Archive aweigh!
St Ives Archive invites you to an Open Day at the Market House on the 15th December from 10:00am – 15:00pm.
The St Ives Archive is on the move, having been in its present home for the last five years in Carbis Bay an opportunity has arisen to move into the town centre again. The first floor space has now become vacant in the Market Place building and the St Ives Town Council have offered this great space to create a new heritage study centre and storage facility for the St Ives Archive.
This move will provide greater access for everyone to visit the collection and learn more about the fascinating history of St Ives from early times. The Market House building itself was completed in 1832 just five years before Queen Victoria came to the throne. The building is an important historic asset and the home of the former borough council and assizes. The original building was open downstairs and was covered later in the 20th Century to create shop units. In contrast, the upstairs is, amazingly, little changed from its early days. The raised Council chair and seating are all still in position along with the old cell food hatches from the assize court days.
Whilst the building is in sound condition there is a lot to do to bring it into the 21st century. The existing access is generally unsuitable and lift access will need to be provided for those not able to use the stairs. Modern archive storage facilities will be needed along with new toilet and kitchen areas and a fresh coat of paint all around!
Lyn Burchess, Chair of the Archive, said:
“The hard work has begun and we are looking to take advantage of this opportunity to increase our accessibility to the community by extending our opening hours and providing up-to-date facilities, catalogue access and equipment in a refurbished building. The journey started over a year ago with the purchase and implementation of a new online browser-based catalogue bringing together our legacy databases in one place. The work is ongoing and the refinements to the contents of the new Epexio system will take a few more years yet.
We are hoping to move into the Market House in 2025 but this is dependent upon availability of funding to carry out the renovation work. We are currently progressing applications to the St Ives Enterprise grant and also the Government’s Community Ownership Fund.
We also need to raise our own funds to make the move happen and to finance the running costs for new accessible opening hours, equipment and systems. We are holding an Open Day on the 15th December to give everybody a chance to see inside a building they rarely see the interior of and also enjoy a display from our Archive collections. This all needs new volunteers to help deliver the change. We would particularly welcome those volunteers with skills in fundraising, cataloguing and marketing.”
If you are able to volunteer please email the Chair at admin@stivesarchive.org and we can arrange a chat. Equally, if you are able to make a donation we would be very grateful as a registered UK charity. A donation can be made through the Donate page on the website or by contacting the team via the above email address.
