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Island Road School Talk
Tag: history
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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!
Categories
Hyman Segal, R.B.A.
There are probably many people living in St Ives today who remember Hyman Segal. He was a very popular, caring, animal-loving member of the community.
Hyman was born in London in May 1914 and was blind for over two years in early childhood, possibly caused by measles. However, fortunately, he regained his sight and, at the age of twelve years, he won an Art Scholarship. During the Second World War he saw five years’ active service in East Africa and, on his return from War Service in 1946, he came to St Ives and joined the St Ives Society of Artists. In 1949 he was one of the founding members of the Penwith Society of Artists.
Segal occupied studio No. 10 in the Porthmeor Studios for more than half a century and it was here that he produced many caricatures of St Ives locals. With the support, initially, of Phil Rogers and then successive landlords, these caricatures have covered the walls of The Sloop for over four decades. Another St Ives Artist and friend of Hyman Segal, Frank Ruhrmund is quoted as saying “Indeed, the Sloop Inn minus Hyman Segal’s drawings – perish the thought – would be as disastrous as St Ives deprived of sand and sea”.
One person, in particular, that Hyman Segal appears to have enjoyed sketching was Abraham Curnow (or ‘Abram’ as he was known locally). Abram was the Town Crier and Road Sweeper in St Ives for some thirty years and Segal’s paintings and sketches of him have been sold to destinations all over the world.
When his collection of cartoons entitled ‘Art Colony’ was first published, the sculptor Sven Berlin is quoted as saying that it created “a cosmic laugh which echoed around St Ives Bay”.
His versatility ranged from large oil paintings to small charcoal sketches – often line drawings of cats (presumably because cats were everywhere at one time in the streets of St Ives!). An article in the Times and Echo, in 1958, shows that Segal, who was a long-standing member of the RSPCA, was calling for a Cat Hostel in the town as it was believed that ‘St Ives has more cats in proportion to human population than any other town in Britain’.
Together with his wife, Chrissie, Segal kept an antique shop in Fore Street. In March 1967, when the supertanker, SS Torrey Canyon, spilled 25-36 million gallons of crude oil into the sea off the Cornish coast, they devoted their premises entirely to first-aid treatment for birds affected by the oil spill for a month. See the attached picture – his sketch of a Torrey Canyon Survivor.
One of his most popular works is the oil painting entitled ‘Dominoes at the Sloop’, which includes many of the St Ives locals of the time.
As a result of his own ill-health in his early life, Segal was determined to give help to others stricken by disease and worked as the official Art Therapist to the West Cornwall Hospital for some twenty years. He often worked at Tehidy Sanatorium, near Camborne, helping long-stay patients through the problems of long-term convalescence.
He was a popular figure in the town until his death at the Edward Hain Hospital in December 2004 at the age of ninety.
Additional information can be found on Hyman Segal at the St Ives Archive, should you wish to learn more about his life.
By: Jan Harris
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of St Ives Local.
Categories
Alfred Wallis Talk Recap
On 16 September as part of the St Ives Festival, one of our volunteers, Ethan Carney, gave a stimulating talk on St Ives artist Alfred Wallis to a large turn out at Porthmeor Studios. The audience were totally engaged in Ethan’s narrative and enjoyed a number of fascinating images. Many questions were asked at the end, and the Archive’s book Alfred Wallis & His Family Fact and Fiction is available from our website shop here.
Two more talks are coming up during the Festival, one on Troika and one on Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. Please visit the links for more information and how to book your ticket.
Monday 16th September
Alfred Wallis: Mariner to Artist to Inspiration
Discover the life and work of Alfred Wallis, a mariner turned artist who inspired many St Ives artists with the paintings he made in his cottage in St Ives. Join Ethan Carney from St Ives Archive for a biographical talk, with quotes and images throughout plucked from the Archive, helping to bring Wallis to life.
Venue: Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1NG.. Doors open at 2.00pm. Talk starts at 2.30pm
Tickets in advance: £7.00
Thursday 19th September and Tuesday 24th September
The History and Mystery of St Ives with Tony Mason – Guided Walk Beginning at 11am
Please meet at The Malakoff by the Hepworth sculpture. With the help of photos from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tony explains the significance of the fishing and mining industries, the coming of the railway, lifeboat tragedies, shipwrecks, the development of the harbour, customs and traditions, tourism and anything else that takes the eye as we go along.
Tickets are £5 (no booking required, cash only, children free)
All proceeds go to St Ives Archive whose Trustee Tony (aka the Cornishpastyman on YouTube) leads a 120-minute stroll from Porthminster Beach to Porthmeor Beach.
Thursday 26th September
Troika ceramics were produced by a mid-twentieth century group of creatives who were intent on pushing design and style boundaries by daring to be different. Continuing her series of talks, Madie Parkinson-Evans has conducted further in-depth research, which provides insight into how the items were made and decorated. Many of the employees were local women and their dedication and decorating skill transformed the moulded pieces that are still recognised and highly valued throughout the world today.
Venue : Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1NG. Doors open at 2.00pm. Talk starts at 2.30pm
Tickets in advance : £7.00
Friday 27th September
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Artistic Journey
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a key figure in the St Ives Modernist Movement, and was once erroneously relegated to a mere disciple of Ben Nicholson. Her powerful work, artistic journey, and prolific output will be explored in this introductory talk with Ethan Carney from St Ives Archive, including some of the artist’s own insightful words.
Venue : Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1NG. Doors open at 2.00pm. Talk starts at 2.30pm
Tickets in advance : £7.00
To hear a person speak of past times adds a reality to history that words often fail to achieve. Some time ago, the St Ives Archive initiated an Oral History Project for St Ives. Many people had their memories of St Ives recorded and subsequently transcribed. These transcriptions became part of the Archive.
The Archive has now started Oral History Project 2. We would love to hear from anyone who would be willing to let the Archive record their stories for the use of future generations.
If you wish to take part, please contact the Archive on 01736 796408 or get in touch using the Contact Us form on our website.
Background: Oral History Project 2
On the 30th May 2024, Diane Callicot and Ethan Jerome took a trip to Madron to revisit some of the ladies who’d attended Ethan’s talk on Alfred Wallis for Madron WI last year. At the talk, it became apparent a few of the ladies had some Wallis stories of their own, so we formulated a plan to start a little Oral Histories Project.
Our first participant invited us into her home and told us of the Workhouse Christmas parties and her Grandfather who would take Wallis cardboard to work on. We then spoke to a lady who was in her 90s; she didn’t remember so much about Wallis but told us about the Workhouse allotment and what the war had been like in this area, as well as how she raised 9 children!
All participants were thanked profusely for agreeing to let us record them, and we all deserve a special pat on the back for navigating this while the whole of Madron was being resurfaced! Good job we didn’t get stuck before we arrived! A huge success and something Ethan is excited to be working on more once the September Festival preparation is over.