Lizard 2024

Come and explore where the land meets the sea. The southernmost point on the island of Great Britain. Where the next stop south is Brittany and to the west is Canada! Cornwall is unexplored territory for the Edward Carpenter Community - Let’s go on an adventure - Let’s ‘Go West’!

Our Theme is: Autumn, Harvest, Community building

Our venue is a wheelchair-accessible YHA youth hostel. There is capacity for 23 men.

We will come together for a week in community. Building connections and being aware of each other. Living together - playing together - cooking together - washing up together - cleaning together. Workshops, walking, days out, daily circles, heart circles, intimacy, hugs, closeness, and Friendship!

The week will be self-catering with a facilitator working with a team each day to create simple lunches and a heartwarming dinners each day from locally sourced, in-season foods. Inclusion is important to us - we want no side table with special diets - but for the menu to be inclusive (food labelled) so that people can all share from the same table but make choices for their needs. The food served will be vegetarian and vegan.

As a community, everyone will be asked to pitch in with the cooking and the cleaning at the hostel but that should not take away from the fantastic location - local coves and walks or a short drive to days out at places like St Michael's Mount, Kynance Cove, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Eden Project, The Minack Theatre.

St Michael's Mount

Kynance Cove

The Lost Gardens of Heligan

The Eden Project

ECC Vision and Values

The organisers of this event have adhered to ECC's central Vision and Values when setting up the week. It’s anticipated that the same values will then be held and followed by everyone on the week as it unfolds.

Organisers

Your organisers this year are Michael Giddings, Jon Lyon and Antony Chuter (Fuzzy).
For all enquiries, please contact Anthony  ecclizard2024 [at] aol.com  | 07910 139705

Michael Giddings:
ECC has been an important part of my life since the early 1990’s,as a resident of Laurieston Hall welcoming gay men on ECC weeks, and later as part of an organising team for many ECC events over the years! I have valued the opportunity of listening and appreciating everyone’s unique experience that these weeks bring, and look forward to our time together in Cornwall.

Jon Lyon:
I attended Kench Hill in 2022 and haven’t looked back since. I feel like I’ve found a community of like-minded souls within ECC and alongside Antony and Michael would like to facilitate a week, using my background of therapeutic work inside and outside the NHS, and my experience of opening up and being my authentic self within supportive gay networks (as a late arrival on the scene), to offer what I hope can be a positive and calming experience for others.
In my former years I was a member of the Youth Hostelling Association, and organised weekends away for groups. I learnt a lot about group dynamics from that. More recently I’ve had experience in running residential conferences and therapeutic groups.

Anthony Chuter (Fuzzy):
I have been around ECC, the Radical Faries, Loving Men, Tantra 4 Gay Men and Celebrate since the mid 90s. I have been a member of the community on many weeks and looks forward to the energy that the space holds. I am looking forward to a week that is full of positive community spirit, helping each other and caring for each other.

Lizard Youth Hostel - A History

This former Victorian hotel is now a 4-star hostel boasting beautiful grounds, homely social areas and a warm welcome for the muddiest of walkers! Its special peninsula location means there are panoramic sea views, beachcombing, walking and unique wildflowers nearby, so it’s a popular location - perfect for an activity break in Cornwall or a quieter seaside holiday. Kynance Cove is within easy walking distance and the hostel is a good base for walking and birdwatching holidays.

Originally known as Polbrean House, it is a large Victorian villa built between 1864-67 for local landscape painter Thomas Hart. The house had a dedicated studio built that was extended into the main house by its next owner in 1921. The house became the Polbrean Hotel which, at the time, was the most southerly hotel in mainland Britain. The hotel was subsequently bought by the National Trust in 1993 and was handed over to YHA following a major refurbishment. YHA opened the hostel officially in 2003.

Essential Information

Venue: YHA Lizard Point, The Polbrean, Lizard Point, Helston TR12 7NT www.yha.org.uk/hostel/yha-lizard-point

Dates: Saturday 7th September (Arrival from 5pm onwards) to Saturday 14th September

Places: 23 places will be available on the week and we’ll reserve a proportion for first-timers until 1st June.
When bookings open, places can fill up very quickly.

Mobile Phones: There is no mobile signal or wifi at the hostel - but there is a landline phone.

Accommodation: Standard YHA beds but small bedrooms with only 2 - 3 bunks in each room. Some double beds on the lower level will create some extra space.

Accessibility: The ground floor of this hostel is accessible with 2 accessible bedrooms.

Nearest shops: Lizard Village is a 14 min walk away

Travel

It is a long way west - but it could be a lovely journey! It takes around the same time as it used to take to get from London to Laurieston Hall. There is limited parking (7 spaces) at the hostel, so we strongly encourage participants to use the train and the bus, or arrange carshares. There is additional parking available in the National Trust carpark nearby, but this may be chargeable.

By Train and then bus

There are direct trains from London Paddington to Redruth, journey time about 2hrs 45min. Those travelling from Birmingham and further North can join the same train at Exeter St David's.

From Redruth, the number 34 bus connects all the way from Redruth Railway Station to Lizard Village where you can either walk to the youth hostel (14 mins walk) or we can shuttle people with cars.

Perhaps a group will form and you can begin the event in company? We will set up a WhatsApp group for the event, then people can plan things like travelling together.

Arrival/departure

Arrival is from 5pm on the 7th September. The organisers can’t get in much before this time, so please don't arrive early. Departure is by 10.30am on 14th September.