News

It was a great day in Landrake this past Sunday. To celebrate and commemorate the upcoming VE Day, Battling On helped the Landrake parish to set up an afternoon of fun, food and festivities in the village hall.

The pictures attached show the Saltash Air Cadets marching through the village to start proceedings, joined by Les, one of our veterans.

The day was jovial, but there were also moments to reflect on WWII, where nearly 5,000 Cornishmen lost their lives, including two young lads from Landrake, Charles Barrett and Raymond James.

We'd like to thank everybody who got involved, especially those who helped to set up and manned the barbecue! You did a smashing job.

This Thursday, VE Day, the veterans will be visiting the Landrake War Memorial to lay some poppies.

Last year, Battling On and Winning Steps South West joined up with West Devon Art Workshops to host eight Arfts & Crafts sessions at South Hill Parish Hall.
We really enjoyed these sessions, and the resulting art exhibition at Callington Library was successful. Due to the feedback, we felt that we had to go again.

Previously, we did four sessions on modroc sculpting, and another four on painting with acrylics. This time around, we'll be doing Mosaics and Watercolours over the eight sessions.

All are welcome! Entry is free, and refreshments are provided. Let your creativity flow!

Session dates:

May 14th, 21st, 28th and June 4th - Watercolours

June 18th, 25th and July 2nd, 9th - Mosaics

Location:

South Hill Parish Hall, Golberdon, Cornwall, PL17 7ND

Make sure to come join the VE Commemoration Day at Lankdrake, Sunday 4th May! There will be live music, a raffle, and a barbecue run by the Battling On team.

On VE Day itself - May 8th - we will be placing poppies before the Landrake War Memorial and the graves of fallen Forces personnel.

See poster for more details of the May 4th event.

We hope to see you there.

Starting next week, Battling On will be hosting drop-in support sessions for partners/spouses of the Armed Forces at Saltash Library Hub!

These sessions will be geared towards spouses and partners of serving personnel and reservists. We provide support to those seeking employment opportunities, familial and social support. They take place from 10-12 on Thursday mornings (except the third Thursday of each month.)

See the attached poster for more details. Contact if you have any enquiries.

Tami and Glen from Food is Fun CIC returned to Battling On for the first cooking session of the year this February, and brought along them the usual good humour that makes their visits so fantastic.

The Veterans put in a great effort to create a classic Spaghetti Bolognese, followed by a Sponge dessert. The results were empty pots and running out of takeaway box lids; seems positive!

We welcomed newcomer Veterans to the group, and it was a great way to introduce them. We hope that you come back soon for some more culinary fun! Speaking of which, Food is Fun will be coming back to the Veterans’ sessions on March 20th, so don’t hesitate to come along and join.

Food is Fun do other events, too. If you’re interested in seeing what else they get up to, please visit their webpage: https://www.facebook.com/foodisfun

Special thanks to Bruce for some corking photographs!

The Fresh Start Coffee Morning that was due to take place this week at Sir Robert Geffery Memorial Hall has unfortunately had to be cancelled. We're sorry for any inconvenience.

Regular sessions will resume next week.

Late last year, Battling On and Winning Steps South West joined forces with Andy from West Devon Art Workshops to hold eight art workshops. Andy introduced the group to new skills in acrylic painting and modroc sculptures.

In February 2025, the pieces that the group created were put up in an art exhibition, kindly hosted by Callington Library. The selection of modroc sculptures and colourful paintings brightened up the library walls, and hopefully inspired any visitors to get creative themselves.

There are now plans to start eight new sessions, as requested by the group who got involved in the first. We hope to host these at Golberdon Village Hall in the early Summer, the dates yet to be decided.

If you’re interested in getting involved in the future sessions, please get in touch!

01579 384 798

[email protected]

More work has been done on the Veterans' Model Railway at yesterday's session!

We rummaged through all the track we had and fit them where our plan instructed, counting the pieces we were missing. There are a few bits we need to find, but the bulk of it is there!

Special thanks to Ashley Lamb from PTSD Resolution for the donations that make this project possible.

And a big thanks, too, to Darby Allen, who yesterday donated a Night Mail Express set! We even got the engine running around the inside track before the session concluded.

It's been a long time in the planning and praying stage, but the Veterans' Model Railway is finally ready to begin!

The Veterans will have free reign to decide how the railway takes shape, all the way down to the track layout, the railway theme and beyond. 

With the Vet sessions now taking place at Sir Robert Geffery Memorial Hall, the railway will be available each week to be worked on. It will be a slow process with lots of work, thinking and planning, but it's bound to bring a whole world of excitement!

If you'd like to get involved, simply come along to our Veteran sessions, every Thursday from 1-4pm at Sir Robert Geffery Hall, Landrake, PL12 5DZ.

Battling On and Winning Steps South West joined forces in October and November. The purpose was to invite Andy from West Devon Art Workshops down to South Hill Parish Hall for a series of eight art sessions. How did it go? Short answer: Spiffingly. Long answer: The eight-session workshop was split into halves, the first four tackling modroc sculptures, and the second abstract painting. Andy encouraged attendees to join each session, to take full advantage of the artistic journey we'd be voyaging on. With the odd exception here and there, the cohort remained intact throughout the workshop and developed a strong group dynamic. By the end, it was like a big group of friends.

 Andy, the instructor throughout, was patient and professional. While he always remained in control of the art aspect of the sessions, he never came became a stereotypically, stand-off-ish teacher. He was involved in the banter and provided assistance where wanted. A grand show!

 As for the art itself... The modroc sculpturing was a novel concept to the attendees, but Andy was able to turn some absolute beginners into people who had at least SOME idea of what was going on. The sculptures produced were far beyond anybody's initial expectations, which goes to show how invested they became. I created a sumo wrestler - because of course - and even though it looked more like a Christmas Turkey, I was still surprised at how well it came out. 

The latter four sessions were a little more familiar, starting with abstract watercolours and then bringing in the acrylics and a real divergence of styles among the attendees. The most important lesson Andy taught the group revolved (pun-intended) and the colour wheel - mixing and creating colours. Something that, on its face, seems easy and obvious, but in reality is far more challenging. 

 In the end, the group came away with a splendid array of artpieces and sculptures that they can be rightly proud of.

 But is that really the end? No. There will be an exhibition in Callington Library in January, where all their works will be on show, along with (potentially) some other pieces. The date is yet to be confirmed. If you're interested, keep a close eye on our social media pages to find out more when the info becomes available.

 A massive thank you to Andy, the West Devon Art Workshops, South Hill and Parish Hall, and all the attendees who made the eight sessions so marvellous!