Redruth Cornish Language Group Library Collection Boosted by Grant

Redruth Cornish Language Group Library Collection continues to thrive after another generous donation from the Redruth Charity Trust.

This grant will enable the group to purchase some more of the new books which are being published on a regular basis as the cost of books is prohibitive. In addition to new books, the group are constantly searching second hand book stores and even auctions for the sometimes rarer editions to add to their shelves.

The Group has been lucky in that some books have been donated from deceased persons’ estates and with the current contribution of money the number of their books will have risen to a figure in excess of 240 volumes.

Perhaps the public are unaware of the uniqueness of this library, its availability to the general public as a reference library, and the increasing use made by the public of this growing resource. The books managed are of three main types, and firstly these are the technical teaching books, dictionaries, grammars and detailed text books.

The second group contains books in the language, including a lot of classics like ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Three men in a Boat’, ‘Treasure Island’, The Wind in the Willows’, ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ to name but a few, but also including a lot of books like Ǽsop’s Fables, ‘Reynard the Fox’ plus lots of other early reading material for children, all in Cornish. There are several series of these useful books.

The last group is of books mainly in English that have some Cornish in them and also those showing the links between the Cornish Dialect and Language. Altogether these form a fabulously useful resource, and through using social media like Face book and the internet, the Group draws more and more people in to see the amount of books that exist and use them either as a pre-buying ‘touch it and see’ resource, or for their own personal research.

Finally, in order to reach even more of the public, the Group’s leader Clive Baker, undertakes a special section in the book reviews in ‘My Cornwall’ magazine, which finds people all over the world and attracts their interest, and indeed the group has had visitors using the resource on their visits ‘home’ to Cornwall from all around the world.

Clive Baker said, ‘We welcome folks to come and make use of our library and to make any donations of books or money. Every penny is spent on acquiring books and maintaining the library. Our email address is redruthcornishlanguagegroup@gmail.com.

The Redruth Cornish Language Group Library is situated in the Melting Pot Café part of ‘Krowji’ – the former Redruth Grammar School which is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday. Further details of the café are available on: www.themeltingpotcafe.co.uk.