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Bee Day at The Morrab Library
On Wednesday 28th August, we will be celebrating all things bees with the West Penwith Embroidered Bees Project and Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Last year, Vicks Harrison got in touch with the Library to tell us about the West Penwith Embroidered Bees Project that she founded in 2019 to highlight the plight of wild bees.
The project aims to raise awareness of the 270 different species of bee that live in Britain, and their varied needs, while also teaching embroidery skills, fostering connection and raising money for wildflower projects, such as Treneere Grows in Penzance. Through stitching illustrations of different bee species onto quilting pieces, Vicks hopes to connect people with our environment, and each other.
With the help of many eager embroiderers – who have stitched a multitude of different bees in a variety of styles at home and at workshops across Penwith over the past few years – the huge, hand-stitched, art quilt has grown substantially since Vicks sent us this introductory video about the project back in 2023!
Many of the bees now stitched into the patchwork were crafted here at The Morrab Library, where Vicks now hosts regular classes. A friendly and welcoming group of bee embroiderers have been meeting here since November to embroider together and they exhibited the quilt at our Spring Fair in April.
On Wednesday 28th August, we will be hosting a ‘Bee Day’ at the Library with bee-related activities taking place throughout the day.
From 10am – 12pm, Vicks will be leading a free embroidery workshop to guide those who would like to learn how to make a bee to be stitched into the quilt. No experience is necessary and attendees do not need to bring any fabric, thread or equipment, but any donations of materials to contribute to the piece are always welcomed. Booking is essential and please email Vicks (vickyvicks@btinternet.com) to do so. Further workshops are listed at the bottom of this blog.
The quilt, in its present but ever-growing form, will be on display in the Natural Sciences Room for the duration of the day. It will hang alongside a display of books about bees (which Library members can borrow on the day) and poems about bees by Vivienne Tregenza.
Vivienne has created pieces for the quilt inspired by the wildflower garden in Treneere (Penzance), a bee-friendly habitat created by Treneere Grows, which the Embroidered Bees Project hopes to help to fund. Vivienne sketched wildflowers including Agrimony, Cornflower and Poppy that grow in the garden then turned her illustrations into beautiful embroideries for the quilt. Her poems about bees will be exhibited in the Natural Sciences room alongside the quilt.
Pop in anytime between 10am – 3.30pm to see the display.
At 2pm in the Reading Room, Pip Cook SW Project Officer for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, will be giving a talk about the bumblebees we can find in Cornwall.
In Pip’s role, she is particularly focusing on the Moss carder bumblebee (Bombus muscorum), one of the rarest and most threatened bumblebee species in the UK. It is a beautiful ginger-tailed bumblebee with a short velvety coat that was once widespread in the UK and is now found mostly in small, fragmented populations. You can find out more about the talk here and email or call the library before Monday 19th August to put your name into the ballot for a ticket. Entry to this event is free but donations are welcomed to help support The Morrab Library (suggested £5). Refreshments will be provided after the talk.
Upcoming workshop dates:
Wednesday 28th August, 10-12: a free session as part of the “Bee Day”
Tuesday 3rd September, 10-12
Tuesday 17th September, 10-12
Tuesday 15th October, 10-12
Reading Lists | Dr Serena Trowbridge
‘Stories of the Stones’ talk by Dr Serena Trowbridge – Reading List
Every month at The Morrab Library we host talks in the Reading Room for library members and non-members alike. The programme is as eclectic as the Library’s collection – from the Holy Wells of Cornwall to the History of the English Miniature Painting – and meander through Literature, Poetry, Art, Geology and a host of other fascinating subjects in between.
Often, the writers, academics, poets and artists we invite to speak at the Library generously let us record their talk so we can share them with a wider audience online. You can browse the selection of recorded talks here.
Some of our brilliant speakers also use the Library’s archive, newspaper and book collections for their own research. In homage to BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, we are hoping to share a “Reading List” to go with each talk recording, in case you would like to follow up on the talk by borrowing related titles from the Library or delving into our archives.
We’ll be publishing these reading lists on our blog on a monthly basis so please do keep checking back for updated reading lists.
Dr Serena Trowbridge gave a talk entitled ‘Stories of the Stones’. Britain’s landscape contains many stone circles, especially in Cornwall. Their original purpose remains mysterious despite extensive archaeological investigation, and perhaps it is their obscurity which makes them so fascinating.
Over the centuries they have inspired many legends, most famously of girls turned to stone for dancing on a holy day, or stones which walk to a river and drink. The stories reflect the changing interests and concerns of society and tell us more about our culture than they do about the sites themselves. This talk will explore a few of these stories of the stones, including the Merry Maidens, and consider the significance of mythmaking and storytelling.
Member’s can look forward to a chance to watch Serena’s excellent talk which will be shared in the next Monthly Links email.
