HERODSFOOT has even more reason to celebrate its status as a “Thankful Village” after a local couple stepped in to save its only public gathering place.

The Village Green is at the heart of the settlement by the bridge, and since the 1970s, it has played host to hundreds of events and activities.

It’s also where a plaque commemorates Herodsfoot’s place as Cornwall’s only Fortunate, or Thankful Village – one where no men were lost in either the First or Second World War.

There was much concern when the land went up for sale recently: a process began to register the land as a Green under the Commons Act, but this application could take years to come to fruition.

“Fortunately, just as we had started investigating this possibility, a wonderful local couple offered to purchase the land,” said Cornwall Councillor Jane Pascoe.

“This really was a miracle.”

The annual Duck Race and Ram Roast gave villagers a chance to celebrate this positive turn of events and to gather together and socialise.

A number of holidaymakers also took part in the fun and all 600 ducks were sold, said churchwarden Ian Gordon. The lamb for the roast was kindly donated by John Ridout at Penbugle.

“It went extremely well, it was really well attended, and we raised £1,133 towards the restoration of the church,” he said.

“There were a lot of children there and three of the prizes were won by people in the village.”

A village party was held earlier this year in honour of the safeguarding of the Village Green and to present a plaque to the couple who had made the kind gesture.

They’ll also be asked to open the Church Fete which is set to take place later this month.

The couple are well known to people in Herodsfoot, but said they didn’t want to be named in the Cornish Times as they feel “terribly publicity shy”.

Explaining the motivation behind their decision, they said: “We bought the green because the village needs it, it’s as simple as that.

“We’ve got no pub here, no shop or village hall. So we need that piece of land to have any social events. We just wanted to make sure it could carry on being used as it always had been.”

While everyone is delighted with the outcome in Herodsfoot, there is one disappointing part to this story, says Cllr Pascoe, and it could have implications for other villages.

“The officer who considers all the evidence and decides if this land can be registered in perpetuity has informed us that he has such a backlog of work, that it could possibly be up to six years before it is registered as a green,” she said.

In Herodsfoot in the meantime, thoughts now turn to continuing maintenance and refurbishment work at the church, and to the Fete which will take place on August 22.

A service of Holy Communion led by the Reverend Peter Bellenes will be held prior to the event, at 10am.