Star Stories - Oral Histories from Penwith, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

Penwith Star Stories
Interviews at Merry Maidens Stone Circle, Penwith – June 24
 
I’ve just been out in ancient Egypt and I saw the star Syrius, which is actually a blue star and it’s called the Dog Star and it’s quite rare to see it this early in the year and it normally arrives in the sky in ancient Egypt more like June and it arrives to announce the rising of the Nile so it disappears every year for 90 days and reappears when the Nile was going to rise and the ancient Egyptians believed that the star Syrius was where Isis in her star form goddess isis sophys lived. So it’s a really magical song of really bright it’s so bright it actually looks like a planet.
 
So you saw it?
 
Yes, we were there on a tour in April and it was really rare for it to be there that early and it was really bright – almost like a planet and it’s quite blue.
 
What did it mean to you to see it?
 
It was a really amazing affirmation fo the work that I do – I did tours out there and we look at ancient archaeology and Egyptology and astronomy nad go to sacred sites and it was an affirmation that doing the tour at that time that we should have all been there – it was a solace to see it so early.
 
Elizabeth Martin
 
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June 24
Penwith Star stories
 
Interviews at Boscawen Un Stone Circle during Mayes Creative drawing activity
 
So, as a kid – living and growing up in St Keven, we used to go about a mile about a mile we used to walk or ride on our bikes a mile down to this farmhouse to meet our friends and on the way back it was often – it was in the winter  - and it was often pitch black and we would literally look at the sky, we would look up through, as we walked along the road, look up between the trees to guide us back so we didn’t walk into the hedge and I just remember that, as a kid. It was really good.
 
When you said ‘guide you back’ did you mean the stars guiding you?
 
No well that’s the thing – it was either pitch black because there was no stars or you would have a whisper of a moon or there were stars but we can’t…as a child the stars were just there…it was only as I grew older I started because nobody was really pointing them out.
 
So how did you learn about them?
 
Well it’s literally you meet someone – it could be your partner – that starts, it’s often linked it feels like it’s linked to romance sometimes because you find yourself doing things that you would not be doing like lying in a field staring at the stars. You start, is that that star, is this what’s that constellation? And either you know one or they know one, but I’ve always I’ve not been very good really (sotto voce) but there we are.
 
Which is your favourite star?
 
Ooh. That’s it – I don’t think I’ve got a favourite star, they’re all favourite stars!
 
Interviewer laughs
 
I like the moon! I’m so sorry (laughs)
 
Thankyou!
 
Don

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On moving the Cornwall the first thing that struck me was the low horizon line after having been in Brighton and therefore I was more aware at night time of the skies. I moved to a house in Illogan and in the first couple of days I was there when I stepped back right down the garden and looked back at the house the Plough was above the house and it was sat so it looked like a pot the shape of it with the handle which seemed quite, it just stuck in my memory and the next night it was there again erm and I looked it up at the time that just I don’t know if there was any symbolism to it and the thing I found which was saying that was a person that lived beneath the house with the plough was referred to as a Wainman which I haven’t – I would need to look this up again as it’s been a long time, I’ve only just remembered it, erm but the thing of that is that my name is Wenman which is yeah I know, really strange! I’ve sort of looked up my name and acutally it seems to refer to I don’t know, a cart maker erm so that like the wainwright painting the cart and I think my name got changed over the years but erm now I’m telling this story I want to go back to because I’d actually forgotten about this, to see if there’s anything in that or not. Erm yeah er I don’t know what else to say about that.
 
Do you have a favourite star?
I don’t know if I have actually. I can’t really – I don’t know what’s what. I just love laying down often is sites like this (Boscawen Un) or wherever really but particularly sites like this erm.
 
