Thank You to St Ives Arts Club, Janet Axten, Ethan Carney & Val Thomas. All donations will go towards our move expenses.
More information here: https://youtu.be/_nnsk8GZXUE?si=2Y50ezPkQ_s6RzX4
Tag: heritage
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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
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Market House update
Since the last update report there has been significant progress in preparing the Market House for use by the Archive. In early 2024 The St Ives Archive and Town Council were fortunate enough to receive central government funding from the Community Ownership Fund and the Town Enterprise Grant to renovate the Market House in the centre of St Ives. The funding received amounts to £400,000 with further funding for running costs and employment. The funding will enable The Archive to have central, secure and purpose designed premises which will have the advantage of disabled access through the inclusion of a lift and disabled toilet facility.
After a period of planning and preparation work has now started on site. A competitive tendering exercise has been undertaken and Ardent are appointed as the preferred contractor and they have wasted no time on getting to grips with the job starting with the stripping out of the non-historic parts of the premises.
To enable the work to take place this has involved the closure of the Blue Bramble Shop for a couple of months and disruption to another adjacent unit. The Archive is grateful for the cooperation and patience shown by the tenants during this disruptive process.
The works in the initial phase involve the removal of the main staircase, digging the foundation holes for the lift and the foundations for structural steelwork to support the upper floor. Further strengthening of the floor has been necessary to support the Archives roller racking which will be situated in a safe store behind the historic police cells. A major upgrade to the electricity supply for the whole of the premises has already been undertaken by National Grid.
The next phases of work will be to complete the downstairs floor screed , install the structural steelwork and ensure that trading can once more commence in the units currently under construction. A design workshop is to be held shortly to enable more detailed aspects of the internal fit out to be agreed with the contractor.
As part of the preparation work for the move, the Archive has secured grant funding from The National Archives at Kew for a conservation audit. The audit of the current collection was carried out in February by a professional conservationist and recommendations have been made on how to move the collection and also design considerations for the Market House. An action plan has been agreed by Trustees and this will be become the core topic for Volunteers meetings. The project is currently progressing to plan and the building works are expected to be completed by the end of this year with an opening in Spring 2026.
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My Archive Story: Jan Harris
Hi, I am Jan Harris (née Janet Dyer for anyone who went to the Stennack Schol in the 1950s).
I am delighted to be able to tell you how I came to be a volunteer at the St Ives Archive back in 2008, whilst the Archive was still in the Parish Rooms in St Andrew’s Street.
I had just retired and decided that I would like to find out if the Archive held any information on two subjects. Firstly, I wondered if the Archive held any information on Evacuees. My Grandparents took in twin girl evacuees when they lived in Street an Garrow during the War. I know they were very fond of each other as the twins would come and stay with them for many years after the War had ended and I still have a photo of me with one of them.
When Janet Axten (who was the Administrator at the time) asked me what my interests were, I asked if they had any information on Evacuees. Janet disappeared then came back with a very full file and flipped through the pages as we spoke. After a little while she turned the file around and to my astonishment there was a letter from one of the twins. I was then able to contact her and, as a result, not only have we kept in touch ever since but I was able to compile several books of Evacuee Stories which sell to raise much-needed funds for the Archive.
My second query related to an object I had dug up in my garden when living near Wadebridge. It was a Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry military item and, with the help of the late Ted Lever, I discovered it was a Bed Plate and was able to trace the soldier it had belonged to and the fact that he had deserted in 1901!
I found it so fascinating being able to delve into the past with the help of all the documents held at the Archive, that I now enjoy trying to find subjects that I think might interest others and writing about them for the St Ives Local.
It is also very satisfying when people come into the Archive hoping to track down information on family members or old buildings and, more often than not, being able to find something for them.
I would encourage anyone to come to see what information we hold and I would be very surprised if there was nothing to interest them.
My Archive Story is a new monthly blog series featuring a volunteer and their personal experience, expertise and interests at the St Ives Archive. If you would like to learn more about becoming a volunteer at the Archive, please get in touch with us here.
I’ve been a volunteer for almost 2 years now and I’m really enjoying it. I first became aware of the St Ives Archive in 2012. I was in Year 10 at school in St Ives and looking for a ‘work experience week’ placement. I’d always enjoyed history and wanted to find out more about the town, so ended up spending a week at the Archive researching the history of The Island and Porthgwidden Beach – and I was hooked!
I went off to university to study for an arts degree and used all I had learnt about research at the Archive to help me. Then fast forward to late 2022, I saw a call-out for new volunteers at the Archive and decided to sign up, as I’d enjoyed my time there so much 10 years before!
