Before the South Pier was built the area around Green Slip was used by the local boatbuilders and shipwrights such as Francis Hitchen. The two buildings at the bottom of the slip were known as the upper boathouse and the lower boathouse. In due course the upper and lower boathouse were used by the renowned  sail maker JH Francis.

The following letter to the editor of the Cornishman says it all.  

Sir, − Reading your paper I see a lot of old Cornish words and amongst them the ‘timmy noggy’ of a Mount’s Bay boat; a piece of wood with notches in it, for the ‘vargouard’ to rest on. This vargouard has been done without in some boats these 33 years. The boat New Tar, of Newlyn  belonging to Mr Trahair of Newlyn, was the first boat that had a sail cut by JH Francis, sail-maker. Mr JH Francis was the sail-maker who cut the first lug-sail, to set without a vargouard, in Mount’s Bay.

Cornishman, June 5, 1879

Download the poster here

It was with great sadness that Patrons of St Peters Players learned that the motion ‘The St Peter's Players, Newlyn be formally disbanded’ was carried at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, 15 August 2018. The Newlyn Archive contains the papers, programmes and photos that document the history of this remarkable group which has entertained us for over 50 years. The players' very generous donation of almost £500 to the Archive will go to editing a book about the Players.

We asked Diane Tredinnick to remember a particularly remarkable play and she chose ‘My Three Angels’ in which Goff Johns made his directorial debut.

The numbers 4707, 6817 and 3011 were not attached to heavenly angels but to three likeable Rogues (Adam Bowkett, David Tredinnick, and Peter Byrne) incarcerated in a French penal colony in the early 1900s!

The Archive has re-published with some corrections and minor alterations its very successful first publication, Newlyn at War. The price has risen since the first edition, but it is still only £8 and would make a wonderful Christmas present in this year devoted to remembering the horrors of war.

A new picture in the book shows Sid and Bert Perrott with Mary and Amy Hichens on Newlyn Green Beach with the barbed wire fence of wartime clearly visible behind. Seymour Cooke who joined the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and helped construct the beach defences, claimed that the longest run of barbed wire was from Newlyn Harbour to Marazion.

Download the Order Form War

On Saturday 24 November 2018 the Community Fund Team from our local Co-op invited members of the Archive to join them to celebrate receiving the final payment raised for the Archive. This amount is the Archive's share of the fund sponsored by the Co-op. The money is raised by the Co-op giving 1% of the amount their members spend.

The Archive very much appreciates having been chosen as a beneficiary of the fund. The final amount is a remarkable £9,639.80. The money is being used to enable us to share our resources with the local community.

On Wednesday 21st November 2018, the Newlyn Archive hosted a group of students from Cape Cornwall School along with their teachers and the author JR Carpenter. They came as part of the Dark Sky Bright Stars project organized by Joanna Mays to learn about researching topics, such as navigation, and to experience the workings of an Archive

After lunch at Trinity and a short film about the Mystery projected by Brian Newton, the students walked down the hill to the Boathouse where Ron Hogg showed them ‘the anchor fouled’, the Admiralty symbol carved in stone at the corner of the Boathouse.
Inside the Boathouse, Sue Newton pointed out different aspects of the building and briefly explained how an archive operates. Pam Lomax had prepared two displays of archive material, one to show the role of the Boathouse when it housed the rocket wagon and the other to illustrate the route the Mystery took via Cape Town to Melbourne.

After the introduction, the students were divided into two groups. Ron Hogg explained how the rocket system had worked and Peter Morgan explained about navigation and how the Mystery had made its journey navigating by the stars. The students seemed totally engaged and were fascinated by some of the old documents they were shown. They surprised their tutors by the detailed knowledge they had about some of the events, such as shipwrecks.

‘Having been married to a primary school teacher for over 40 years’, Peter Morgan said, ‘I feel well qualified to judge the behaviour of primary school children, and the children from Cape Cornwall must be amongst the best behaved that I have ever met. Well ordered, well dressed, well behaved and with sensible questions and interested attention to their subject. I was impressed, and their teachers and families can be very proud of them.’

