Scaffolding goes up

The scaffolding for the new roof has gone up at last. There was a slight delay to the start and now the snow has put the work back a day or two but hopefully by the end of the week the plastic covering should be on so the roof works can start. It's rather massive and makes an interesting sight as one drives around the bend of the new road & looks over the harbour. The flat above the museum is also being worked on and the lovely pink bathroom will be replaced by a fresh white one. Graham has had to set up his bed in the upstairs section of the museum between curses and protection. He's a braver man than I am!

Frozen Boscastle

Although Boscastle is not under as much snow as the rest of the country we are still having some very cold temperatures and lots of frozen icicle action down in the harbour. We are currently experiencing snowfall so hopefully we'll have some lovely white photos for tomorrow. In the meantime here are today's pics.

Rosie Roberts

For those who come down to Boscastle regularly and stay at the Wellington Hotel, we would like to let you know that owner Paul Roberts' wife Rosie has passed to spirit after a short battle with cancer. Her service will be held in Kent this week. The museum staff send their condolences to Paul, Scottie and Suzi, and Derrin and Heather. The Friends annual meeting has been held at The Welly for the last few years and they have become great friends of many of the attendees. Our thoughts are with them.

Barry Vickers 1946 - 2009

Just a note of farewell to our friend Barry Vickers who departed this life January 1 2009. Barry was a Alexandrian, a folkie and a narrowboat man. He has donated some of his magical implements to the museum and we hope to have them on display this year. Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again.

Ronda's Pan

As promised in a previous post here is the photo of Pan in the Lara Museum in Ronda Spain.

I've also put in the Dolmen just outside Antequera. Worth a visit if you're in the area.

Museo Lara in Ronda, Spain

Have just been to a rather fun little museum in Ronda in Andalucia. It has a section on witchcraft which is worth visiting purely to check out the gigantic phallus on the life size Pan statue. I hope to add a photo when I return. I'm unable to download pics at the moment. There was a rather fabulous collection of mandrakes & other herbs and some interesting tableaux of how witches were thought to behave in the middle ages. I cannot sign off without mentioning the rather disturbing phallic dildoe-esque wooden machines which were used for god knows what....the mind boggles.....there was no actual text to describe whether they were used by the witches themselves or by the torturers. I'm sure you'd be able to find them on an S & M website somewhere these days. Quite an eye-waterer I would have thought. There is a mermaid there as well. Quite a place to visit.

The Dolmen at The AGM

I've been sent some photos of The Dolmen visiting the museum & playing at the AGM last weekend. The pics were taken by Andrew Hartup & his weblink is below. Thanks again to The Dolmen for giving everyone such a fab night of music & merriment & thanks to Andrew for sending the pics.

http://www.holedstonepictures.webeden.co.uk/

Webcam update

We have decided to remove the webcam from this blog until further notice. Of course a camera will remain for security purposes but pictures will not be broadcast on the website probably until next spring/summer. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Happy Yule Fest from The Museum

The museum staff would like to wish everyone a Happy Yule. As I will be taking a break for a short while, Carole (who some of you may know from the museum booth) will be taking the helm & processing your Occult Art Company orders until my return. I will be updating the museum blog occasionally until the museum reopens at Easter.

Kerriann

Friends 'Do' 2008

Well what a great time was had by all this weekend! Back to the fun of old as the Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft had their annual meeting at The Wellington Hotel in Boscastle.

We had some excellent speakers: Joyce Froome (pictured right with Martin), who is the museum's resident historian, gave a talk which is a taster for her new book (coming out next year) entitled Wicked Enchantments. She looks at the Pendle witches of Lancaster and spell casting around the 17th Century. If the talk is anything to go by the book should make fascinating reading.

Professor Ron Hutton of Bristol University gave the second talk of the day on the subject of 'New Thoughts on the Great Witchhunt' which he wrote for this meeting. As always, Ron was a lively and erudite speaker with a fascinating subject. FYI he is also Patron of 'Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft'. Here he is pictured with Graham.

The speakers were followed by the AGM where 4 new Trustees were chosen - more on that later.

The evening was capped off by a performance by the fabulous band 'The Dolmen' who donated their fee to the Friends as they are great supporters of the museum. So thanks dudes. Much bopping and drinking was done for which we paid dearly on Sunday. This did not stop a handful of diehards from attending the annual walk up the valley to visit the headstone of Joan Whytte & Minster. The rabble are pictured right.

All in all it was a fun weekend and we recommend it for next year. If you would like to become a Friend of the museum please email us for details. More info about it should be coming soon.

