Pendeen Leat Community Project Needs Some Tender Loving Care

Posted on: 9th September 2018
Leat Project award

Plaque showing National recognition of the Leat Project in 1982/83

Pendeen Leat community project needs some tender loving care to ensure it is a space for nature and people for the next generation. Just home from a visit to Temenheere Sculpture gardens, near Gulval, I’m also thinking, could it be a space for art?

Those reading this who do not have a clue what I’m talking about then first take in the history as printed in the Outreach Parish Magazine back in 1991. As a post script to that story, there was no formal documentation to the hand over of the Leat to Penwith District Council so the land was not registered as a Council asset. The wonderful space is therefore no ones or everyone’s, depending on your outlook! People in the community have stepped up to the plate and cleared the pond of excessive weed and tidied the ground but as years have passed it has been increasingly haphazard.

Back in 2015, I was approached by the late Arthur Matthews concerned that it was beginning to look very neglected and volunteers from the Town Council, community and National Trust, spent a say down there. There are seats provided by the Town Council but some are becoming a little sad.

Blog after Arthur Matthews approached me in 2015

Blog following volunteer day in 2015

So, what might the next chapter look like? Well, SAVE THE DATE of 19 October when the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust have agreed to encourage some of their volunteers to join any community members wanting to show the space some love. It will likely be 9:30 till 3:30 and details will get into October’s Outreach and hopefully some local posters. As well as doing some work on the pond it will be a day for the sharing of ideas. Some already on the table are a pond dipping platform, a boardwalk and my contribution of a local art feature. Could you be the person to make something happen? Might you have a brilliant idea of how the community can take back control of this space like generations before?

The Leat Restored

The Leat Restored in 2015