Battling On Session VENUE CHANGE - 14th March 2024

NOTICE FOR TOMORROW'S BATTLING ON SESSION - 14th March 2024.

Due to poor weather, tomorrow's walk at Golitha Falls has been postponed. Instead, Battling On will be hosting a Veterans' session at St Dominick Parish Hall, PL12 6TD.

The session will take place from 10-2 with lunch and refreshments provided.

The Battling On Railway Project now Full Steam Ahead

We are unveiling our new project at Battling On. Our site, Merryhue Farm, has received a wonderful donation from PTSD Resolution's Ashley Lamb. Her late father, Michael, had a massive train set which has now made its way to our Countryside Hub. Here, we hope the Veterans enjoy creating a big loco layout with all that we've received.

Pictured is Derek, the Merryhue Station Master. Being a model builder himself, he's taking the new task in his stride. Over the last few weeks, he's come to the farm to get everything ready for when the site reopens for Thursdays in March. Firstly, he used his handheld vaccuum to clean the track. Now, it's onto creating the ballast, which has now begun.

This is going to be a long-term project, and opens many opportunities for Veteran creativity. 

If you're interested in getting involved, please feel free to get in touch. The site is open on Fridays through February. When March comes around, we'll be open on both Thursdays and Fridays, 10-2.

Welcome to 2024!

We hope everybody had an enjoyable break. Battling On reopens this week!

Being January, it's going to be cold, so everybody will have to wrap up warm over the next couple of months. Because of the cold, Battling On sessions will be taking place at South Hill Parish Hall, Golberdon, until March.

We have a number of exciting activities lined up, including numerous art workshops. We will be helping out our friends over at Food is Fun by creating illustrations for their Bake & Banter cookbook. The chaps who help us out with Scale Modelling will be back on the last Thursday of each month, too.

Let's move forward to a great 2024 together!

Remembrance with Battling On

Everybody at Merryhue Farm has been working hard as we look ahead to Armistice Day this weekend. The picture above shows our Veterans' Remembrance Service that took place on Thursday. We were delighted to welcome staff, volunteers and students from all of our organisations, as well as Jason and Baz from the Royal British Legion. It was great to see everybody sharing their thoughts and experiences! Thank you to all those who helped and attended.

As is now the yearly tradition, we created a selection of poppy wreaths, aided expertly by Grown That Way's Kenny Raybould. Pictured above is Captain RM Steve Curran as he presents one of the wreaths to the GWR carriage carrying the Routes of Remembrance wreaths. We've already seen evidence that it made its way safely to Paddington station, along with many wreaths from across the nation.

Routes of Remembrance is run by the Veterans Charity. You can find out more here: https://www.veteranscharity.or...


Remembrance Service and MacMillan Coffee Morning

We're gearing up for a busy Thursday this coming week at Battling On!

We will be having a small Remembrance service at the Merryhue Hub in the morning. We would like to ask if any Veterans would wish to come to help set up on Wednesday. Please get in touch with Adam (01579 384798) if you would like to Volunteer.

Food is Fun will also be there, and Veterans are encouraged to join in to create the day's lunch!

We will also be hosting a MacMillan coffee morning, so we encourage everybody to bring in any sweet stuff. 

ALSO: 

We would also like for some volunteers to help create Poppy wreaths on Tuesday. We will be heading down to the Mustard Seed Church, Callington, on Tuesday in order to work on these.

The Mustard Seed will be open 10-4. Postcode is PL17 8DT.

CLOSED THIS WEEK

Due to the incoming Storm Ciaran, we will unfortunately not be open this week at Merryhue Farm. 

We will next be open on Thursday 9th November.

Thank you.

Our Loco Parrots/Welcome Back!

To restart proceedings at Battling On this year, we welcomed Our Loco Parrots to join us at St Dominick Village Hall! They certainly brightened the atmosphere!

We are excited to start a new term here at Battling On. We now have Sarah Bailey on the team, and she's eager to delve into things.

Looking forward to what the future holds!

A WEEKEND AT BOCONNOC

This past weekend, Battling On hosted a stall at the annual Boconnoc Steam Fair, where we aimed to engage in networking and amplify our message.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend, and the weather wasn't too much of a bother. We managed to make over £500 in donations, which will come back to continue our project.

A big THANKS to all the veterans who helped out with running the stall, and a special mention for Sean Drewitt who stayed for the entire duration. BZ!

The highlight of the weekend was our photoshoot with The Rifleman, a miniature steam engine. Unfortunately, Nigel and Adam - the owners - couldn't get Rifleman working in time. Thankfully, another engineer was at hand to help!

Nigel and Adam are both Forces Veterans. Below is information about The Rifleman and why it carries the name.....

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This engine is a 4” Burrell Agricultural Miniature Steam Engine owned by Nigel and Tina James.

The build of this engine started in 2006 and was finally completed and steamed in 2010 by the second owner Nigel Surrah of Yorkshire. In Dec 2011, after a brief exchange of funds and the collection of the engine at Exeter Services the ownership of the engine was passed Mr Kevin Pethick of Nanpean Cornwall. Mr Barrie Charleston from St Austell operated the engine until 2013 and after he moved away, she was laid up in Mr Pethick garage until she was purchased in July 2017 by the new owners. The name of “The Rifleman” comes from Nigel’s last job after serving his last 10 years with the Regiment called “The Rifles”. It is a tribute to the 62 men of The Rifles who were killed in Afghanistan as the colours of the Rifles Regiment are Green, Black, and Red the same as the engine.

Nigel:
I joined the Army aged 15 in September 1972 as a Junior Soldier at the Light Division Depot Shrewsbury and after 2 years I was posted to 3rd Battalion Light Infantry stationed in Minden Germany. During my 22 years’ service 3LI had been posted to Catterick, Cyprus, Tidworth, Omagh Co Tyrone, Weeton Blackpool and Paderborn Germany. During this time, I have been on exercise in Kenya, Germany, USA and 6 months in the Falklands. My operational Tours were 3 years and 10 months in Northern Ireland and 4 months on OP Agila in Rhodesia, South Africa. I had one posting to the 5th Battalion Light Infantry as a Serjeant Mortar Permeant Staff Instructor (PSI). My last posting with the Regular Army was HQ 43 Wessex (Wx) Brigade (Bde) in Exeter where in June 1995 I was awarded the MBE for the Administrative Roll I played on the Ten Tors Expedition on Dartmoor every year. I was discharged from the Regular Army on the 14th May 1997 and re-joined the reserve as Non-Regular Permeant Staff (NRPS) taking up the post of Regimental Quarter Master Serjeant (RQMS) with 43 Wx Bde. Two years later after restructuring I moved to D (LI) Company, The Rifle Volunteers in Truro as a Quartermaster Permeant Staff Instructor (QPSI) and in 2007 the Battalion became 6 Rifles. I was discharged from the reserve on 14th May 2017 after completed 44 years and 8 months in uniform serving 34 years as Light Infantry and 10 years as Rifles. I am currently driving HGVs for a living and the Chairperson of the DCLI, SCLI, LI and Rifles Association Bodmin. The last three years I have organised The Light Infantry Contingent to march at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, two Dinner Nights in Newquay and many other events in Cornwall.


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