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St. Keverne Feast and Harry Perry's
Stall
Memories of Billy Moyle
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Anyone with a sweet tooth living in
the Helston area in the 1920s would probably have
been a fan of Harry Perry and his home-made rock
stall.
Harry lived with the Downing family in Meneage
Street, Helston where he had a mass of ovens and
other equipment to make rock in all different
lengths and colours. He and his assistant Cissie
Downing took the stall all over the Lizard
Peninsula including to St Keverne for the annual
feast celebrations in November.
In the 1920s St Keverne Feast was one of the
highlights of village life. A two day holiday was
enjoyed by all local residents including the
children, after headmaster Tom Whale and deputy
head Lewis John Hayden decided there was little
point opening the school for only a handful of
youngsters from outside the village.
Monday was the day for hunting with beaters hired
to feed the band of guns at regular shoots at
Lanarth. The rest of the men-folk made their way
to the Lowlands via Trebarveth Farm lane to
secure a good vantage point from which to watch
the hounds. Other sportsmen were also out hunting
- a crowd going looking for rabbits, armed mostly
with nets, and others shooting wood pigeons from
the trees.
On the Tuesday - the main Feast day - the village
was a hive of activity as the stallholders,
including Harry Perry, arrived to claim their
stall or "standing" for the day.
On one Feast Tuesday Harry invited Dick Lory and
me to visit him one evening in Helston to see the
rock and other confectionary being made. A few
days later we set off on Dick's motorbike
with me as pillion. We spent a very pleasant
evening with Harry, helping him to mix and taste
various potions, liquids and colourings and then
filling the moulds with them. However, we did not
realise that some of the mixtures were very
potent, a fact that we did not notice until we
came out into the cold night air at about 11
o'clock to ride back to St Keverne. Dick
drove hell for leather and was going so fast
around Treskewes corners that he struck one of
them. I was thrown over the hedge while Dick was
hanging half way up the hedge. We pushed the bike
to Dr Spry's surgery at Polventon but it was
a long wait to see the doctor because he was at
one of his dance sessions which did not end until
midnight. I left Dick at the surgery and went
home, hoping that no-one would see my face
bleeding from being torn by brambles.
Unfortunately, my older sister Edna was waiting
for me and, after giving me a good telling off,
then proceeded to go and spill the beans to
Dick's sister Winnie. Dick needed six
stitches in his head wound and probably had a
scar for the rest of his life.
Billy Moyle February
2003 |
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