Library books

It has come to our attention that there is some misinformation out there regarding books donated to the museum's library so I would like to clarify this. All books donated to the library are are placed in the library. If they are duplicates of ones we already have, with the donor's permission, we choose whichever is the lesser quality and sell it to raise funds for the library. We have over 5,000 books as well as hundreds of documents relating to witchcraft and the occult. We have recently added more shelving to accommodate the growing number of books. There is no charge to use the research library but an appointment must be made and we do suggest that researchers become members of Friends. This is not compulsory. Friends is a charity which raises funds for the ongoing preservation of artifacts and books. If anyone has any queries about museum matters please contact the museum directly.

Corn Mother at Museum

We have the pleasure of the company of Gillian Nott this weekend. She is spending today & tomorrow outside the museum doing demonstrations of Corn Dolly making. She is very happy to chat to people about the history of corn dollies as she makes her very beautiful pieces. Here is a pic of Graham in the booth with a couple of Mell Dolls (containing apples) and Gillian herself at her table outside the museum. She is also selling some of her creations for, in my opinion, very modest sums. Gillian will be around tomorrow, Sunday, from around 11am to 4pm so if you're interested come along!

Fabulous Silver etc

A friend of the Museum, Marti Dean,  has just set up a new site for his amazing silver and artwork. The pieces are quite stunning. His Mandrake King features in The Museum of Witchcraft ~ A Magical History. It's definitely worth a look! Click here Marti Dean to check it out.

Guardians Of Magic Anniversary Celebration

Apologies fro radio silence recently but things have been very hectic with new books, conferences, new job etc etc etc....... The Guardians of Cornish Magic 60th anniversary celebration day was a great success and we are hoping to hold something similar around May next year. I am currently in talks with Steve Patterson, the chief organiser, as to what we can plan for the agenda.
It was held on May 14th and around 60 people attended on the day to hear talks around the themes of those who had been influential in the Cornwall landscape when it comes to magic, art, and folk tradition. The first talk was on founder of the museum, Cecil Williamson. Kerriann Godwin and Joyce Froome took the audience through a whistle stop tour of this fascinating man's life - from his meetings with wisewomen in both the countryside and the East End of London as a child, his time in Rhodesia with witchdoctors, his life in the Secret Service during WWII, and the development of his museum from the Isle of Man to Boscastle.
Jason Semmens spoke on that interesting collector of Folk tales William Paynter, and Dr Amy Hale flew over from the US to speak on the art and magic of Ithell Colquhoun.
It was a fascinating day and the feedback from everyone was very positive.

We then kicked off the evening with the launch of The Museum of Witchcraft ~ A Magical History - the 60th anniversary book edited by Kerriann Godwin. Thankfully it was a dry & sunny evening so we could all mingle outside the museum. I don't think everyone would have fit inside. It was great fun as everyone who bought a book was trying to get as many signatures as possible from the authors of each of the stories. Charlie & Sharon, a lovely couple who live in Boscastle, made us a gigantic cake with the Richel witch on the icing. It was extremely yummy!

Donations

We would just like to say a big thank you for the donation cheque of £47 received which was proceeds from a raffle held at the last PF Wessex conference. The PF is always extremely supportive of the Museum and we really appreciate it.
We also had a much appreciated  donation of £156.50 from the Witchfest raffle. The prize was a guided tour through the museum by curator Graham King. We are most grateful for the Children of Artemis' continued support and the money will be put to good use within the museum. Thank you!

Tripadvisor

We've started a new campaign to ask supporters to write a review of the Museum on Tripadvisor. We have a few 5 star reviews but it would be good if we had more feedback from visitors. Marti Dean has been down here for his birthday weekend and Graham has had him hard at work designing a new poster to request people to leave Tripadvisor feedback. Marti is well placed to get creative and design the poster as he's a teacher of computer graphics. He's using an image of a Green Man sculpture which is in the upper gallery. If you've been to the Museum and enjoyed your experience please leave us a review.

Simon Costin Hits the Big Time

Simon, director of the upcoming Museum of British Folklore,  has been getting some first hand experience at running a museum by helping out with us here in Boscastle. He's here for a few weeks learning about the ins and outs of museum administration, retail, visitor enquiries etc. Here he is writing an article about the museum's 60th anniversary for the Boscastle Parish magazine The Blowhole . I think he enjoys his daily ramblings down by the harbour as well. Here he is with Graham and a high sea in the background.

Patricia Crowther

The lovely Patricia Crowther has sent us a a great photo of herself with The Museum Of Witchcraft ~ A Magical History, our 60th anniversary publication. Pat has kindly written a fun anecdote about Gerald Gardner regarding a ritual sword and his trouser leg. Most amusing. The book has been selling really well. If you haven't yet bought your copy you can purchase one online at www.theoccultartcompany.co.uk or at the Museum itself. It's a limited edition book signed by Graham King the curator. A percentage of profits will be donated to Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft. Many thanks to Ian for taking the photo and sending it down to us.