It’s probably easier to say a favourite constellation…
 
Yeah I mean even that, yeah, it’s one of those things I don’t know anything much about but I would like to but I yeah erm don’t know what else to say…

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October 24
Isles of Sclly Star Stories
Interview with St Agnes primary school teacher
 
I mean, just how many you can see at night really, it’s incredible isn’t it because the skies are so clear and its amazing and you quite often see the milky way as well, which is not, I’ve not really seen clearly anywhere else, but here definitely – definitely you can see it clearly. Erm, yeah at lot I love, I love it. Often if I’m taking the dogs out last thing at night it takes me about five minutes longer than it should because I’m literally just stood there (laughs) looking at the stars yeah but they are, they are really easy to see.
 
And I remember you said you moved from mainland to Scilly – what was that experience like for you from the point of view of seeing the stars?
 
Oh, totally different – it was totally, well there’s no pollution well very little pollution here. I mean just the air quality as a whole is just completely different so we used to, as a kid we used to look for the plough – that was something that my parents always did with us and you could kind of see it on occasion on the mainland but here it’s as clear as day, it’s so, it’s beautiful. Really really different from the mainland, er just yeah no light pollution no nothing. Yeah it’s lovely, really lovely.
 
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St Agnes primary school teacher with infant school children
Stars or about what it’s like seeing stars…
 
Once I was eating my dinner and the fire truck was out at night and then I went out to see it and there was loads of stars
 
Wow. What do you think when you see all those stars?
 
Nice!
 
Teacher: How did it make you feel Finlay?
 
Erm..happy
 
T: How about you Daniel? What do you know about stars? Do you know things about stars?
 
I know that they were created by the Big Bang
 
Other child interrupts to continue play house play
Oh Finlay, this is so hard they can roll down into my case!
 
I mean that’s very complicated, things like the Big Bang – what do you think though, when you’re looking at them?
 
No reply
 
T: Do you like looking at stars?
 
Other child (3 year old girl)
 
Yeah, I do, I do!
Moves on to talk about planets and dwarf planets with teacher
 
Recording starts again:
Do you want to say that again – so I said when you are looking at the star you thought it was….
 
Bright!
 
And you know what’s amazing is the reason it’s so bright for us looking at them is because there’s so little light on the ground…on the mainland in a lot of places there is so much light you can’t see the stars, which is…
 
T: they don’t look anywhere near as bright! Do you notice that when you go to the mainland? Have you looked up at the stars on the mainland? DO they look different than here?
 
We’re not, not ours, (struggles to find the words).. when it was night time and I was with my broken arm (in hospital on the mainland) I and I looked up at the stars and they..and I couldn’t see a single one…
 
T: no (ruefully) – when you were on the mainland and you broke your arm?
 
Child assents
 
That must have been up at Truro, were you at Treliske?
 
3 year old girl joins in
 
Yeah that was where I was born!!
 
Ah! My daughter was born there too!
 
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Can you tell me what you think about stars?
 
T: Do you see stars when you look up at the sky at night?
 
I don’t do that.
 
T: You don’t do that? Are you normally in bed asleep? Is that what it is? Yeah (as child nods in agreement).
 
3 year old girl
 
Sometimes I wake up in my bed.
 
T: Did you see stars when you wake up in your bed?
 
Er I didn’t see stars in my bed
 
T: Ok – did you see stars out the window?
 
Yeah!
 
T: What did they look like?
 
They are little, like little tiny princesses!
 
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October 24
Vicky – visiting St Agnes, Scilly from Cornwall
 
I went for a really lovely swim this morning because it was still quite dark outside and I could see the stars. I like it when you kind of lay there – you almost look like a kind of a bit of a dead body when you’re doing it, but how your head’s in the sea so you can hear the sea and then you can see the stars and I think it was a really lovely like sound scape erm
 
What were you thinking about the stars as you were…
 
Erm I was thinking about the stars yeah!
 
What were you thinking about the stars?
 
I think I was thinking about I think I always imagine they are looking down on us and they’re watching us and I always think that about the moon and I think that we kind of grow together and I think they’re looking down and protecting us and looking after us. Yeah (tinkly laugh)
 
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October 24
Lewis visiting St Agnes, Scilly from Newcastle
 
Is there anything you could tell me about your experience of stars on Scilly this week?
 
