A Busy Period July-August 2016

Above: Visitors at the Newlyn Archive Open Day

To-ing and Fro-ing

The third Open Day of the year, ‘To-ing and Fro-ing’, on July 16 2016, proved to be a great success, in spite of it being hot and sunny outside (perfect beach weather), and also with it being Lafrowda day at St Just.

141 people turned up to enjoy the exhibits, which included pictures of horse drawn carts and wagonettes, old motor cars at Lamorna and Newlyn buses, fishing boats and mine engines and people marching to-and-fro.

The film show was very pertinent with the opportunity to view the locality from an old car being driven around West Cornwall, or seeing the amazing machine called the Dreckly Express that travels underground in a tunnel to take goods to the top of St Michael’s Mount.

The display books were very popular with many people engrossed in their content throughout the day. A solid core of regulars attended, but there were quite number of new faces (including young people) and the committee were kept busy answering queries about family history and other things. It was great to see groups of people standing around discussing the exhibits, and sitting at the tables drinking coffee and having a good old chat. (David Tredinnick reporting).

Above: Brian Newton waits for visiitors at the Newlyn Archive Tent

Marazion Carnival

On July 31 2016, on a very sunny Sunday morning, members of Newlyn Archive set off to Marazion Annual Carnival. The transport was loaded up with tables, chairs, display boards and a large gazebo to arrive at 0900. On arrival we were given our pitch and local volunteers assisted in the setting up of our gazebo and tables. I would like to thank the Marazion Carnival Committee for allowing the Archive to have the pitch free of charge (normally £35-£45).

Above: Denny Harvey and Pam Lomax at the Newlyn Archive Tent 

It was a beautifully sunny day and the carnival was extremely busy with many thousands of visitors and local families. The Newlyn Archive display was active with visitors from as early as 10.30 even though the festivities didn’t really start until 12 o’clock. There was a steady flow of visitors throughout the day with people from as far as Mexico, Holland and various places around the United Kingdom. We had local people eager to talk about the material on the display boards including a gentleman who worked at Levant and Geevor mines who incidentally worked with my grandfather many years ago. He told us many tales of mining and the old smuggler tunnels that exist around Pendeen. A local Marazion man told a story of a man from Newlyn who used to sell fish in Marazion when he was growing up. He used to come over by horse and cart and dip the fish in Red River to freshen them up before selling them to the locals.

The day was a great success for the Archive, promoting its work to the other side of Mount’s Bay. A lot of local people said they would look at our web site for details of the next exhibition. Many thanks to all that helped on the day. (Denny Harvey reporting).