mary ann bloomfield

Community and Voluntary Action, Performing Arts 

1957 – 

Suggested by Isobel Bloomfield 

Isobel writes,

“Mary Ann Bloomfield is a community focused woman from St Just in Penwith. She is one of the founders of Lafrowda Festival, creating many opportunities for community expression in this celebrated annual event. She was pivotal in the 2000-2004 productions of the St Just Ordinalia, playing The Ordinary Doris while also making props and set backstage. Between 2004-2016 she fundraised to purchase land and build a bespoke backstage resource and archive space, The Knut, adjacent to St Just’s Plen-an-Gwari. Since then she has worked to fundraise and produce the St Just Ordinalia plays in 2021. She has a passion to celebrate these historic playscripts and share their amazing wonder with others. In 2019 she was made a bard of the Cornish Gorsedh in her beloved Plen-an-Gwari in St Just. 

Mary Ann is an inspirational mother to me and has demonstrated that having a will to make wonderful and joyous things happen within a community is entirely worth it. She will always put her time into enriching opportunities in the community of St Just and beyond. She worked for Cornwall Youth Service, championing the voices of young people through arts and politics; she founded and volunteered for Lafrowda Festival for many years; and she has an instrumental role in the St Just and District Trust and the St Just Ordinalia which she continues to champion today. 

She moved to Cornwall in her mid-twenties after she met a group of Cornish creatives while studying in London. She was always drawn to the sea so when she came here, she knew she had found home. She has lived in Botallack, near St Just since the  mid 1980s and since has thrown herself into her local St Just community.  

Mary Ann is quite a multi-talented person who has done a lot, mostly voluntarily for her local community.” 

lafrowda.co.uk