On October 15, 2018 Richard Cockram, Ron Hogg and Brian Newton visited the new location to which the Cornwall Record Office will be transferring in 2019. The photo on the left shows the team with the building in the background

Kresen Kernow - or Cornwall Centre - will be an amazing new base for the Cornwall Archive, the Studies Library and the Cornwall and Scilly Historic Environment Record when they are brought together for the first time in April next year. The historic Redruth Brewery building at the heart of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site is being converted to house the world's largest collection of manuscripts, books and documents related to Cornwall. When we visited in mid-October, we were confidently informed that building works would be completed by Christmas and the miles of shelves would be filled and ready to be accessed by April 2019 - it was hard to believe! Filling any gaps in our own Archive will be far quicker and easier. There will also be a cafe on site for weary researchers.
Ron Hogg

The site is that of the disused brewery at the lower end of Redruth and quite near the Tesco store. A high standard has been adopted for external finishes and materials used to compliment and blend in with the existing old buildings. Work inside continues apace and there are miles of cable and wiring looms hanging in great loops waiting to be run along their cable trays and connected up. There has been extensive thought given to the future requirements regarding storage capacity and two very large rooms arranged with high capacity travelling shelving installed. Extremely sensitive smoke alarms will be fitted, and the rooms have only one entrance and no windows; temperature and humidity control of a high standard is included. There is much to say but suffice to say here that we can be well assured that design and planning to a very high level has been applied throughout by the CRO team.

Richard Cockram

On the weekend that brought us Storm Callum, the Archive held its final Open Day of 2018, representing 15 families with varying histories and occupations. There were 91 visitors, many with connections to the families displayed including a couple from Marazion who came in to shelter from the rain to find the wife in one of the photos on display.

The display began with the story of the voyage of The Mystery and the mariners who sailed to Australia in 1854 with lots to learn about the Kelynack and Badcock families. There was next an exploration of a Huguenot connection with the Rouffignac family. A wonderful depiction of the basket making Wallis family told the story of father and son including a lovely transcript of an original interview and photos of their craft which eventually came to an end in 1975. A colourful series of boards highlighted the artists from Lamorna, the Birch/Kerr connection, and a description of the place being ‘almost something unworldly’. This was followed by an inspiring display featuring the philanthropic Bolitho family and next the Batten brothers who played rugby for Newlyn. Finally the blue-eyed Harveys, described as tall and handsome, featuring photos of Annie, grandmother of our own Linda Holmes brought the exhibition to a close.
The raffle of the print of ‘Ring a Roses’ by Elizabeth Forbes drew many participants and the winner, drawn by Julian Drew, was Peter Morgan. Wonderful archive films were being shown, courtesy of Brian Newton, covering subjects from the Voyage of The Mystery to the comedian Jethro relating anecdotes about his own family.

Thanks to David and Diane Tredinnick who were selling books on local topics and the ‘Meet and Greet’ team : Helen Burnham, Judith Porter and Maryla Perrot for helping monitor visitor numbers and enabling the whole event to run smoothly. Thanks also to Pam Lomax and Sue Newton for assembling such a comprehensive and fascinating display. And thanks finally to all those who worked together to create a successful Open Day.

Report by Sue Roach

Historic England and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently visited the Newlyn Tidal Observatory to make a preliminary assessment of the building’s case to be granted listed status. That assessment is now proceeding at the regional office of Historic England in Bristol and Richard Cockram has provided the office with a copy of the new Newlyn Archive book, the Newlyn Tidal Observatory, which we believe documents all the information needed to make the case for listed building status.

Historic England is a public body of the Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with protecting the historical environment of England by preserving and listing historic buildings and ancient monuments. We expected to receive a copy of the consultation report, detailing the history and description of the building. Once the report is circulated there is a 21 day period for consultation. Following this, the finalised report is submitted to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport who will make the final decision.
The Archive was very pleased that its book was proving to be so influential, yet the latest information is even more pleasing. We will shortly receive a copy of a revised consultation report; after discussing the case Historic England have decided to include the lighthouse and the part of the South Pier beneath the observatory in the assessment. After all, the stilling well in the pier is ‘where the magic happens’!