Millennium mugs for children

As part of the Millennium celebrations, the West Looe Town Trust has presented 1,200 commemorative mugs to the school children of Looe.

The Trust Chairman, Mrs Geraldine Oliver, accompanied by various Trustees, presented the mugs at four separate ceremonies during the last week of term to children attending Looe Community School, Looe Primary School, West Looe Playgroup and the Barbican Playgroup.

The Trust has a small number of spare mugs and would be happy to make a gift of one to any Looe school child not attending one of the local schools.

The first - and last - Millennium weddings

Looe Bay Holiday Park hosted the first marriage of the Millennium after

Cheryl Fields, a fitness instructor and Darren Swallow, a builder - both from Doncaster - won the dream occasion, worth £22,000.

The bride and groom, and all 100 guests, got up at 6am on New Year's Day in order to tie the knot at 8am.

Celebrations started with a private Millennium party on the eve of the wedding.

The prize, provided by Weststar, also included the wedding service itself, a champagne wedding reception on New Year's Day, the wedding cars, flowers, cake, invitations and a contribution towards the wedding rings. The bride and groom spent their wedding night in a special honeymoon holiday home on the park.

The competition ran in a Sunday newspaper in October, and respondents were required to send a recent photo and a brief letter explaining why a Millennium wedding would mean so much to them. Cheryl and Darren were chosen from nearly 10,000 entries.

Darren said: 'What made it so special for us was that we got engaged on January 1, 1999 and though we dreamed of a Millennium wedding we knew that we couldn't afford it.'

The staff of Weststar's Looe Bay Holiday Park are old hands in the marriage business, being the first holiday park to gain a civil marriage licence in the South West in 1997.

Paul Higgins, general manager of the Park said: 'We hope that this first marriage of the Millennium will help to put Cornwall on the map.'

The last wedding in the area of l999 took place at Millendreath holiday village on New Year's Eve at l.30pm, when a couple from the Watford area decided it was the best place to tie the knot in the dying hours of the last Millennium.

Smugglers and the Cornwall coast path

The Looe Old Cornwall Society's second winter monthly meeting was held recently, when Liz Woolard gave a talk on the South East Cornwall coastal path.

Liz, of Looe, is area representative of the South West Coastal Path Association, formed to promote the interests of coastal path users.

She described the history of the path and said it developed due to smuggling.

At the end of the 18th century 52 boats operated from Cawsand. Prior to this, there were many incidences of assault and murder resulting from conflict between smugglers and customs officers.

These, and the loss of duty to the government, resulted in the formation of a night patrol of the shore by sailors, extended from 1822 to become the Coastguard service.

The service was required to patrol the footpath, so the path needed to be as close to the shore as possible.

The idea of making this one of the first in a series of long distance paths, came from a wartime committee of the Ramblers' Association and was put into effect by being included in the National Park and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949.

In 1973 people from Devon formed a user group, having been frustrated by poor maintenance, sign-posting and, in many places, the non-existence of a proper coast path at all. This year saw the official opening of the Cornish Coast Path, a premature ceremony, as 26 years later, the path is unfinished in two places: Porthoustock to Porthallow on the Lizard and on Batten Cliff between Downderry and Portwrinkle.

Liz showed slides of the official and unofficial paths between Batten Cliff and Portwrinkle. The view from the road is non-existent. However, the unofficial alternative path along the cliff top, is already a well-trodden path.

She said both the Association and Cornwall council want the alternative path designated officially, but negotiations are taking place slowly. The situation has not been helped by a cliff fall in May 1993, which closed off the last one third of a mile into Portwrinkle.

The next meeting will be on January 8.

Looe Church Services

St Martin's Church Sunday 10.00am Sunday Live, 11.00am Parish Communion, Tuesday 11 Jan 10.00am Holy Communion

St Nicholas Church Sunday 9.00am Holy Communion; Thursday 13 Jan 10.00am Holy Communion

Riverside United Sunday 11.00am Communion Service, Rev M Oxenham.

Barbican Methodist Church, E Looe, Sunday 9.30am Rev Margaret Oxenham, Church Family Service

The Catholic Church 9.30am Sunday mass W Looe Catholic Church; 11.00am Sclerder Abbey. Further details contact Fr T Lewis 01503 272627 or 0498 774628

Popular concert

The Guildhall was packed for the annual carol concert arranged by the East Looe Town Trust, a warm welcome to everyone being extended by trustee Sid Gardner.

Entertainment was by The Looe Valley Singers conducted by Danny Gill who compered the afternoon, and soloists were Emma Skoyles and Beth Roberts who also sang a duet. Accompanists were Emma and Joyclyn Hocking.

The enjoyable time, which included some community carol singing, was rounded off with warm mincepies and cream, served up by Mrs Carole Day and Mrs Margaret Dirkin.

Your Looe reporter

Your Looe reporter is Viv Twornicki who visits Looe on Tuesdays. Anyone who would like to meet with her can do so by informing the Cornish Times office on (01579) 342174.

If your club or organisation has some news, you are celebrating a special event such as a golden wedding, or you have information which would make an interesting news item, then Viv would be pleased to hear from you.