Diary of a Student: Growing with Tremough

MA student Charlotte Rayment looks back through her personal history with Tremough.

If I was lost in a world far, far away and was given a pair of magic ruby slippers to teleport me home, I think I’d be taken to Tremough. It’s so much more than just a campus to me.

I grew up around Tremough and I remember how it was when the nuns lived there, when the only building to be seen was Tremough House. There were angel statues everywhere, keeping watchful stone eyes on the rolling lawns. (Luckily, this was long before the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who - they would have terrified me if I’d watched that first!)

Behind the main house there was a swimming pool. It’s buried under the Media Centre now, but I’ll always remember getting my little swim badges there and running around the grounds playing hide-and-seek with my friends afterwards.

Walking around the grounds now, the landscape is completely different. It was always beautiful, but now it’s beautiful in a different way. The rolling lawns, Italian garden and a little bit of the woodland is still there, but there’s so much more to explore. I commend the groundskeepers and gardeners because they do a wonderful job. It’s a joy being there.

When I started my BA in Film in 2010, I returned to the swimming pool. Or rather, the Media Centre above it. Back then it was considerably smaller than it is now. The campus shop was by the bus stop (which was in front of the library entrance) and the library wasn’t even half the size. The AIR building was still being constructed. Over the three years I studied there, it went through quite a transformation. The feeling stayed the same though.

There’s a special, creative buzz at Tremough, or Penryn Campus as it’s now called. A hum of new thoughts, ideas and observations that only an arts university can offer. It’s an exciting place to be, with students and lecturers working on all sorts of fascinating projects.

When I stepped back on campus to start my MA in Professional Writing last September, I realised how much I’d missed being there. Since my BA, I’d thrown myself into the world of work. I’d got married. I’d changed. Tremough had changed. And yet, we were still the same.

Despite its evolution and growth over the years, Tremough has always been there for me. I’ve learnt there, lived there, played there, grown there and I think I’ll always return there. As an adult child of divorce, my family home is no longer accessible, but Tremough always will be. And it will always be the place where I found myself and nurtured my ambition.

Watching the students frolic on the lawns and recently, seeing them toboggan down the hill in the snow, leads me to think that even if you haven’t got the same associations or history with the campus as I do, Tremough opens its arms to all. It’s a home to whoever needs it.

So, if I’m ever given a pair of ruby slippers, you know where to find me.

by Charlotte Rayment