Camborne Trevithick Day


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The Camborne / Redruth / Hayle Gazette April 2017


11


Join town’s celebration of famous engineering son


TREVITHICK’S steam carriage


CAMBORNE Tre- vithick Day is an an- nual day of celebration for the town to honour its most famous son, the engineer Richard Trevithick. Richard Trevithick


(1771-1833) was the son of a mining captain and was born at Tregajor- ran, between Cam- borne and Redruth and in the parish of Illogan, an area then in the thriving mining heart- land of Cornwall. Born within sight of Dol- coath Mine, Trevithick was immersed in min- ing and engineering from an early age and although he performed poorly in school, he went on to be an early pioneer of steam-pow- ered road and rail transport.


His most significant contribution was the development of the first high-pressure steam engine for use in the lo- cal copper and tin mines, and in 1801 he built a full-size steam road locomotive on a site near the present- day Fore Street in Cam- borne. Trevithick named his steam carriage Puffing Devil and on Christmas Eve that year, he demonstrated it by suc- cessfully carrying six passengers up Fore Street and then contin- uing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon. His cousin and associate, Andrew Vivian,


steered the machine. This is widely recog- nised as the first demonstration of trans- portation powered by steam. It inspired the popular Cornish folk song ‘Camborne Hill’, which goes:


‘Going up Camborne Hill, coming down Going up Camborne Hill, coming down The horses stood still; The wheels went around;


Going up Camborne Hill coming down’. His engines were demonstrated in the thriving iron working area of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire and in London.


Three years later he also built the first full- scale working steam railway locomotive, which on February 21, 1804, hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Iron- works, in Merthyr Tyd- fil, South Wales. In 1808, Trevithick publi- cised his steam railway locomotive expertise by building a new locomo- tive called Catch Me Who Can and running it in London on a circu- lar track near what is today Euston Square tube station. Trevithick married Jane Harvey, whose family owned a major foundry in nearby Hayle, and his custom helped set up Holmans Foundry in Camborne, which became a major local employer and en- gineering base and still


THE event in 2015 saw a a Guinness World Record for the largest congregation of bal maidens and miners. Picture: BID Camborne


survives today as Com- pAir. Turning his interests abroad, Trevithick also worked as a mining consultant in Peru from 1816 and later ex- plored parts of Costa Rica. Throughout his professional career, he went through many ups and downs, and at one point faced finan- cial ruin, also suffering from the strong rivalry of many mining and steam engineers of the day. During the prime of his career, he was a well-respected and known figure in min- ing and engineering. Returning to Corn- wall in 1827, he found that the high-pressure engine had become widely accepted, and was being further de- veloped for railways and ships. He died in Dartford, Kent, while


working on a project to develop a reaction tur- bine.


Innovation


It is appropriate, then, that this year’s Trevithick Day, which will take place on Sat- urday, April 29, has as its theme ‘Innovation’, something which Tre- vithick himself demon- strated again and again and which today is shown by the fact that the Camborne area re- mains one where engi- neering is flourishing. Camborne Tre- vithick-Day was first established in 1983, and the community event has quickly become an important part of the Cornish calendar, at- tracting some 25,000 to 30,000 visitors.


The aim is to provide a day of free entertain- ment to celebrate Cam-


1 NEW STREET PENZANCE TR18 2LZ


01736 351671 www.cornwallcyclecentre.co.uk CAMBORNE’S statue of Trevithick


SALES SERVICE REPAIRS


borne’s links with Tre- vithick and celebrate the local industrial her- itage. All the main streets are closed to traffic for the day, and the major components of the annual Tre- vithick-Day are:


l Bal Maidens’ and Miners’ Dance: This


leaves Basset Street at 10.15am and, led by Camborne Town Band, involves an average of eight schools and 240 children dressed in tra- ditional costumes of miners and bal-maid- ens


l Trevithick’s Dance: This leaves Basset


Street at 2.30pm and is an adults’ processional dance, led by Cam- borne Town Band. The dancers are dressed in the Cornish colours of black and gold and both dances follow a route that takes them through the central streets of the town.


l Indoor exhibitions: This features schools


competition entries, a Centenary Church Flower Festival, a dis- play on the life of Tre- vithick, and a model exhibition of trains, steam vehicles, etc.


l Static Displays: This features steam ve-


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A PORTRAIT of Richard Trevithick


hicles, fair organs, sta- tionery engines, vin- tage vehicles, etc.


l Free Street Enter- tainment: This in-


A FOWLER steamroller set for the parade. Picture: Aimee/John Memories Photography


cludes performances by local choirs, Camborne Town Band, and buskers, musicians, jugglers, theatre groups, etc.


l The Annual Steam Parade: This climax of


the whole event featur- ing steam traction en- gines and other steam- powered vehicles leaves Basset Road at 3.15pm and sees the lo- comotives heading in a parade along Cam- borne’s streets. Trevithick Day is or- ganised by a volunteer committee and aims to:


qRaise civic pride; q Bring the commu- nity together;.


q Show that the town is in the midst of regen-


eration and that Cam- borne does have some- thing to offer.


q Give a platform for all sectors of the local


community to partici- pate – for example with displays, entertain- ment, street stalls, etc.


q Raise an opportunity for voluntary groups,


charities and other


such organisations to raise money for their funds through having a street stall or offering refreshments.


qHelp local small busi- nesses to publicise


themselves through participation or through advertising in the printed pro- gramme.


q Educate about the rich heritage of the


area (prior to Tre- vithick Day, Richard Trevithick was often left out of the history books – he isn’t now!)


q Build better relation- ships between commu-


nity groups, inside and outside of the area;


q Give opportunity for members of the com-


munity to experience events within the day that they would other- wise be deprived of be- cause of the county’s insular location;


q Offer a day of family enjoyment in an area


where there is statisti- cally proven disadvan- tage.


See www.trevithick-


day.org.uk and https:// cambornetown.com/ about-camborne/camb orne-today/trevithick- day


Easter Eggstravaganza!


16 & 17April | Egg hunt Family entertainment | Regular trains


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