The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.
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Women's Gig Racing
Women take the Bonnet gig out for a row off St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly
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Overview
A women’s Cornish pilot gig racing team are training off St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly. The gig is a six-oared rowing boat with a coxswain originating in the 1700s. Gig races are held throughout the summer and the sport has 100 clubs worldwide, with at least 13 located on the Isles of Scilly and many around Cornwall.
A gig was traditionally used for carrying a pilot to a ship and the experienced mariner would board the vessel and navigate it through local waters in all weather. Built from Cornish elm, the first gig designs are the same as lifeboats. In 1838, William Peters of St Mawes built a gig for Joseph Thomas Treffry who ran the Treffry Tramways serving the china clay, mining and granite industries. Today’s gigs are built to Treffry specification, thirty-two feet in length with a four feet ten inch beam. The Treffry and the Bonnet gigs are still rowed today.
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