Ertach Kernow - Snapshots of Cornwall’s Diverse heritage
Cornwall's diverse heritage covers three basic areas of interest, historic, cultural and environmental. Here we consider some of the activities taking place at the moment in Cornwall under these three groupings. Cornwall’s museums and archives are amongst the best places where Cornish history is both stored and shared. Within what is a comparatively small area there are over seventy museums of all sizes along with some forty archives scattered around town and villages throughout Cornwall. For those who care about Cornwall and its historic and cultural heritage it is important that these institutions and organisations, many very small, are well supported. The situation with our environment is improving with a greater interest in cleaning and protecting sites of interest and beauty as charities and voluntary groups gather to carry out this work.
During the winter and out of the main tourist season many of these museums and archives close to carry out a wide range of tasks. Building maintenance to ensure collections remain well protected along with planning for new exhibitions and events and the ongoing job of cataloguing which is so important enabling objects, documents and images being found amongst large and often diverse collections. Perhaps more interesting, but not necessarily more important, are new projects to encourage interest and participation within the Cornish heritage sector. Volunteers are always required and larger organisations with greater resources are usually the first port of call for those interested. However it is the smaller archives and museums which probably need the most help, especially from those potential volunteers with technical and life skills to offer.
As always click the images for larger view
There were terrible times for the Royal Cornwall Museum when there was a risk of closure to what is often referred to as Cornwall’s National Museum. The situation is now much brighter and there has been a great deal of investment in sharing the collections in better ways and also protection through building maintenance. January 2024 saw the start of the transformation and one of the first and perhaps most important due to its international significance was the Mineral Gallery. This was completed in the summer and provides a better understanding of Cornwall and Cornish people’s position relating to world mining. Besides updating the gallery addition of a digital element allows greater sharing opportunities and engagement within education.
With greater interest and importance of education and sharing information relating to the environment The Bonython Nature Gallery is being upgraded. The museum is working with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust in this renovation project and should see this open in the spring of 2025. During December disruption will impact certain areas of the museum including The Balcony which has been cleared ready to present works from the museums extensive art collection. The main gallery has a temporary exhibition and is undergoing alterations to its displays. The Chapel, Link, and Philbrick Galleries have three separate exhibitions until 24th December. I’m sure that people throughout Cornwall look forward to seeing the changes being made at the Royal Cornwall Museum in sharing a greater amount of Cornwall’s historic and environmental heritage. Hopefully this will also maintain much of the old favourites which older folk enjoyed during their youth enabling them to delight in sharing these memories with a younger generation.
Another of Cornwall’s larger and important museums is Bodmin Keep, Cornwall’s Army Museum, where the building dates from 1859 and now in need of renovation and urgent repairs. This museum of course originally run by the British Army houses the collection and history of the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry and of great interest to military historians as well as all those enjoying a day out and some fun activities. The museum will be temporarily closed until the spring of 2025 but doesn’t mean the work of sharing and educating stops. The museum learning team are busy putting together new workshops to share in schools, During November the team attended Bude Primary Academy where the juniors participated in the immersive British Home Front workshops.
Ways of running museums have changed over the past few years, they are no longer just rows of cabinets but also include modern digital technology and ever-changing displays, including contemporary topics. Going out into communities has become an important part of sharing Cornish heritage with visits to schools, libraries attending events and other places where the public congregate. Digitisation allows far more to be shared and the use of the internet allows people throughout the world to see and appreciate museum collections.
This year has seen some positive steps in improving the sharing and participation in Cornish culture following a negative start to the year. Unfortunately the year started with the announcement Heartlands was to close for economic reasons. One of Cornwall’s most important Cornish language organisations Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, The Cornish Language Fellowship closed their Kowsva shop there in August. Besides their book sales covering Cornish language course books, stories and dictionaries, along with books about Cornwall and Cornish people they also have an online shop. Good news that this is continuing and that facilities have been found in Redruth where they can store and prepare their online sales. They also do popups throughout Cornwall and will be visiting towns in the east with some evening events. at Saltash, Callington Town Hall and Launceston Central Methodist Church. These events with Cornish national groups going out into communities and sharing their activities is becoming increasingly important. These visits are an opportunity to order online and pickup books thereby saving on postage costs and also to come and browse through other Kowsva Cornish books.
The number of Cornish cultural festivals grows year by year as towns and community councils throughout Cornwall realise the economic advantages to promoting Cornish identity and culture. The start of the years St Piran’s Festivals in March has expanded over the past ten years or so with the number of events and St Piran activities growing year on year. The increased number of posters being sent to Ertach Kernow to share on their website illustrates this. More Tansys Golowan events are taking place beyond the ‘Old Cornwall’ societies who have encouraged this mid-summer activity for decades. Cornish dancing has become increasingly popular amongst younger people especially with nighttime Nos Lowen dances and ceilidh’s creating exciting Cornish and Celtic themed fun events. New creative ways to encourage young people to take part in playing and writing music has been promoted by organisations such as Lowender which has now successful integrated itself into the annual Redruth Cornish cultural scene.
There have been some lovely environmental improvements in recent years with a lot of work adding to woodland and tree cover throughout Cornwall. Cornwall Council has been working on its ‘Forest for Cornwall’ project and this has now added over one million trees to the Cornish landscape. It great news that public opinion favours trees being planted along urban roads and an example of this is at Newquay where under the Urban Tree Challenge Fund street trees will also be planted in St. Aubyn Crescent and Whitegate Road. Hopefully the days of councils cutting down trees because they shed their leaves and make a mess or are slippery are over, at least here in Cornwall.
The reintroduction of beavers to Cornwall following the extermination of the Cornish beaver population which took place some 400 years ago is definitely looking positive. Not only are beavers a well-loved animal and popular with visitors to see and hear about, but they also offer a natural way of helping in flood prevention. Since the first arrival of beavers in Cornwall during 2017 at Ladock there has been other reintroductions carried out at sites in Cornwall. These schemes are fully backed by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust who will be appointing a Beaver Officer. Places already having beavers include the original site at Woodland Valley Farm in Ladock, with The Lost Gardens of Heligan also having a pair. Helman Tor home to Cornwall's largest ever nature recovery scheme covering 700 acres, owned by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, has a beaver project and separately there is a rewilding project run by Merlin Hanbury-Tenison at Cabilla on Bodmin Moor which includes the introduction of beavers.
The work beavers do in creating their dams is amazing and also of great benefit to the wider wildlife of the area and also in flood prevention. These natural dams slow the passage of water during period of high rainfall giving it time to disperse before it reaches human settlements. For other wildlife the ponds store water during drought to provide drinking water and encourage a diverse habitat for a range of birds and animals.
The continued growth of interest and participation in Cornish heritage across the whole spectrum can only happen with younger age groups becoming better educated. They need improved awareness of Cornwall’s history, culture, environment and its unique identity. Hopefully more schools will take up the baton of teaching Cornish topics, encouraging support for the many groups within the charitable and voluntary sector who already do great work.
Heritage Column
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