Eer it’s definitely the clearest night sky I’ve ever seen. The lighting level was perfect for the camera and as a result I definitely captured some of the best star photos I’ve ever made.
 
Wow and that’s in comparison to where?
 
(laughs) City Centre mainly but I’ve done one over – where did I do one – I did one over in the countryside in Oxfordshire but there’s still a little light pollution from the villages. I did one over in Cornwall, Cot Valley which was a lot better but there’s still a lot more there  but there’s zero light over here so I was able to get some amazing photos..off the mainland!
 
And how does it make you feel, seeing more stars?
 
Warm inside. Let’s go with that! (laughs)
You were laughing a lot I recall!
 
Oh that’s just me getting excited at the shots I was getting
 
Wonderful – and I remember one shot you were taking was of the Milky Way going down into the sea, is that right?
 
Yes, yes that’s correct. I think that’s going to be – that and a few other photographs – similar kind of proportion with the stars to the sea er going down below the horizon line – will be something maybe I will turn into a photograph series er so yeah we’ll see what..
 
So that was off the end of St Agnes wasn’t it – heading West was it? With which constellation did we see?
 
So we saw yeah I think we saw Sagittarius dipping below the horizon when we were out photographing the Milky Way
 
Yeah it was so exciting!
 
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Star conversations on the Scillonian, St Mary’s Isles of Scilly to Penzance
 
October 24
 
So thinking about your experience of stars in our general area – do you have any thoughts or experiences or memories or is there a special time when you saw them? Or just a general feeling about them?
 
I think I just find them quite comforting because I’ve lived in cities to study and I’ve lived abroad and I think to come back and see the Cornish skyscape I just feel home, homeliness, yeah, but it is spectacular here – this is on another level, just the clarity in the night sky it’s just beautiful.
 
It’s interesting isn’t it? That idea of stars and home and your home starscape is a really inteeesting one and I adored it here, but it’s not like it is at home is it? I mean our Cornish stars are wonderful, but I feel like I can understand them better because I can see the constellations better.
 
Yeah, they are your stars but you see them in a different perspective.
 
Yeah there’s so much else that’s there that you didn’t know was there. Even when I go up to a dark space near me it’s still not like that. Even what is supposedly the darkest bit [Zennor] that we know of as being Dark Skies don’t have this level of stars, you know, visible stars
 
Yeah I agree. When you see them on the mainland they are there and you know they’re there but it’s very much oh, this is my sense of place and I know what I expect to see there and you come over here it’s like someone’s sort of turned the volume up on it. You know you’re seeing it in some kind of different, you know, totally different turned up kind of way.
 
Yeah!
 
Yeah it’s really interesting.
 
Like turning up the volume
 
Like last night we were walking home and just thought, you know we just stopped and took a breath and was like, wow! (laughs)
 
So many stars!
 
It sort of hits you in the face
 
And seeing the milky way. What is interesting is what Carolyn was saying about it’s because  it’s surrounded by water that makes the difference, so the best ones I’ve seen have been at Coverack, which was over water. So I might go back there…
 
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Jan 2025 – Mount Zion coffee shop recordings, St Ives
 
Felix in St Ives (20s)
Do you have any thoughts about stars? Do you have a favourite constellation or is there a star that you see out and about, late night?

Not really. Mainly Saturn that’s I always mistake it for a star and then I find out it’s a planet.

So you don’t see anything like The Plough?

Yeah I do, I do but I get er it’s just always kind of there isn’t it?
 
Do you have any thoughts about stars and the sky?

