Launceston in the rain

Work towards the new agency and its home at Cyprus Well has begun. Arts & Books now have a new base to work from, above The Book Shop in Launceston on Church Street, with a wonderful view of St Mary Magdalene. This week, there have been some outbursts of quite torrential rain, but the Church across the street is never anything but beautiful. Arts & Books is reminded of that line in Causley's poem 'Mary, Mary Magdalene', spoken by a nervous groom:


Mary, Mary Magdalene
Underneath the spray,
What will you be sending me
On my wedding-day?


It's said that if you manage to lodge a stone on the back of the granite statue of Saint Mary Magdalene on the east side of the Church it will bring you good luck. If you're passing by, you should have a go.

Launceston in the rain is beautiful too.

About Launceston

It is easy to see why Launceston captured the poetic imagination of Charles Causley.

If you rise early, when there is a slight mist in the valley, you'll find a completely rare crispness and clarity to the air. Launceston Castle wakes striking and magical into the sun and stands tall above the green hills of the surrounding countryside.

As Causley wrote:

WINDED, on this blue stack
Of downward-drifting stone,
The unwashed sky a low-
Slung blanket thick with rain,
I search the cold, unclear
Vernacular of clay,
Water and woods and rock:
The primer of my day *

Make a visit to www.visitlaunceston.co.uk to help you plan a trip. You should also have a look at the links to the right - The Charles Causley Society have a great page where they travel the town as it features in Causley's poems.






* From 'On Launceston Castle' by Charles Causley.

The Charles Causley Trust

Charles Causley died in 2003. He is generally acknowledged as one of the very finest Twentieth century English poets. He was lived all his life in Launceston in Cornwall, where he was a popular and admired figure and, for many years, a much-loved school teacher. His poetic reputation was worldwide.

Much of his work is a direct celebration of Cornish and Launceston life, character, history and legend. To celebrate Charles Causley is to celebrate the poetry of the region. His poetry brought him many awards, among them The Queen's Gold Medal and The Ingersoll/TS Eliot Award. He received the Hon DLitt from the University of Exeter where his archive is now held.

The Charles Causley Trust exists to keep his memory alive and to promote writing in the community and region in which he lived. To this end, the Trust has acquired Cyprus Well, the house where Charles Causley lived for fifty years. This was made immediately possible by an interest free loan of £140 000 in 2006.

There is still a great deal to be done to further the conservation and conversion of Cyprus Well to create a permanent memorial to Charles causley and contemporary poets of Cornwall and Devon, to create seminar spaces and, now, a home for a new agency in the South West, an agency with aims so very similar to that of the Trust itself.

If you would like to support the Charles Causley Trust appeal, you can do so by visiting any branch of Lloyds TSB and making a payment to The Charles Causley Trust account, held at the Launceston branch of Lloyds TSB. (A/C 0846748 - Sort Code 30-94-91) The Charles Causley Trust are a registered charity, no. 1102459.

Arts & Books

Arts & Books is a freelance cultural development agency. We are project managing the start-up of the new agency, and will be based in Launceston until the end of the project and the new agency is up and running. We’re based in South West England, and we help our clients with feasibility, organisational development, fundraising and business planning. The steering group for the SWLDA project are Arts Council England, South West, and ArtsMatrixLtd.

What's the blog for?

Cyprus Well Stories will be telling the story of the new agency as it takes shape, and sharing the work done by the Charles Causley Trust on the renovation of Cyprus Well itself. It will become a focus for news of fund raising activity and other information.

We also hope that it will also become a showcase for new poetry in the South West, and every month we'll be featuring work by poets in the region.

Welcome to Cyprus Well Stories!

Hello and welcome to Cyprus Well Stories, a new blog for a new literature agency in South West England. The agency currently has the holding name, South West Literature Development Agency (SWLDA) and will be based at Cyprus Well, the Launceston home of the late poet, Charles Causley.

The purpose of the agency, governed by a voluntary board of directors and employing a small scale staffing structure, will be to increase literature development capacity in the South West by raising funds for activity, through trust and fund application, sponsorship, donation, and proceeds from events, which can then be used to invest fairly across the entire region in the following developmental areas:

People

Grant schemes and partnerships will be created to make it easier for places and agencies in the South West to appoint Literature Development Workers and Writers in Residence. Up to one third of the cost of literature workers and longer residencies will be available.

Activity

The new agency will build a regional programme which will make it easier for groups, venues, and agencies to arrange activities with visiting prose writers, playwrights, poets, screenwriters and storytellers. A grant scheme will assist with travel, fees and accommodation for readings, short residencies and workshops.

Advocacy

The new agency will stand up for literature activity and activists in the South West, help to map activity and build networks regional, national and international.

The steering group for the SWLDA development are Arts Council England, South West and ArtMatrix Ltd.