The Museum of Cornish Life: Objects?

For the last two Thursdays I have spent a good part of the day perusing the on-display collections of the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston.

As well as developing and understanding of the displayed collection and how it is structured, I have also started to create a list of items that might merit inclusion in the Cornish National Collection. I've also begun to consider where there might be hidden stories to be unearthed and shared. Here are a few of my thoughts and notes from these sessions.

Items for possible inclusion/ of interest for further research:

• West Briton printing press - a rare 'Albion' press owned by a W.T. Rogers of 9 Coinagehall Street. As a writer the printing profession is fascinating to me and it seems Helston had a very active print community. which I would like to know more about.

• Four-wheeled farm wagon from St Keverne. These wagons were given extra manoeuvrability by making the front wheels small enough to swing under the body - this is unique as they're the first to use full-lock more than 50 years before it was recorded elsewhere.

• The Serpentine Turner's workshop. The Lizard Serpentine company was formed in the early 19th Century. Queen Victoria and Albert visited Mount's Bay in 1846 and purchased large items for Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Are they still there? Possible digital link to those items and back again?

• Civic History section - William Penaluna - author, publisher, printer and bookseller.

• Henry Trengrouse - investor and cabinetmaker Henry's story is not as widely known as it should be and the prototype of his rocket apparatus, which saved thousands of sailors from shipwrecks, is definitely a candidate for inclusion. 

• Flora Day - clock, dress and morning wear, song lyric and music.

• Religion section - fertility stone (possible links to pre-Christian Cornwall); temperance hymn book (history of Methodism in Cornwall).

• Balmaiden cap

• The Bethlehem Pasty

• Gorsedh Kernow robes and coarse wool mine manager's woollen trousers (1996/6714) in costume store - spoke to Andrea in the store who shared these two items and the cap as worthy of note. There were also once tailors and dressmakers in Helston and some examples of their garments are held in the costumer store. There is apparently a photo of the mine manager's trousers being worn.

• Posters - my particular favourite is the one shown above recording the visit of Roger's Menagerie to the Angel Hotel. Looking at who might have come to see the show and what that says about the town at the time is the social history story behind this.

• The stories of white witches and wise-women in Helston like Tamasine Blight (Tammy Blee) and Ann (Granny) Boswell have always fascinated me, too, but there aren't really any items in the museum's collection pertaining to them as far as I can tell. Demi, the Museum's intern, told me about a Wildworks video pertaining to Granny Boswell which I must ask to see.

There is an interesting article on Anne Boswell and her gypsy heritage at: http://cornishstory.com/2016/07/01/granny-boswell-cornwalls-gypsy-queen/ which says she was a gypsy traveller, with her husband Ephraim called the 'King of the Gypsies'. This might make an interesting starting point for research into a 'poorly represented group', as requested by the brief.