Check this out

Gemma Gary has an interesting website which features a bit about the museum. She also has a new book out on the topic of Cornish Witchcraft which is available through her site. Have not read it yet as it's hot off the press but reviews have been positive so far. Let us know if you like it. Access her site through the following link:
http://www.cornishwitchcraft.co.uk/museum.html

2008 meeting of Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft

Next weekend is the date for the 2008 Friends meeting. Speakers will be Joyce Froome who is the museum's historian, and the ever popular & interesting Professor Ron Hutton. It will be held at The Wellington Hotel on Saturday 6 Dec & drinks will be had at The Wellington on the evening of Friday 5th. Anyone who needs information should contact houseoftheoldways@talktalk.net . Hope to see some of you there & I may have some fab photos of the 'do' next week.

Notice of Devon, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Pagan Federation Conference 2009

greetings all
just wanted to give a note about next year's Devon, Cornwall & Isles of Scilly PF Conference which will be held on 7 March 2009 at Penstowe Manor, Bude.
The itinerary is as follows:

Friday night (6th March) Quiz and social.
Saturday speakers :
Rae Beth: The Green Hedgewitch
Merv Davey: Devosow Dons Kernow / Ritual Dance of Cornwall
Prudence Jones: The Goddess and the Grail
Damh the Bard: The Awen and Inspiration
Piper: Merv Davey
Competition: Come as a ‘Familiar spirit’!
Saturday night: music and dancing with :
Damh the Bard followed by
DJ Graham Barter: Uplifting & inspiring music.
Tickets: PF members £15, non members £18 available by post or PayPal.
Send SSAE for return of ticket/s with cheque/P.O. made payable to
‘Pagan Federation Devon & Cornwall’. Please include
membership number/s of PF members & names of guests.
Pagan Federation Devon, Cornwall & Channel Isles
(Regional Conference).
PO Box 314, Exeter, Devon, EX4 6YR
Available online: www.paganfederationdevonandcornwall.co.uk
Chalet accommodation and special rates available.
Telephone: 01288 321354
Sponsored by
The Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle

Closed for Winter

Well we had our last day of trading for 2008 yesterday. Business was swift right up to the end of the day despite Joyce freezing in the booth. There was an extremely cold wind whizzing through the front door!! We are hoping to have some building work done on the roof while we're closed - fingers crossed the builders will be available.

Magazines R Us

We've been massively busy over the last few days as we've had a donation of masses of boxes of pagan/witchcraft magazines mainly dating from the 80s and 90s. It's a great collection & thank you to the donor. We're a little daunted as to where they'll all go as we're quickly running out of library shelf space. Graham is ordering more shelves & boxes so we can get them out & then there will be the job of cataloguing. It has been agreed with the donor that any duplicates will be donated elsewhere or sold to raise funds for the library. Thanks also to Liz & Nigel who helped with sorting the magazines on the weekend!

New silver Hazel Pentacle

The hazel pentacle from the fantastic Dutch Richel Collection has become something of our logo over the past couple of years and we have now commissioned a beautiful silver necklace featuring this design. We have had a pewter version for a few months but many people were asking for silver so we asked a Cornish silver jeweller to make some for us. They have been extremely popular in the short time they have been available & they are now available to purchase on The Occult Art Company website if you can't make it down to buy one in person.

Closing for 2008

The museum will be closing on Monday 3rd Nov 2008 and will reopen Easter 2009. By the way - if you are visiting Boscastle don't be put off by the scaffolding surrounding the building next door. WE definitely are open during our normal hours of 1030 to 1800 Mon - Sat & 1130 to 1800 Sundays.

Thanks Taunton

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Yarrow & the members of Taunton Moot who held a fund raising raffle at their recent Mabon Camp & raised £45.00 for the musem. As you may know the museum receives no government grants & is entirely privately run by Graham so these types of donations are always welcome. Thanks dudes!!

Cool Blogsite Discovery

I don't know how many of you have discovered this blogsite but it's definitely worth a look. It has some amazing advertising images collected by an Australian person (not that I'm biased but this makes it even more fabulous). We are obviously extremely jealous as it makes our own 'Images' collection look tiny by comparison. Check it out: Sexy Witch. What fun!

National Trust Activities

Negotiations have been ongoing with the National Trust re the re roofing of the building next door to the museum. As you may be aware the Trust bought the building around 2 years ago to turn into a tea room. They have only now decided to go ahead with the refurbishment of the property after leaving it vacant for this time. Conveniently, they decided to scaffold the entire building next week, along with the front of the museum - while we are still open. Graham has managed to negotiate a 2 week delay to this ill timed activity & they'll be starting work around the end of September instead. It is unclear why they are unable to wait until the end of October when we, & most other businesses here, are closed (especially as they have had 2 years, & 2 winters, to get their act together). Starlings are currently roosting in the ceiling so perhaps this will delay it further.