or hear from Cordelia Briscoe? Another weekender at Varfell,I would love to hear from her.
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Heather Norton nee Stevens Unfortunately I can't make it again this year gor the AGM as we are off to New England for a two week holiday to celebrate our Ruby Wedding anniversary. However I can tell you that I met up with Rosemary Simpson last year (April) and also Caroline Jackson in January of this year for lunch. It was great to see them both and I hope to see Caroline again soon as she lives the closest to me. We have just had a new grandchild whose name is Grace. There are now two boys and two girls so we are really blessed. Thanks for sending info so regularly.

Jennifry Dowrick - I was wondering if you could help me? I went to St Clare's between 87 and 92.During that time we did a play called "The Circus".Mrs Knox's husband made a video of it and I did buy a copy, unfortunately it got lost. Would you have any idea how I could go about getting a copy? Thank you
jennifrydowrick@hotmail.com

Caroline Jackson MEP Many thanks for this: I am sorry that I cannot be with you. Two bits of news: I met and had lunch with Heather Stevens, now Heather Norton, earlier in the year. We had not met for about 35 years at least! We brought each other up to date on what we had been doing in the interim and will be meeting again this winter.

Also I have heard from some relations by marriage of Christine Crankshaw that she has recently gone to live in a nursing home , after a fall. Her address isMrs Bulcock, Bankhouse Nursing Home, Shard Road, Hambleton, Poulton-le-Fylde,Lancs FY6 9BU. Perhaps the AGM could send her a card to cheer her up as I am sure she would love to be remembered.

I am still slogging on in the European Parliament, concentrating on waste issues. I am afraid you have me largely to thank for all this concentration on recycling since I took the Landfill directive thrugh the European Parliament in 1997-8 and have just finished doing the same with the new Waste Framework directive, where I have insisted on higher targets for recycling.Cornwall is a very good instance of were recycling is essential because we are running out of landfill space. I have also been engaged in writing the biography of Baroness Blatch, a Conservative minister, for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Amongst other things this involved interviewing John Major in his magnificent flat overlooking the Thames so life is not dull

Next year I shall not be seeking re-election and expect to spend my time writing and playing golf. Oh that I had spent less time studying and more time playing golf at Lelant 40 years ago: it is very painful re-learning the game now!

Naomi Osborne :. I would like to know what has happened to Lisette Hawker. She was a really good friend in my class but I have lost contact. Do you know anything of her? Can anyone help me?

Sue Reed - Nee Dowse Happy Christmas everyone and humble apologies for having been so silent for so long! I have no other excuse to give other than “life, work, family Work is good and successful (if you are interested Google M St Leger Dowse and/or women and diving) and last year I made a second trip to Buckingham Palace to receive a prize for undersea science from Prince Philip (I’m the only person to have won it twice). Family are well with Bruce my oldest son and his wife having two children, Charles my youngest son is still single! They all live at Newton Abbott – and in the meantime I have moved back to Torquay – just one road up from my mother! I would live to meet up again sometime in 2008 – thank you Wendy for keeping me posted – I do appreciate it very much.

Susan Glasspool Bottaro Thank you so much for your Christmas greetings and for always sending me news of everyone, which is nice being so far away even though only a few names are still familiar! We have now sold our house at Polzeath, as my mother sadly died last January, and what with Carol (Kari) living in Mexico and myself living here in Italy, it seemed pointless keeping it on. I do however hope to come back to Cornwall again soon as I am in contact with many of my fellow students from Falmouth Art school and all of them, scattered over Cornwall and the rest of England now, have offered us a bed when we need it! We are planning a sort of ad lib get-together next year on the basis of a couple of meetings already held, so I mean to come back, and might even make it to PZ.

Sally Beard (nee Gibbons) and I met in September. Sally's mother has died and she was meeting her sisters on the Isles of Scilly to scatter her ashes. We extend our sympathy to the family. Here we are having a coffee on the Wharf at Penzance before her departure for the Isles of Scilly.

