Heritage-Making Practices in Cornwall's Clay Country
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Excavating the Archive: Heritage-making Practices in Cornwall’s Clay Country. Submitted by Robyn Alice Raxworthy (590020999) to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography In November 2018 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that any material that has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University has been acknowledged. (Signature) ………………………………………….…… Portions of Chapter 4 were presented in a paper given at The Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) Annual International Conference 2017, as part of the session New and Emerging Research in Historical Geography: Historic Environments. The paper presented has since been accepted for publication in Historical Geography Research Series – New and Emerging Research in Historical Geography (Forthcoming). …. All of the observations and recommendations presented in this thesis are those of the author. The generous participation of the Wheal Martyn Trust (including the staff and volunteers of the Wheal Martyn Museum and the China Clay History Society) in the research does not imply their endorsement of the analysis presented, and the responsibility for conclusions drawn remains entirely with the author. Cover Image: Filing cabinets in the Wheal Martyn Museum offices. 2 Abstract In 1999 English China Clays (the then principal china clay producer in Cornwall and west Devon) was acquired by the multinational industrial minerals company Imerys. Shortly after, a group of concerned clay workers and local historians came together in a salvage mission to recover historical documents which had been deemed expendable during the business takeover. Together they ransacked offices and emptied filing cabinets collecting historic documentation about the industry. In the eighteen years that have followed, the china clay industry and its associated landscape have undergone immense change and transformation. Meanwhile, that small band of individuals has grown into the China Clay History Society (CCHS). CCHS is now in the process of formalising their salvaged collection, with curatorial expertise from the Wheal Martyn Museum (of which the CCHS is a component part). In this thesis, the CCHS archive and its associated community relationships are examined in relation to experiences of past loss, present instability, and the hope of future renewal. Over an extended period of participant observation working alongside the caretakers of the archive, I explored the different practices of collecting, sorting, and valuing which are making and remaking china clay heritage in mid- Cornwall. Drawing on heritage studies and past studies of collecting, as well as professional museum and archival scholarship, this thesis emphasises the role that practice and material relationships play in the assembling of heritage (Macdonald 2009). Two distinct modes of ordering (Law 1994;2004) – ‘Passion’ and ‘Purpose’ – are identified as central to this research, which aims to show how different practices of collecting and valuing have profound implications for the ways china clay heritage may be performed in the future. 3 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................. 3 List of Figures ................................................................................................... 8 List of Tables .................................................................................................. 11 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................ 12 Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1: Tehidy ........................................................................................... 16 1.1 Tehidy ............................................................................................................... 16 1.2 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 22 1.3 Research Aims and Questions .......................................................................... 24 1.4 Where Is the Clay Country?............................................................................... 26 1.5 Practices of Heritage ......................................................................................... 27 1.6 Thesis Structure ................................................................................................ 30 Chapter 2: In the Reading Room: Approaching the Archive ...................... 34 2.1 Heritage and Place ............................................................................................ 35 2.1.1 Heritage as Future-Making .......................................................................... 39 2.2 Heritage Dissonance and the Authorised Heritage Discourse ............................ 40 2.3 Thinking with Assemblage ................................................................................. 50 2.3.1 Material Agency .......................................................................................... 52 2.3.2 Heritage as Assemblage ............................................................................. 55 2.4 Identifying Patterns ............................................................................................ 56 2.4.1 Multiplicity and Modes of Ordering .............................................................. 58 2.4.2 Material Obduracy ....................................................................................... 60 2.5 Collecting .......................................................................................................... 63 2.6 Formal and Informal Collections ........................................................................ 65 2.6.1 The History of the Museum ......................................................................... 66 2.6.2 The History of the Archive ........................................................................... 68 2.6.3 Informal and Private Collections .................................................................. 71 2.7 Spaces In-Between ........................................................................................... 73 2.7.1 Between History and Memory ..................................................................... 75 2.8 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................. 80 Chapter 3: The Historical Archive ................................................................. 83 3.1 Collecting Cornwall ............................................................................................ 83 4 3.2 A Brief History of China Clay ............................................................................. 88 3.2.1 Geological Formation .................................................................................. 89 3.2.2 Discovery .................................................................................................... 90 3.2.3 Growth and Expansion ................................................................................ 92 3.2.4 Modernisation ............................................................................................. 94 3.3 Wheal Martyn: Living History ........................................................................... 103 3.4 The Museum ................................................................................................... 105 3.4.1 Beginnings ................................................................................................ 107 3.4.2 An Industry Museum ................................................................................. 109 3.4.3 A Social History Museum .......................................................................... 113 3.5 The China Clay History Society ....................................................................... 116 3.6 South West Lakes Trust: 2010 to Present ....................................................... 119 3.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................... 122 Chapter 4: The Performed Archive ............................................................. 125 4.1 “Touchy Feely Look-See” Methodologies ........................................................ 125 4.2 Qualitative Questionnaires .............................................................................. 127 4.3 Interviews ........................................................................................................ 130 4.3.1 Coding Practices ....................................................................................... 134 4.4 Participatory Methods ...................................................................................... 136 4.4.1 Historical Research as Methodology ......................................................... 137 4.4.2 Participant Observation: Dual Citizenship ................................................. 142 4.4.3 Becoming the Enthusiast .......................................................................... 147 4.4.4 Co-Production and Conflict ......................................................................