Many of the books that she referenced in her talk are available to borrow from the Library:
Borlase, William, Observations on the Antiquities historical and monumental of Cornwall (C942.37)
Hunt, Robert, Popular Romances of the West of England (C398.2094237)
Colquhoun, Ithell, The Living Stones: Cornwall (C914.237)
Hannigan, Tim, The Granite Kingdom (C914.237)
Service, Alastair, Megaliths and Their Mysteries: The Standing Stones of Europe (930.1)
Weatherhill, Craig, Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall and Scilly, 4000BC-1000AD (942.37)
Weatherhill, Craig, The Promontory People: An Early History of the Cornish (C936.237)
The following suggestions are not currently part of the library’s collection but if you have a copy that you would like to donate to us then please email enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk. They may be available to borrow from the public library too.
Burl, Aubrey, Great Stone Circles
Cope, Julian, The Modern Antiquarian
Cooper, Susan, Over Sea, Under Stone (children’s fiction)
Hadingham, Evan, Circles and Standing Stones
Hayman, Richard, Riddles in Stone: Myths, Archaeology and the Ancient Britons
Grinsell, Leslie, Folklore of Pre-historic Sites in Britain
Soar, Katy, ed., Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and Ancient Rites
Thomas, D.M., Birthstone: A Novel
Lively, Penelope, The Whispering Knights (children’s fiction)
Last month, we shared a reading list to accompany Katrina Naomi’s poetry reading featuring collections of poetry, non-fiction and novels available to borrow from the Library. You can catch up on this Reading List, and others, over on our blog.
A living library – Lucy Sparrow and Rebecca Harvey’s new work
Artist Rebecca Harvey and poet Lucy Sparrow are joint Artists in Residence at The Morrab Library. Throughout the year, the pair are creating pieces in porcelain and poetry inspired by the library’s rooms, collections and atmosphere.
If you have visited the library recently, you may have paused on the staircase to read Lucy’s latest poem, ‘a living library’ which slinks along the stringer up to the top of the stairs. At each tread, a new line is added to the poem which grows as you climb, repeating itself in a calming refrain up to the landing, from which you can see the room where Lucy first drafted the piece.
Lucy says “‘a living library’ was written in the Poetry Room in The Morrab Library late one sunny afternoon in January 2024. In an armchair surrounded by shelves of books and art works, looking out through an enormous window into the surrounding garden, I felt an intense sense of serenity and connectedness.”
Through their residency Lucy and Rebecca seek to bring to life and shine attention on unexpected places around the building, illuminating quiet corners, treasured reading spots and places of contemplation.
Lucy adds, “The library, crammed with treasures and always welcoming, opens up as a safe yet stimulating space nurturing learning, creativity and reflection.” Through her poem she hopes to “convey the essence of the library, its energy and life revealed through presence and purpose, by the library staff, library members and visitors in this very special place.”
Lucy’s poem is depicted in another form by Rebecca Harvey’s work in the Rees Room, just off the landing. Rebecca works in porcelain and for this new piece she has painted with Cornish clay slip onto the glass panes and has written ‘a living library’ through the clay, letting the light stream through the words.
Sitting at the desk in the Rees Room, surrounded by French fiction, Pelican books and texts in a whole host of languages, you can look out of the window through the poem, or watch the afternoon light play through its letters.
Rebecca describes her process and the inspiration behind the piece below:
“At the top of the stairs I gravitate towards the intimate Rees room as it holds assorted memories of being the first that I spent time in with my young daughter after the first lockdown. The window invites a gaze towards the living life of Penzance, palm trees, close knit houses, sky and drifting interior thoughts.
The pane of glass echoes the page.
The materiality of locally dug kaolin references its granite source and traditional use in paper making.
Textures of brushstrokes soaked in clay, are drawn across the transparent glass and slightly conceal the exterior.
Energy held in the edges of the brushmarks are left, partly inspired by the slightly torn and ruffled edges of a WH Davies book. This book is so beautifully illustrated and belonged to a member of the The Penwith Local History Group who are researching a creative Hilda Quick collection held in the archives.
A sequential gesture of the handwritten words holds the fluid rhythm and pattern which are revealed through the transparency of glass.
Like the poem this understated composition has taken on many permeations before arriving with a somewhat simple interpretation of ‘A Living Library”.”
Lucy and Rebecca’s previous pieces were installed in the Reading Room and you can read about their work in our previous blog post. This summer, Lucy’s poem guides the library visitor gently up from the ground floor and Rebecca’s next porcelain installation can be found in the Rees Room window (upstairs). You can also pick up a copy of Lucy’s poem to take home from the table on the landing.
The installations are open for members and non-members alike to visit during Library opening hours (10-4, Tuesday-Saturday).