CONFERENCE CENTRE OPENS AT CHINA CLAY COUNTRY PARK
Cornwall’s Business Community gathered together last week (March 17th) in support of the opening of a new conference venue in St. Austell.
The Wheal Martyn Conference Suite set within the historic Ruddle Valley and grounds of the China Clay Country Park is now officially open for business.
The total refurbishment of the old schoolroom building was achieved through a generous partnership with Imerys Minerals Ltd who contributed the majority of the funding in return for the use of the facility as a preferred venue for their in-company training courses and seminars throughout 2008/9.
Fiona Crump of Evolution Development, an independent trainer for IMERYS, has led the first trial training sessions at the new venue and has already posted her enthusiastic endorsement on the Network Cornwall website.
“The Wheal Martyn Conference suite is a large, bright airy room with plenty of space to run group exercises and has a small breakout room should you require one. Tea and coffee are ensuite and lunch can be arranged either buffet style in the room or down in the cafe. The staff are friendly and helpful and the surroundings are pretty and peaceful. I can thoroughly recommend this facility which is conveniently placed in the heart of Clay Country”.
Guest of Honour Thelma Sorensen, Chairman of both the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Economic Forum and Cornwall Business Partnership was equally complimentary in her praise for the venue. “Through the course of my work I inevitably sit in a variety of rooms and venues for a myriad of reasons. What is very special about the Wheal Martyn Suite is its peace and tranquillity. I love the Water Wheel mural together with the historic ambience and have no hesitation in recommending the facilities there”.
Following the near sell out exhibition of her work at the Clay Gallery last year, popular local artist Lesley Heather was commissioned to create an iconic mural for the conference suite. She chose the eighteen foot water wheel preserved from the old Victorian clay works and still working. Mindful of the museum’s charity status, Lesley on completion of the work, decided to gift it in the behest of the Trustees. The mural of the water wheel measuring some 3(three)meters sq now adorns a wall within the conference suite and may well be the largest single commission of a new artwork on display in Cornwall.
Museum marketing manager Chris Carroll told the Cornish Guardian that the opening was all the more gratifying in gaining secured conference room bookings contributing much needed revenue for the future of the Museum and Heritage Centre and the preservation of its precious artefacts for the future enjoyment of all.
The afternoon ended with a guided tour of the Museum and grounds.