Working in a gallery at my day job, I have a keen interest in art and St Ives Archive holds lots of books and photographs of all my favourite artists, like Barbara Hepworth and Alfred Wallis, as a volunteer most of the research I do on behalf of visitors is in this particular area. Volunteering has given me a great opportunity to engage more in this interest and deepen my understanding of local history, which helps me in my day job too. It has also been a fantastic chance to meet like-minded people who are all so passionate about keeping our heritage alive and knowledgeable. I also love to browse through the old photos of the town and see how much things have changed in the last century.
Since I’ve been volunteering, I’ve been to training sessions to learn about archival conservation and environmental conditions for storage, which have opened my eyes to the many different considerations we make daily as an archive. I have also given some talks on local artists – Alfred Wallis and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, at Porthmeor Studios. I really enjoy researching and writing talks; it’s a wonderful way to engage people with a subject and hopefully get them as excited about these artists as I am!
These artists’ talks were helping to raise funds for our upcoming move to The Market House in St Ives, which will make the Archive much more accessible to locals and visitors to the town. It’s so important that our local heritage is situated on our doorstep so as many of us as possible have a chance to learn about the rich history of St Ives. I’m excited for the future of the Archive and looking forward to many more happy years of researching, giving talks and helping visitors with their research.
My Archive Story is a new monthly blog series featuring a volunteer and their personal experience, expertise and interests at the St Ives Archive. If you would like to learn more about becoming a volunteer at the Archive, please get in touch with us here.
This year we opened the Market House in March and August to enable the local community and visitors to view the interiors for the first time in over 70 years. This has provided a great opportunity to share our thoughts with those who visited and to learn what potential future users might want from the new Archive space. On both days we used a questionnaire to gather thoughts and information to help inform what services we offer. Both events were a great success and were well attended; we received 58 responses representing roughly a quarter of all those attending.
We asked have you visited the Archive before and 43% said that they had either visited when we were in the town centre before or at Carbis Bay. Encouragingly we had 27 new visitors who had not visited the Archive before in either location.
Nearly all visitors (92%) knew what an archive does which means we are currently attracting those who are already interested and those who were invited. Our future challenge will be to make the collection more accessible to those who would not normally use an archive or know what it does.
There was overwhelming support when asked about the Archive moving back into town. Some example responses are: Brilliant use of the Market House due to its history, Good place to drop into, Exciting to have in town for all to see and many thought it was simply a good idea.
Asked whether you are more likely to visit in the future when in town, 99% of those responding said yes and a fifth of those said they would visit more. This level of response shows significant support for moving into town and away from the premises in Carbis Bay.
When asked if we were to have exhibitions on local topics would they be of interest, we had 54 responses (93% ) all of which said yes and we received a huge number of ideas, here are just some of them:
- Old Photographs
- Old St Ives
- Local history, artists, photography
- Businesses past
- History of sailing, lighthouses, shipwrecks
- Local history, artists,
- Church, mining
- Artists, local artists, history
- Old shops, how things used to be
- The Jumbos
- Rowing
- Fish processing, tin mines and workers, Cornish traditions
- Railways, branch line
- Old characters in the town ‘Limpy’ etc.
- How the town became a centre for art
- History of St Ives and surrounding area
- World War 2 including evacuation, prisoners and crimes, events associated with The Market House
This has provided us with some valuable ideas for exhibitions and we are open to more. If you would like to contact us through this website with more ideas you will be most welcome, we want to make what we do at the Archive both relevant and interesting to the community of St Ives and its visitors.
As a final question we asked if we were to have a bookshop would you support it and 93% of respondents were in support of this idea.
The Archive Trustees and volunteers thoroughly enjoyed opening the premises for a viewing prior to the refurbishment works being carried out. Our thanks go to the St Ives Town Council for affording us this opportunity to begin to share our new home more widely.
You are invited to the Archive’s next Pub Quiz on Friday 1st November!
The Quiz and Raffle will kick off at 7.30pm for an 8pm start at Polmanter Touring Park in St Ives.
🎟️ £5 per person
🙋 No limit on team numbers
Let us know if you plan on attending and forming a team by emailing admin@stivesarchive.org.
We hope to see you there!
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St Ives Archive is Looking for a Bookkeeper
We are looking to recruit a Bookkeeper to replace our current longstanding volunteer who has been helping with St Ives Archive’s bookkeeping for many years. This is an opportunity to join a friendly, volunteer-run local charitable organisation at an exciting time when we are looking forward to relocating to new premises in the Market House in the centre of St Ives.
The Archive would like the new Bookkeeper to join immediately so that you can help keep our organisation’s finances on track and identify areas for growth.
If you or someone you know is interested in fulfilling this role, please contact the Archive’s administrator at admin@stivesarchive.org.
St Ives Archive is a registered charity whose aim is to develop and maintain a local historical archive for the benefit and use of the public, covering all aspects of the history, geography, natural history, the arts, architecture and the inhabitants of the parishes of St Ives, Carbis Bay, Lelant, Halsetown and Towednack in Cornwall.