New guest Book Drawing

We have a gigantic new guestbook which was made for us by Sue Bucklow. At our Guardians of Cornish Magic anniversary weekend we asked visitors to sign it and the lovely Lee Noble drew this amazing pencil sketch for us in a relatively short space of time. This weekend we are being visited by Craig and Spencer who are the boys behind www.handsomefolk.com. Here is a pic of them signing our book this morning.

Thank you Colchester

A big thanks to Colchester Pagan Group who recently donated £75 to the museum. This will be used for conservation of documents and archival material. We really appreciate it!!:))

Guardians of Magic

Just a quick note to say what a great success the Guardians of Cornish Magic was last weekend. Thanks to all the speakers. Will do a fulll round up in a few days as I'mm away from Bosacastle all week. Photos to  come.

A couple of nice reviews

Here's a good review of our CD Songs of Witchcraft & Magic
http://feralstrumpet.com/2011/05/12/the-laidley-wyrm/

and a piece about the museum
http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/south+west/cornwall/art355897

Pan addition

thanks to John Hooper who has donated a lovely Pan figure. This came from his garden - a fine piece of garden adornment indeed. He seems to be enjoying his new home in the Museum. Pan - not John:)

60th Anniversary book now available at Occult Art Company

You can now buy the 'Museum of Witchcraft ~ A Magical History' online at www.theoccultartcompany.co.uk. It retails at £30.00 plus P & P. Thanks again to all the contributors.

60th Anniversary Book

The Museum of Witchcraft Anniversary book has arrived & I will be sending contributors copies out over the next couple of weeks. They will be available to purchase online at www.theoccultartcompany.co.uk by the end of this week and will be on sale in the Museum later today. Pre-orders will be attended to during the week as well. The retail price is £30.00 and a significant percentage of profits will be donated to The friends of the Museum of Witchcraft.

There has been great feedback about the book already as I took some pre-launch copies to the PF Wessex Conference yesterday and sold a few there. The book launch on May 14th is looking like it will be well attended so looking forward to that!

Iain Steele

It was with some sadness but much pride that we took possession of the late Iain Steele's ritual tools and altar pieces at his home in Wales last week. We met with his wife Mary and son Andrew who passed over these items and we are very pleased to have them. Some pieces, mainly his stangs, are already on display but the plan is to show the altar as it was in its entirety so that will be done over this winter ready for display next year. here is a photo of Graham and Mary at Iain's altar.

PF PICS

Here are the pics from the Cornwall, Devon & Isles of Scilly PF Conference as promised. .

Below are Jo O'Cleirigh, Morgana  from PF International with Joyce Froome

Damh the Bard visiting the stand and Steve Paterson waving at the camera.

Thanks to PF

A great day was had by all at the Devon Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Pagan Federation meeting in March recently and we'd just like to say thank you so much for the £150 donation made to the Museum as part of proceeds from the day's raffle. The cheque arrived only a week after the event so well done for being so organised.

It was great to have a Museum stall there so we could reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Morgana from PF International was there and told us about her plans for the new online version of her magazine Wiccan Rede. Joyce Froome came along and signed copies of her book Wicked Enchantments which has sold extremely well. We've just had to reorder for the season as we only have 2 left.

Jo O'Cleirigh was fabulous as ever speaking on his work on Egyptian archaeological digs and everyone seemed to particularly enjoy the photos of some rather priapically enhanced statues that his team discovered. Vivienne Crowley spoke on a new book she is planning on the Hare, and Graham gave a round up on what's happening at the Museum including a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to kick off our 60th anniversary. Well done to Judith and all the organisers for their hard work in making this yet another successful event.

We're still awaiting the donation from the raffle at Witchfest in November last year. The winners of the raffle have booked their guided tour of the Museum in the next two weeks so we're looking froward to meeting them. I'll pop some photos of the PF event on shortly.

Opening On Friday April 1st

We're opening the museum on Friday so welcome to 2011!! Thanks to Gerry & Vannessa Greenslade and Dee Pearce who've worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to clean & paint the museum & generally get it ready for opening. Graham spent the afternoon cleaning & re-lighting the shrine so it should look spic and span by Friday. See you Friday or beyond.

Hot Floor Action

Graham & Dee have been a pair of old scrubbers this week as they try to transform the upper gallery floor that has been caked with 6 years of varnish & grime. We were going to replace the flooring but at around £600 it was just too expensive so with some specialist floor cleaning products & much elbow grease I think it's coming up a treat. Not sure if this pic shows it well enough but there is a distinct difference between scrubbed & unscrubbed.