"When we were originally talking about what we wanted to do, someone suggested to us that the LHI might be a very good source of funding for it, so I went to the Internet and found out more from the LHI website.

I found it very helpful, because it gave illustrations of other projects that had already been done. I downloaded the notes and the application form, filled out the form myself and sent it in.

The LHI has been much easier to access than I’ve been used to with other organisations, much more helpful. I’m used to these things being complicated - I even found myself anticipating difficulties that turned out not to be there!

We have had a traditional celebration, the ‘Bodmin Riding’, for many years but it had died down and we wanted to revive it, because a celebration where everybody feels good about where they live is an important part of building up people’s confidence in the place. In the past, the people who live here haven't felt particularly good about the town, and people from other places have tended to look down on it, so it hasn’t really fulfilled its potential.

Not that far from the town, there’s a moor called Bodmin Moor, where large cats live wild, and sometimes when one has been sighted it’s been referred to The Beast of Bodmin. If you mention the name of Bodmin almost anywhere in the world, people say "Oh, that’s the place with the Beast". Someone told us we have a brand here with international recognition, but it’s something that we haven't really capitalised on.

So our event used the Beast as a symbolic figure. We joined up the modern story of the "Beast" to other stories, like the legend that the founding saint of Bodmin tamed a dragon by taking a thorn out of its foot, to make him into a thing that represents the town. In a way we are creating a new legend.

Our Beast was hunted through the Day and the culmination of the hunt was a play, which is about the history of Cornwall in general and Bodmin in particular. It was fascinating to watch people’s reactions as the penny gradually dropped that the Beast was not a nasty monster but was in fact us - a personification of the local people."