Feast Monday was a local holiday starting with a ‘meet’ of the Western fox hounds at 11.00am in the church square. They would be followed for miles by many spectators, often without sighting a fox, but it was a grand old English spectacle. It was followed in the afternoon by a clay shoot and sometimes a sheaf pitching competition.

Another big event at Ludgvan was Lower Quarter Fair which took place in the autumn. The first thrill for us boys was to help (or Hinder) the dealers to round up and get their herds of moorland ponies into their allotted place, armed with home made whips we were quite some herdsmen I can tell you. Later in the afternoon it was most interesting to listen to the potential buyers haggling over the price, then the eventual capture of the selected pony who always put up a terrific but loosing battle before being led away still protesting. By now the village street towards Crowlas would be lined with stalls (or stannings as the Cornish called them) selling all sorts of goods, chiefly clothes, fruits, toys etc. but what interested us lads most a wad of bristle of some sort with a twisted wire handle named a tickling brush. Also ‘Water skeeters’ these were lead tubes (like tooth paste tubes) filled with water with which you squirted a jet of water at your loved ones or bashed them over the head with the tickling brush. I reckon that the girls had to be bruised, battered and soaked to the skin to have a really good time.
The Pubs at Lowerquarter and Crowlas were open all day so of course there were the occasional ‘crawls’ between gipsies and cheapjacks etc. but I guess there was more noise than action and when they were kicked out of one pub they would walk or stumble like gentlemen to the other one and start all over again. And a good time was had by all.

Just after the war, about 1921 I should say Cornish wrestling was being revived and Ludgvan decided to hold a meeting. Now Cornwall has always been famous for it’s wrestlers along with the Bretons. To explain the style – the combatants stripped to the waist then put on a very tough loose fitting jacket. To win a fall one had to throw your opponent cleanly with three points….. two shoulders and a buttock ore vice versa (at least) There was a lot of training going on in Churchtown in a grass field and of course I had to have a go, my opponent was a little larger and older than me but urged on by the men and my mates I eventually won.