A report by Simon Parker
My role in the Count Your Blessings project in Morwenstow parish was a combination of research, liaison  and interpretation through the written word.

The process began with a day-long overview, which involved walking in the landscape and driving around the hamlets and villages of Coombe, Crosstown, Eastcott, Gooseham, Shop, Woodford and Woolley. I travelled the lanes, visited the churches and chapels, the institutes and community hall, the school, farms, pub, post office, fields and cliffs. The purpose of this first visit was to gain as broad a picture as possible of the physical nature of the parish. It was followed by extensive reading, using the likes of Hunt, Morton Nance, Hamilton Jenkin and Quiller-Couch, alongside contemporary texts like Michael Williams and the walking guides available in Bude Tourist Information centre.

The second foray involved a look at the history of the parish, visiting notable sites, from the gallery graves at Woolley and tumuli at Wrasford Moor, through St Morwenna and the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker’s influence, to the legacy of Aunt Amy Tape and her garden. Along the way I met the puritanical Thomas Ley, 18th Century Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, John Manning of Stanbury Manor who was gored to death by a bull in 1601, John Stanbury, who became Bishop of Hereford, oculist Sir William Adams, and early environmentalist Christopher Cadbury, who turned Marsland Valley into a nature reserve.  Reading both Hawker and also poet Ronald Duncan offered a literary dimension to the historical investigation.
Having gained this knowledge of the place, it was easier to meet people because I already had an understanding of where places were in relation to each other, as well as a picture of the parish’s past. This was valuable task which paid off when meeting people for the first time because it made them feel more comfortable that this bunch of strangers about whom they knew nothing were at least a bit knowledgeable about their subject. Consequently the Tea Party held at the Rectory Tea Rooms offered a unique opportunity to share the memories of older residents in an informal and unthreatening atmosphere. The result was that all those who came along were more than happy to tell their stories, the stories of their families, the story of their place and also to allow us to record them, make notes and scan photographs for later use.