GOOD FRIDAY MODEL YACHTING 2024 - AN APPEAL

One of St Ives' popular traditions is under threat. Councillor Luke Rogers highlights the issue, which the lead article from the St Ives Times & Echo 22 March 2024 explains.
SILT LEVEL THREAT TO GOOD FRIDAY BOATING CONTINUES TO GROW
As Easter approaches the tradition of sailing model boats at Consols Pool on Good Friday will once again be in the minds of the many locals who meet there on the day. Those charged with managing the event, for those few hours once a year, face a perennial worry - silt.
Built at the end of the 19th century the pond at Consols was designed to ‘flush’ the town’s ‘loo’. Sanitation being what it was a century ago the Stennack River was the town’s open sewer. Everything, including all the domestic waste from the cottages in the valley was thrown in the stream to be washed down and out to sea. In periods of dry weather, there often was insufficient water in the river to do the job. In these circumstances, the sluice gate at Consols was opened and a flood of water would rush down the stream clearing the sewage and detritus. Much of the water that runs into the pond comes from old mine adits, drainage for the workings, and this is the source of the silt. Without, the sluice being opened on a regular basis it settles and accumulates in the pond.
With the introduction of a sewage system and refuse collections to St Ives in the 1930s there was no reason to continue flushing the river so the pond lost its original purpose and silt began to accumulate. In recent decades there have been many occasions when, by one means or another, the silt has been cleared or reduced. But it is an expensive operation with an estimated costs being in the region of £20,000. This year there is very little water above the silt level, just enough to sail model boats. As it has been doing over the last few years, St Ives Town Council has been investigating ways of clearing the silt. On the day it has also had a man in a boat to recover the model boats that get stuck at the edges of the pond or in the weeds. This year the water is too shallow and the silt too deep to risk a punt in the pond. The silt has also become a hazard, acting like quicksand.
“We have done a bit of tidying up around the edges of Consols Pool,” Council’s Building and Facilities Manager, Paul Wood told the Facilities Committee last Thursday evening (March 14th). “We’ve decided not to put out a support boat this year. The reason for that is, we’ve been up to check the depth of the silt. We’ve actually had a man in the pool with a harness on. Basically, you get in and you can’t move. There’s no bottom. So, if you imagine you’re in a boat and you start getting these small boats and you go in, even with a lifejacket, you go under the silt and there’s nothing, the silt is so high. So we’ve decided, health and safety wise, not to put our boat in,” he added.
“We are going to take some long poles and we’ll do what we can with long poles.” He added that if boats could not be recovered with long poles at the event there was a safe method of recovering them later.
The Town Council will also be at Consols Pool on Good Friday, leafletting the public to ascertain if some volunteer support is available to help with the silt problem and the event in future years: “It would be encouraging if as many councillors as possible could get along to talk to people who are passionate about the event, engage with them and talk about their ideas and what the future of the event might be,” said St Ives Town Clerk, Lou Dwelly. She added that there had been ‘quite a positive meeting’ with the Environment Agency. “I think it is worth another go at writing to the Environment Agency. It may be that the functional importance of that pool may be getting to a point where they might be thinking of doing something. Although I don’t think that will be any time soon.”

[@Cornishpastyman]

By Tony Farrell - Memories of Consols Pool, in THE ST IVES TIMES & ECHO and HAYLE TIMES, 19 April 2024 :
A recent edition of the St Ives Times & Echo contained several photographs taken up at Consols Pool to record the tradition of sailing model yachts up at the Pool on Good Friday. The tradition goes back many years and is really a continuation of the sailing of model-yachts in the harbour at low-tide, when local people still lived Downlong.
As a boy, I spent my childhood years Uplong, and many days were spent playing in the fields around Penbeagle. Consols Pool was a part of our natural playground and because of my father’s interest in model yachts I cannot begin to count the many hours I spent around ‘the Pond’.
‘The Pond’ began life as a part of the workings of St Ives Consols Mine and there are early photographs showing children and Bal Maidens dressing the tin ore in the 1870s.
By the 1950s, ‘the Pond’ was open, and accessible to anyone who wanted to use it for sailing model yachts. In those days this was a popular pastime and hobby for adults as well as children. The only restriction on use was when it was occasionally emptied for maintenance - but it was always cleared of weed and made ready for Good Friday.
I can recall standing on the banks of ‘the Pond’ watching the models and seeing cattle being driven from the fields, along the road and down to Consols Farm. The cattle would often meander over to the water troughs on the West bank for a drink, or wander down to the sloping bank by the roadside and drink water from the pool itself.
BLACKSMITH’S FORGE
In the 1950s, a blacksmith’s forge was located by the fork in the road where the Roundhouse is now situated and the forge was still being worked. My father would sometimes stop to have a ‘yarn’ with John the smith, on our way home. On occasions, if we had been good, my brother and I would be treated to a bottle of ‘pop’ while they chatted. The blacksmith always had a small collection of bottles of Jolly’s mineral water for sale. He kept the small bottles on a shelf in the forge and sold them for 6d each.
In those days, all the model yachts were home-made, and people took pride in the appearance and sailing qualities of their boats. Good Friday would see ‘the Pond’ packed with boats and the banks thronged with people chatting and enjoying some Spring weather.
It was a sad day when the West bank was cordoned off by a new owner and we were denied access to that side of the pool. This was soon followed by the East bank being closed off. At the time this happened, I wrote a letter to the then Town Clerk and to the press, explaining that open access to the pool had long been established and documented.
‘POND DIPPING’
The Town Clerk and Council did little to fight for this cause but a small group of people joined together to campaign for greater access. As a result the South bank, over by the chapel, was cleared and some wooden furniture was placed there. The North bank, by the road, had a wooden jetty constructed to facilitate ‘pond dipping’ for children.
Sadly, the lack of access to the whole pool effectively ended the hobby of model yachting in the town. For a time, in the ’70s, a model yacht club was formed by enthusiasts, and models were sailed and raced up at Bussow Reservoir - but this too was curtailed after a while.
Because of the difficulties of access, several local families took to sailing their models over at Wherrytown Pool in Penzance. The Bassetts and the Farrells lamented that they were forced to go over to ‘the Dark Side’ of the peninsula to continue a St Ives tradition!
It is ironic that the Town Council are now seeking help and support in order to maintain this Good Friday tradition. There are photographs in the St Ives Times & Echo archive of a group of enthusiasts working on the pool in the early 1960s. At that time, the pool was widened and the West bank was made more secure. The reward for all this effort and activity was the ultimate closure of ‘the Pond’ to local people and the resulting decline of a local tradition.
Good Friday ‘up the Pond’ still remains a magnet for local people to meet, but it is a pity that the event is so drastically restricted. Locally made model yachts can still be seen, but they are fewer in number every year. It is inevitable that the tradition of making them, and sailing them, will slowly die and another part of our local heritage will be lost.

[@barleyarrish]

I remember collecting Dragon fly's here in 1973 wearing thigh waders the water in the middle
was about 2 to 2 1/2' in depth, with a detectably hard bottom. This was before the pepper pot was built. I suppose the main cost would be diposal of the silt. This is a problem for any river fed pond
lake or indeed the Bussow reservoir as bank errosion and rotting foliage and twigs flow down. The annual rotting down of the pond weed and marginal plants being another factor. There is a fine head of small brown trout in the pond whose defaction will also add to the silting. I hope this lovely pond
is not allowed to fall into decline as apart from boating it is such a good habitat. Good luck people of St Ives. It seems to me that sometimes priorities are gotton completely wrong.