Tony Mansell is the author of a number of books on aspects of Cornish history. He was made a Bardh Kernow (Cornish Bard) for his writing and research, taking the name of Skrifer Istori. He has a wide interest in Cornish history and is a researcher with the Cornish National Music Archive specialising in Cornish Brass Bands and their music.
Paul Phillips was born in 1937, at 2 Elm Cottages, Leedstown, near Hayle and lived there for the first nine years of his life. He attended Leedstown County Primary School, Helston Grammar School and, at the age of 16, he decided to join the police force. He applied to become a Metropolitan Police Cadet. His application was successful and he spent 17 years in the Met. On his return to Cornwall, the day that the Torrey Canyon hit the rocks off Land’s End, he took over a small hotel in Porthleven. To supplement his income, and putting his police driving training to good use, he set up a driving school where he taught approximately 1,000 pupils. During all this time Paul maintained a fond interest in Cornwall and all things Cornish and today he is the Federation of Old Cornwall Society Dialect Recorder, a post which he is most passionate about. In recognition of his work for Cornish Heritage, Paul was made a Bard of the Gorsedh taking the name Kaffler Rannyeth (Keeper/collector of Dialect).
Robert Evans was born in his grandmother's house on The Terrace at Pentewan and in 1981 following a change of employer was able to return to live in the house. He inherited his father’s collection of photographs and researched notes on the St Austell and Pentewan area and became interested in local and Cornish history. He is President and Chairman of Pentewan Old Cornwall Society, former Publications Officer for the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies and was made a Cornish Bard in 1989. Robert has presented talks on various aspects of Pentewan’s history including the Pentewan Railway to organisations all over Cornwall.
Malcolm Gould is a Cornish Bard (Map pry gwynn). He has worked in the china clay industry at Imerys, formerly English China Clays, for the last 45 years. Having grown up in the clay district it was the thing to do. He became a member of the China Clay History Society not long after its formation, volunteering at the archive and being asked to understudy one of the members, Harry Woodhouse, Cornish Bard, who looked after the film archive. With work commitments it was difficult to attend the archive on weekdays so he now volunteers at Wheal Martyn Museum in meeting and greeting, giving guided tours and driving an old 1934 ERF lorry. He also visits local groups giving clay related talks and showing films from the archive.
David Oates is a Cornish bard who has published a history of Troon, entitled “Echoes of an Age”, a guide to Godrevy and Gwithian, “Walk the hidden ways” and a slim volume of his own verse, “Poems from the far west”. His unpublished work includes a reflection on a Cornish childhood, “What time do they close the gates, Mister?” and a fictionalised story for young people based on the extant life of St Gwinear, with the working title, “The son of a king”. David is working on another guide in the “Walk the hidden ways” series, entitled “Hard Rock country”.
David is a tenor singer with the well-known group, Proper Job based in mid- Cornwall and has collaborated with Portreath musician, Alice Allsworth, to write the lyrics for a number of songs about Cornwall and the Cornish.
Priscilla Oates is a Cornish bard and a former President of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Priscilla is a Cury girl, was educated at Cury C. of E. V.P. School, The County Grammar School, Helston, and St Gabriel’s College, University of London Institute of Education. At St Gabriel’s she obtained an Advanced Certificate of Education, the highest teaching qualification at a time when teaching was a vocation and no education degree existed. She spent her professional life as a teacher of Secondary Science, having been offered a position at a school in Hertfordshire by a Cornish headmaster, Rex Tregunna of St Stephens. When an education degree was eventually available Priscilla, after working a full timetable daily, studied two evenings a week and part of every weekend for seven years, to get her degrees. She achieved a B.Ed.(hons), (Batchelor of Education with Honours) and a M.Sc. (Master of Science) from Birkbeck College University of London. On retiring she became a governor of Cury School, serving three years as chair of governors, before finally deciding it was time that she “left school”.
Priscilla is a church warden at St Corentyn’s and a parish councillor for Cury. She is also a trustee of Cury Village Hall, the area representative of Cornwall Archaeology Society for the Lizard Peninsula West, and chairman of Cury and Gunwalloe Old Cornwall Society. She has been involved in the Old Cornwall Movement from her school days at Helston, a past chairman of the London Cornish Association, and still a member of London and Thames Valley Old Cornwall Associations, a past chairman of Mullion Old Cornwall Society.