Our history lecturer is running a competition among all of his tutees. Basically each week we have to report on the historical places we’ve been to. Like many of the things I’m learning about, it’s given me a beautiful open-ended licence to go and explore our local history. I didn’t study history at school beyond the first point when I could choose to no longer study it. Obviously the reason why I gave it up without a second glance has been lost in the mists of a long, long time but I seem to recall a combination of having to know dates, alongside a heavy focus on the two world wars were what turned me off.

It may seem like a crime not to want to study the world wars to some, but in my youth there were many, many people alive who’d actually lived through them and they were commonly talked about and dissected. I suppose I just thought enough was enough. I’ve always preferred looking forward to looking back.

Over the years though, I have been curious, particularly about local history and have satisfied this with investigation and reading up on events that have shaped our local landscape. Being in a competitive situation where museums, historic buildings and other historic places all score points has given me carte blanche to gather more and more knowledge about this fascinating subject. So, while we were in Launceston this morning on what turned out to be a wild goose chase, we passed St Mary Magdalene church and there was a notice on the door saying “church open”, well, it was like grist to the mill.

We learned that the church was built in Henry VIII’s day so it’s very, very old. Around the outside of the building there is so much carved granite, a testament to the faith of the builders because granite is extremely hard. It’s believed that this tower pre-dates the Henry VIII church and was built in the 1400s. The clock is Georgian. It also has an impressive organ. It’s a truly lovely building.

In my old life of a market research corporate whore, it was considered a sin of the highest level to change someone’s behaviour for the sake of research. I’m glad this bit of spontaneous research has given me the liberty to seek out and explore beautiful places.