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To The Market House
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Bank Details
We are currently experiencing difficulties with processing direct payments for items from the Shop via our Paypal.
Please find our Bank Account Details below to make a payment, please then email the office in order that the order can be processed and posted.
We apologise for this and are working to get the problem fixed. Thank you for your understanding.
Please make payment to:
St Ives Archive, Sort Code: 20 67 19, Account No: 03399362
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2026 Calendar Now Available
£10 (+£3.90 post & packing)
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Walks at the Festival
Thank you Tony
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Talks at the Festival
Tuesday 16 September
4.30pm PORTHMEOR STUDIOS, Back Road West Tickets: £8 Brushes Against Tradition –The Artistic Journeys of Frances Hodgkins and Edith Collier. Madie Parkinson-Evans provides a brief introduction to two women who are gaining deserved recognition.
Thursday 25 September
2.30pm PORTHMEOR STUDIOS,Back Road West Tickets: £8 – Talk By Ethan Carney: Who Helped Hepworth? £8 TICKETS
Friday 26 September
4.30pm PORTHMEOR STUDIOS,Back Road West Tickets: £8 – Talk By Ethan Carney: Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham
A big thank you to all of our speakers
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Meet our Volunteers
Hello, my name is Wendy and I’ve been volunteering at the Archive since 2019. If someone asked me to describe in one word how I feel about being a volunteer, I would say without hesitation – proud. Proud of being part of a team who are dedicated to preserving the history of St Ives through it’s incredible collection of documents, books, maps, photos and audio material, all of which need constantly managing and conserving. The Archive relies entirely on volunteers and because of the variety of its collection there is always some area of personal interest for volunteers to choose to work on when they first start. It can be daunting to become a new member of a group but I was given a very warm welcome by all the team. As a registered charity, fund raising plays an important role and attending St Ives Farmers Market and other local events, getting out and meeting the public, selling our publications and photo cards is something that I always enjoy. I’ve been a steward at Archive events during The September Festival in venues such as the Porthmeor Studios and The Arts Club and accompanied Archive History walks around St Ives during the summer months. My work at the Archive is primarily working on an audit of the original material we keep in Archival Quality cardboard storage boxes. This involves cleaning and caring for the contents as well as making sure the list of it’s contents is complete and is recorded accurately on our Catalogue system. It is fascinating to open a box and find unique items, whether it be a manuscript, a house deed or an old account book from a long gone shop in St Ives. I also enjoy creating visual displays for events and requests from organisations. The work is always varied and interesting and we help each other as best we can because we are a Team and have commitment to the Archive and to each other.
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Pop Up Shop
We are delighted to be hosting a pop up shop and a small exhibition during the September Festival.
We are so grateful to be sponsored by the Pilchard Press, and will be in situ from 10:00 – 16:00 at the Salvation Army Hall on Sunday 21 September 2025.
Come and see how plans for the Market House are progressing and grab a bargain.
For one day only huge SALE on many of our publications.
See you there
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Elaine Pearce
It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the passing of one of our members. Elaine was our longest serving volunteer, supporting the Archive for over 25 years, as a Trustee for a period, but always as a specialist on family history, where she got to know people from Australia and America. She was an active fundraiser, always ready to help out at events, and was known for her delicious baking!
Elaine was a big personality and was much loved for her outspoken contributions.
She is sadly missed.
Lyn Burchess, Chair
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Island Road School Talk
Barbara Hepworth died 50 years ago on 20th May 1975 at her studio nestled in the heart of St Ives. She left a legacy in her will – the wish that her home and studio be preserved as a museum and sculpture garden for the enjoyment of visitors to St Ives. That legacy endures to this day as the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden and is partly responsible for her continued relevance to the British and international art scene, even this long after her untimely death.
Hepworth was born in 1903 in Wakefield, Yorkshire. After studies at Leeds School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London, she embarked on a travel scholarship to Italy, where she learnt to carve marble from an artisan, Giovanni Ardini, and fell in love with the Mediterranean light. Back then, it would have seemed impossible that she was to later spend almost half her life in such a seemingly quiet corner of Penwith.
Her first arrival to Cornwall was a less romantic event. On 25th August 1939 at the invitation of Margaret Mellis and Adrian Stokes, Hepworth arrived in Carbis Bay, bringing her second husband and their triplets to escape the looming threat of WW2. She arrived on a rainy night, in low spirits, a little resentful at moving to a place she’d never been before. But as Cornwall does, it got under her skin.
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The ancient stones of Penwith and the tight-knit communities reminded her of the rolling landscape and mill towns of her childhood in Yorkshire, and the pure Cornish light reminded her of those early romantic days in Italy.
Before long she was deeply connected to the Cornish ‘pagan’ landscape. Her work began to reflect the deep affinity she felt for this area; paying homage to ancient megaliths and creating emotional stringed works capturing the feeling of the embrace of the landscape and the tension she felt within it.
A pivotal moment was her purchasing Trewyn Studios, her home from 1950 until her death 25 years later. “Finding Trewyn was a sort of magic”, she would later reflect. It was Trewyn Studio that became her centre of gravity, and from here she grew her universe. Later she purchased the Palais de Danse in 1961(currently being developed into a new part of her museum by Tate St Ives), expanding her works in size and complexity – moving from direct carving of wood and stone, to bronze cast works that could be displayed outside where they had relevance and context.
She was passionate about St Ives’ old town character and was vocal in saving many parts of the town facing destruction, so it’s no surprise that she also wished her work to be displayed within the town. Today there are reminders of Hepworth all around the town, from the cobbled streets which she helped to preserve, the bronzes dotted around the town (Dual Form outside the Guildhall temporarily removed while work is undertaken) to the beautiful white marble Madonna and Child in the Parish Church and, of course, her museum.
50 years on from her death, Hepworth’s visual language is testament to her deep respect for the rhythms of the natural landscape and her work remains as vital and dynamic as it did when she first made it.
Ethan Carney