NEWS IN BRIEF

 BOUNDARY AND POSTCODE CHANGES

Hot on the heels of the recent furore about cross-Tamar electoral boundaries, comes news that the new giant postal sorting office to be built in Launceston will result in a reclassification of some postcodes. Currently, the Plymouth postcode (PL) extends west into Cornwall beyond St Austell, and the Exeter postcode (EX) beyond Bude. In future, there will be a new postcode of KE (Kernow) that will not only cover the whole of Cornwall, but will extend far eastwards into Devon.

Commenting on the proposed changes, the leader of the Greater Relubbus Urban District Council (GRUC), Councillor Billy Spargo (103), said:

"We have to be grown up about these things. I'm sure the people of Plymouth and Exeter won't object to their fine cities being classified as part of Cornwall. So why should the people of Saltash object to their historic Cornish town being part of Plymouth?"

NEW WISE MAN FOR ST BURYAN

by our village reporter, Denzil Owles

A couple of days ago I was privileged to meet the new Wise Man of St Buryan, Mr Athelstan Sowsner, as he was searching for toads in Boskennal Lane.
 
Having moved to Cornwall from Surrey last Thursday, Mr Sowsner says that he has already developed a strong affinity for our ancient landscape. He has, after all, been coming to Cornwall on holiday since he was three months old. 

He tells me that he is deeply knowledgeable about Cornish culture and traditions -- for example, village feast days, which he understands were instigated by Ginsters in 1993, and the ancient practice of knitting wooly scarves for standing stones, in order to keep them warm in winter.

Mr Sowsner studied spells and potions under Professor Potter, at a famous training school in the north, the name of which has temporarily slipped my memory. He is a founder member of the Surrey Order of Druids (SOD).

A single man and former investment banker, he now occupies a fine six-bedroomed converted mill in Bramangath Lane. He was keen that his house should have a Cornish name, and to this end recruited a local bard to suggest one in Kernewek. As he told me proudly, "I've renamed the house 'Toll Dewbedrenn'. It means 'Fox hole'".