The sixteenth instalment of Darren Hayman’s Thankful Villages project

Herodsfoot, Cornwall

The road plummets down into Herodsfoot. We drive past the church and the houses until we reach a small green by the stream. I’m here with Johny Lamb who lives close by.

Herodsfoot is ‘doubly’ thankful which means that all the soldiers returned alive from the Second World War as well as the first. It also has a war memorial.

Me and Johny walked around the village. We found a small chapel that had been converted into a house. The first floor could be seen bisecting the long tall arch windows. All Saints Church overlooks Herodsfoot from a steep hill. It shares a rector with three other villages. A leaflet in the church said, ‘Herodsfoot, fortunate in more ways than one.’ We started to talk about things that were split in two or shared. Herodsfoot itself is cut in two by the Looe River.

We returned to the green and sat under a chandelier of burnt out candles and a row of broken fairy lights. We sang about safety and what things used to be. A gunshot rang out in perfect time.

No-one hears us. No-one stops us.

Johny and Emma Easy added soft brass and harmonies later.

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View the previous Thankful Villages posts here. Thankful Villages Vol. 1 is now available to buy digitally, on CD and vinyl in the Caught by the River shop.

Darren plays a special free show on Remembrance Sunday (13th November) at The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant London WC1X 0AE.