We ask our volunteers to write a round-up of what they have been up to over the previous month.

This month I have undertaken some very interesting audio work on Ted Gundry’s interviews with the late Clive Carter, local historian and Cornish bard. The recording was made in 1988 on the four hundredth anniversary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Throughout the interview I learnt many interesting facts about the role of the Cornish seafarers in the defeat of the Armada, particularly Sir John Hawkins, who was credited with the many changes made to the English navy in Elizabethan times and how naval warfare was conducted post the defeat of the Armada. I also learnt that West Cornwall was attacked by a Spanish force launched from the Spanish stronghold in Brittany in 1595 and that King Philip II of Spain attempted to launch a further Armada in 1595/6.