St Ives Museum Visit
As I was going to St. Ives,
Looking through the War Memorial Register as a volunteer for the Imperial War Museums, I noticed a glazed and framed Roll of Honour on the system housed at St Ives Museum. I have been to St Ives before and walked past the museum a good few times, but never went in.
Since I started volunteering for the Imperial War Museum's War Memorial Register, I knew that every place I visit, no matter how near or far, or if I am familiar with the said place or not, it is a great excuse to get onto the database and look at war memorials in that place, then go out and find them. (Also gives me a reason to get out of the house when I have nothing to do)!
St Ives Museum is a large collection of everything Cornish; from farming to fishing, to mining and Brunel's Great Western Railway, including Cornish natural history (Cornish geology), the RNLI, shipwrecks, passenger steam ships, St Ives folk who were passengers aboard the Titanic, Stuart-Restoration to Edwardian-Interwar lifestyle, as well as a theatrically-interpreted Victorian Cornish kitchen and an exhibition gallery space.
St Ives in Wartime
My favourite of course, was the wartime section. Andy, one of the volunteers at St Ives Museum very kindly welcomed me and introduced me to the collection. He explained that the US Army (with the British-American alliance during World War 2) and the Royal Marine Commandos would practice assault tasks, such as cliff climbing and abseiling from St Ives, down to Land's End.
There was even mention of an addressing of the St Ives-based troops from Winston Churchill on 4th June before they set sail for D-Day.
As well as Britain's alliance with the US, it was also a base for the Royal Marine Commandos who were based at St Ives from 1942, until 1960 as part of the post-war national service.
IWM War Memorials Register Entry
A First World War roll of honour is on display at the museum; the St Ives Wesleyan Church Roll of Honour. Its original home, the St Ives Wesleyan Chapel closed down in the 1990's, whereby youth theatre company Kidz R Us bought the building in 1998 and is now a working theatre for children and young people.
IWM War Memorial Register Entry
I spotted some ornamental cats dotted around the museum in cases and wondered what they were for; at first I though it was a decorative ornament belonging to a local with sentimental meaning, until I noticed they were in many cases and collections. I soon realised that it was part of a family trail where you have to find the cats dotted around the museum.
The Railway
Other insightful sections containing some genuine items would be the railway section, with Brunel's Great Western Railway branch line running from St Erth to St Ives which included station signage, vintage commercial posters promoting Cornish holidays by rail, safety signage and signal lamps.
The St Ives branch line is considered to be one of the best scenic railway journeys in Britain.
Mining
A famous Cornish point in history I would like to point out for the mining section is a mechanical model of the Levant Mine at the nearby village of St Just; a mining community. Cornish mining was famous for the production of tin and copper.
On 20th October 1919, a horrifying disaster struck. A beam engine that drove the Man Engine (a moving platform that moved up and down to take miners down underground, or back up to the surface) became very weak and outdated, despite safety concerns being raised to management (and ignored), that it suddenly snapped and plummeted down the mine shaft taking riding miners with it. 31 miners sadly lost their lives, along with many other miners seriously injured.
Search and rescue continued over the following days with other local mining communities near St Just volunteering to help, including further investigations into the incident to find out what, as well as who was responsible.
The Man Engine was never repaired and Levant Mine closed permanently in 1930 after the Great Depression and a decline in the price of tin. The mine ran as deep and as far out into the Atlantic Ocean, that it was just left to collapse inward and flood the tunnels.
As stated on the model's container, the story of the disaster was told in a 1970 episode of the BBC series Yesterday's Witness (watch here). Survivors, witnesses and their families recall that some could not face returning to work, as well as being veterans of the First World War.
In 1967, the site of the Levant Mine was bought by the National Trust and opened as a heritage site for visitors. The shaft is now blocked for health and safety reasons, as well as a mark of respect to those who had lost their lives. It still has its beam engine running in the engine house (without powering the Man Engine) to give insight to industrial mining processes. Explore more here.
In 2019 (100 years after the disaster), a special service was held to commemorate the event where descendants of those affected were invited to pay their respects.
Cornwall's iconic mining industry stopped in 1998, with South Crofty in Pool being the last working mine to permanently close following a 'Tin Crash' in the mid 80's. You can learn more about the last Cornish Mines here.
St Ives Museum houses pre-closure of mining artefacts (dating from post-WW2 onwards) which includes carrier lanterns, helmets, safety equipment, as well as stories of operation, such as elevator shafts being driven from a cabin (just like a modern-day construction crane) working like a lift.
St Ives Folk and the RMS Titanic
61 passengers aboard the Titanic were Cornish; 7 were from St Ives and were among the survivors picked up by the RMS Carpathia.
Letters from those survivors depict what they had witnessed, where you can read a couple of accounts here, as well as hear of those who were not as fortunate, including losing a husband or father after the "women and children first" rule when boarding the lifeboats.
The National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth once had an exhibition called Titanic Stories (unfortunately the exhibition has now finished back in 2019). You can read other stories of Cornish Titanic passengers here.
Quick side note: when looking for articles and references to share for this post, I came across this moving memorial entry - a church window commemorating Cornish miner William Gilbert housed at the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston.
The RNLI
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