Pamela Gaskin ( nee Pamela Cole ) 1956- 1960 Living in South Somerset : married to Fred , second husband , with 4 children , 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren between us Daughter Jennie lives in Vancouver so we spend a month or two there each year , and we also have a house in the Algarve and try to be there enjoying the sunshine for at least 5 months of the year . Spent many years working as a Company Secretary in Bucks , and retired early to come to beautiful Somerset . I really enjoyed being at the Old Girls reunion a few years ago, meeting several friends and Miss Ashworth from my years at St Clares . I have been in contact with Toyah Richards but would love to hear from some of the other girls in my class . Carole Coleman , Evangeline Roberts , Anne Weaver and Sally Pearce. There are too many to list .My sister , Patricia Cole, was also at the school in a year below me, and she sadly died of leukemia aged 18 years .
I can be contacted at pamgaskin@btinternet.com , and would love to hear from you .

Anne Carter. Nee Beamish l937-l947 Thank you for your e-mail a few weeks back. Here is my news.
I have lived in Canada for nearly fifty one years. I met an Englishman in Sault Ste.Marie, Ont and married him and we had three sons. We eventually moved and worked in Ottawa. We retired and lived on the St. Lawrence Seaway, fifty miles south of Ottawa for over ten years. I was widowed in May 2006. I have four grandaughters two of which are twins, and one Grandson. I travel in the States as two of them live in Riverside, California, the twins live in Manhatten and my adopted Chinese grandaughter lives in London Ontario.Robyn is an adopted chinese girl and my son and wife went to China to get herI now live in a small town called Prescott which is on the St. Lawrence Seaway. I was interested in the 2007 Alumni News Letter. I remember Aida Dester, Anne French, Margaret Pearce and Edith Snell who were mentioned in the News Letter.

Jennifer Bracht nee Tyler Street (Jinks) May 1940-December 1949.I was so thrilled to receive the Bolitho School 2007 Alumni Newsletter today, and my husband and I read it during our lunch break. It made me laugh, almost cry, and immensely proud to be a rather old O.G. I left St. Clare`s in December 1949 to go to St. Godric`s Secretarial College, London, and from there I had various secretarial jobs and eventually took off for the States in 1960. I met my future German husband, Hans, in California and we returned to Europe in 1965 and were married in St. Austell. We now live in Glücksburg, north Germany. My two sisters, Sheila and Pat, both ex. School of St. Clare, live in Cornwall and so does my brother, Richard. I feel most fortunate that I have family connections and many good friends living in Cornwall, and I try to visit Cornwall as often as possible but to date I have not managed to be present for one of those Luncheon/AGM meetings. I have close contact with my school friend, Janet Fox nee Yardley, and she spends Christmas with us. We are very happy living here in northern Germany. We have a small printing company, run by father and son, and we are very lucky to be able to have close contact with our two grandchildren. We are quite an international family, German/English with our Danish daughter-in-law, and our grandchildren attend the Danish School in Flensburg. At present our grandson (16) is on a two-week course in France,with French tuition and a lot of sport. Our granddaughter (14) is meanwhile enjoying family life in Minneapolis, U.S.A. for the next three weeks. Rosamunde Pilcher has certainly made Cornwall well known as far as Germany is concerned. We have a Rosamunde Pilcher film at least once every other month, at prime time on Sunday evenings. The films are under German direction and very much inclined to be as the Germans see the British i.e. all living in stately homes, playing croquet on the lawn and drinking tea out of silver tea pots. However, I love to have any opportnity to see the Cornish landscape. I was most interested to read that the Headmaster visited the partner school in Finsterwalde, Germany. I feel it is so important for us to be Èuropeans, and still hang on to our Cornish heritage. Perhaps, with luck, I shall manage to get to the AGM Meeting in 2008.

Sylvia Bromley died November 2006. She was 85 year old. Syvlia went to the School from 1920 - 30 with her five sisters.

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