It’s amazing to be in a place where the stars are clear, compared to being in London..(indistinct and coffee machine noise) I come from a place where when I went into a rural area, near Cape Town, I would always see shooting stars and that was just my best ever.
Was it a particular time of year that you went out into the countryside?
Er, no it was across the whole year I used to see these amazing shooting stars. Almost every night we would go out and they’d be there. So that was very special and a reason to wish, wish for something (we laugh).
And here, have you been noticing particular stars here?
I don’t really know, I don’t know the constellations from here as I come from the South so it’s very disorientating as everything’s very different. The other day I saw the moon with Jupiter above it whereas in Cape Town I’ve always seen the moon with Jupiter below it or to the right.
Yah and then it depends a lot on the darkness, so in this place near where I used to go in Cape Town the sky was like absolutely strewn with stars. The Milky Way would be whiter white, absolutely white erm and you would slowly start to perceive constellations which you have never seen before – clusters of stars or there is a little cluster called The Seven Sisters which I love….

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Maria, Hayle, Cornwall (early 60s)
 
We were just talking about stars – whether you have any memories of stars, stories about stars, interesting things about stars…
 
The most interesting thing about stars is what I got told by my granddad, which is that the light that you see from a star is actually, nine times out of ten, from a dead star because it’s already dead but the light’s still shining because of the speed of light, which I find quite fascinating.
 
And where is your granddad from?
 
The Isles of Scilly and his father was the deep sea pilot and they used to guide the ships in by the starlight.
 
Amazing. And do you know any more about that in particular? How they did the..when you say by starlight, did they navigate by the stars?
 
They would navigate by the stars, yeah.
 
Did they tell you anything more about that?
 
No my grandad didn’t but he just said that they, I mean my granddad could read the weather by looking at the sky – it was absolutely incredible. He’d say, ‘it’s going to rain later’ and you’d be, ‘no it’s not’ and he’d say ‘yeah’ and sure as eggs is eggs it would start raining.
 
So where on the Scillies was he?
 
St Martin’s. yeah. But want makes me sad now though when I think about starlight is the fact that the majority of people don’t actually get to see a proper dark sky and my sister who lives between Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor, when you stand outside her back door you look up and it is just lovely. It’s like looking at a colander – of somebody shining a light down through a colander; there’s just these little sparkles everywhere and then you see the ones that slightly change colour and that will be a satellite and then if you’re lucky you get to see the space station going across because it just looks like a moving star  so yeah, stars – beautiful things.
 
Thankyou! Do you have any memories of stars from when you were a child in Cornwall?
 
Me? Not really.
 
Interesting.
 
I used to watch the night sky all the time though, all the time, yeah, and there was one that used to be slightly pink yeah and that – I don’t know if that was Saturn? But that was again, it was, you could see so much more then because of the lack of light pollution.
 
Has that been your experience?
 
Yeah!
 
That it’s changed.
 
Absolutely.
 
In Hayle itself or around it?
 
Yeah, phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. I mean, you know, I used to be able to watch shooting stars and people say ‘oh you’re lucky you’ve seen a shooting star’ there are so many shooting stars and yet people don’t see them because of light pollution and I quite often go up onto the dunes from my house and you look at the night sky and yes you know you’ve still got pollution from St Ives but the majority, there’s so much more to see of the night sky if you can get away from the lights. It’s beautiful, absolutely stunning.
 
Interviewer's thoughts about these recordings as part of the St Agnes, Isles of Scilly. Starlight artist camping residency
 
This was our first star-watching based campout on Isles of Scilly and it didn’t disappoint!
It was also an excellent opportunity to gain insights from local young people about their relationship with the stars, as well as those of the artists. Jo said ‘the biggest takeaway for me was the deeper connection, understanding and interest the people who live on St Agnes and St Martin’s islands Scilly have with the stars. I really noticed the way in which people on the mainland have less to say about the stars, with many people not being able to find words to talk about them. This could be from a sense of wonder, but on Scilly people had a more direct relationship being so aligned with the night sky through a lack of light pollution. I am definitely keen to interrogate this further on future projects – you can’t miss what you don’t know is a phrase that comes to mind.’
Jo Mayes on the Star Stories oral history aspect of the project.