Winter 2015 E-newsletter

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the winter edition of our e- newsletter. The newsletter covers news from Record Office and the Cornish Studies Library and is sent out quarterly. If you know anyone who would like to subscribe, please ask them to send a blank email to [email protected] with ‘Subscribe to E- newsletter’ in the subject line. We hope you enjoy this edition, and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2016.

Kind regards, The Archives and Cornish Studies Team

News

Christmas Open Hours

Please note, the Cornish Studies Library will be closed from Wednesday December 23rd and reopens on Monday January 4th.

Cornwall Record Office closes at 1pm on Thursday December 24th and will reopen on Tuesday January 5th.

Kresen Kernow Project

The project to build Cornwall’s new archive centre has officially launched and the delivery phase has commenced. Archive Services Manager, Deborah Tritton, will be taking on the role of Project Director for the duration of the build. Her post will be filled by Sally Weston, who joins us from the BBC Archives. Kresen Kernow Staff Site Visit

Earlier this month members of staff visited the Kresen Kernow site to see the work that has already been carried out to build a public walkway through the site. Although 80% of the work has been underneath the surface, it was lovely to see the area beginning to take shape, and to admire design elements such as statues and a water feature made from beer bottles. Due to the poor condition of the buildings the area remains closed at the moment, although we will be offering public tours in February (see ‘What’s On’ section).

Preservation Training

Back in October our friends at PZ Conservation (http://www.pzconservation.org.uk/) came and delivered a training session to members of our team in how to make book shoes and book boxes, which will be very useful for us in improving how we store items and helping us prepare to move everything to Kresen Kernow.

A Day in London with The British Records Association

One of our volunteers attended the British Records Association conference in November and reported back to us: “Sport was the theme for this conference and how organisations kept, displayed and recorded sporting memorabilia, documents and artefacts. From Eton College to the Rugby League Archive, and a visitor from Finland talking about soccer, a whole range of sports were touched upon. Cornwall featured at the forefront of the talk on bowls club archives by Dr N. Adcock where he pointed to Inn having one of the earliest set of rules, dating from 1732.”

What’s on?

We have been working with the Hall For Cornwall and KEAP on the Secondary Drama Showcase, which takes place at the Hall For Cornwall on Monday February 1st. Groups from twelve schools across Cornwall will perform four new plays inspired by our archive collections and written by local writers. We’re really excited to see how the writers were inspired, and how the schools interpret their work to tell the stories of John Couch Adams, Mary Kelynack, Andrew Pears, and the Mignonette crew’s cannibalistic adventures. For more information, or to book tickets, visit the Hall For Cornwall website.

In February we are holding a range of free Kresen Kernow events, including user forums, tours of the new public spaces on site, a history talk and even a Twitter hashtag, #KKQandA! The events are as follows:

- Thursday February 4th, user forum (project update and question and answer session), Cornwall Record Office, 6pm-7pm

- Friday February 5th, tours of the new public spaces on the brewery site, 10am-2pm, pre-booking essential (see details below)

- Friday February 5th, A Brief History of Brewery talk, Cornish Studies Library, 3.30pm-4.30pm, pre-booking essential (see details below)

- Friday February 5th, user forum (project update and question and answer session), Cornish Studies Library, 5pm – 6pm

- Saturday February 6th, tours of the new public spaces on the brewery site, 10am- 2pm, pre-booking essential (see details below)

For more information, or to book onto any of these events, please contact 01872 323 127 or email [email protected].

Also, don’t miss our Victorian Photographic Extravaganza, at the Cornish Studies Library on Saturday March 5th, held as part of Redruth’s St Piran’s Day events. The event will feature a range of photos and stereographs from our collections, and there will even be a chance to pose in your own Victorian photo! The event will also launch our new photography exhibition, looking at Cornish photographers and photographs from 1841 until the present day.

For the most up to date information about what’s going on, Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kresenkernow or find us on Twitter and Instagram,@kresenkernow.

Recent accessions

This quarter the Record Office has received 36 accessions. These have come from a wide range of depositors including organisations such as parish councils, schools, churches and from within as well as private individuals. We’ve also had several accessions transferred by other local authority archives. Plymouth and West Devon have given us registers for the County Court kept by the Bankruptcy Receiver dating from 1886-1956. These large volumes contain detailed accounts for each bankrupt person. For example, the case of Charles Whitehouse, piano dealer and tuner, of Mount Charles, who was declared bankrupt in May 1915. His account records expenses such as court fees and travelling expenses for a clerk to inventory the debtor’s furniture which was claimed by his wife. It also records money received such as £2 7 shillings and 6 pence received from S Tickell for an old harmonium, lino and sheet music [reference CT/TRU].

Plymouth and West Devon have also given us 18th-19th century deeds for properties across South East Cornwall including Crebor farm, ; Lantallick farm, Manor of Landrake; Higher Lux Street, and Horne Villa, [X1430 uncatalogued]. Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre meanwhile have given us a couple of earlier leases from the mid-17th century for messuages in Dennis Eia and Street-an-Garrow, St Ives which they had themselves received from Essex Record Office in the 1960s [AD2416/1-2]. Surrey History Centre meanwhile donated an album of colour postcards from right around the Cornish coast collected in the 1960s which offer a fascinating snapshot of Cornish harbours and resorts in this period [AD2420].

Somerset Heritage Centre have also donated images of a similar date: a set of beautiful black and white photographs taken by the late John Colin Dinsdale Smith, a historian and photographer based in Somerset whose work has been featured in numerous publications, journals and magazines. These include a few pictures of the Cornish coast and prominent historic buildings, as well as a series of photographs of holy wells. However the majority of the collection is a stunning set of photographs of wooden carvings in churches such as bench ends and misericords [AD2417], probably taken for his books Church woodcarvings: a West Country Study, published Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1969 and A guide to church woodcarvings: misericords and bench-ends, published Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1974, both of which are available at CSL.

Deeds and leases are not the only estate records we have received this quarter. One of the highlights of the accessions is a beautiful survey book for the Manor of Lafrowda in , owned by William Cornish and James Trembath. This volume consists of a series of plans drawn in ink and watercolour on vellum which have been stitched into a book, bound in red leather. A fascinating insight into the creation of the book is offered at the front of the volume, where the bill from the surveyor, J H Rutger has been pasted in. This shows that he spent 16 days surveying the manor at the end of October and beginning of November 1832 and includes his expenses including lodging and horse hire. It then details the cost of producing two copies of the book – presumably one for each landowner. In total the volume cost £32 6 shillings and 4 pence to produce – over £1600 in today’s money! [AD2419/1]

New books at the Cornish Studies Library this quarter include: A history of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, 1871 – 2012 by Andrew Pool. Published by Acanthus Press, 2015.

Published to celebrate the Club's 140th anniversary, this extensively illustrated book charts the history of the Club from its founding in 1871, through the World Wars up to 2012. It covers patronage, premises and members as well as sailing boats, motor yachts, cruising and sailing.

Plen an Gwari: the playing places of Cornwall by Will Coleman. Published by Golden Tree Productions, 2015. (ISBN – 099333220x)

This beautifully illustrated book explores medieval Cornish theatre culture. Two well-known examples of plen an gwari are at St. Just in Penwith and at Perran Round, but more than thirty other sites across Cornwall have now been located. Spectacular outdoor performances lasting several days were held at these ‘playing places’. They involved the whole community and told religious stories, including those celebrating the lives of Cornish saints.

Learning update

Our Learning team have been kept busy with a wide range of events and activities throughout the autumn, including workshops with a wide range of institutions, including Humphry Davy school, Treviglas College, Falmouth University and Redruth School. It’s always great to see our collections used to inspire everything from creative writing to drama, landscape history and A Level coursework.

In November we took part in the national Kids Takeover Day scheme, when we were joined by eight children from Truro School Prep who ‘ran’ the Record Office for the day. Described as ‘the best school trip ever’, the children participated in a range of activities including cleaning 19th century deeds, repackaging microfiche, writing social media posts and giving guided tours of our strongrooms.

We are currently working on an oral history project to capture memories of the former Redruth Brewery site, which will be home to Kresen Kernow, our new archive centre. The oral histories will be preserved in our collections, and also used in interpretation and exhibitions when the new centre opens. If you have a story you would like to tell, or some memories to share, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at [email protected] with ‘Redruth Oral History Project’ in the subject line.

Collection highlight

Not just Jam & Jerusalem!

Nearing the end of the national centenary year for the Women’s Institute, I looked at our WI records here at the Record Office for an in-house display.

What particularly struck me were the many different subjects that are covered by the WI groups, particularly in the ‘scrapbooks’ and how they are of great interest for local history or family history. They can cover farming, the countryside, the local school and education or even the Festival of Britain.

The scrapbooks, made by WI members, are illustrated with drawings and photographs and contain contemporary accounts as well as research. My favourite is probably ‘Leedstown Our Village’, made in 1965, which is a snapshot of life in the village at that time, with stories and pictures of people, events, places and recipes, of course, among many other pieces [WI/LEED/6/1]. It is an amazing time capsule! Claire B

Contact us

Cornish Studies Library Cornwall Record Office Old County Hall The Cornwall Centre Treyew Road Alma Place Redruth Truro TR15 2AT TR1 3AY 01209 216760 01872 323127 [email protected] [email protected] www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornwallcentre www.cornwall.gov.uk/cro