Open Day, Fishing out of Newlyn

The next Newlyn Archive Open Day is on Friday July 5 and Saturday July 6, 9.30-3.30 at Trinity Centre Newlyn. Unusually, this is a two-day event, and the focus is a key area of Newlyn History, Fishing out of Newlyn. Way back in the 1960s, when Newlyn Archivist Pam Lomax was a student at London University, she undertook an assignment on fishing and discovered that Newlyn was the most important fishing port in England. At that time she knew little else about Newlyn! Hopefully, the younger generation of today can learn a lot about their fishing heritage from the forthcoming Open Day with its extensive exhibition about the harbour, the fish market, and the fishing boats and their skippers and crews (including the famous PE 233 Mystery and PZ 87 Rosebud).

Many of the photographs come from the collections of people whose history is closely tied to Newlyn. From Billy Stevenson’s collection are pictures of fishing boats like FR 242 Efficient, which was converted by the Stevenson family for trawling in 1938, and became PZ 513 Excellent after the war. These photos are accompanied by fascinating stories and anecdotes about the history of the boat and its crews.

From Margaret Williams’ collection is a picture of the Newlyn fisherman’s choir that sung at Whitby in 1885 to raise funds to build the South Pier, alongside other pictures of the building of Newlyn Harbour.

Maurice Bishop’s photographs of the Newlyn fishmarket taken during his forty-year service there include some remarkable photographs of Princess Diana’s visit to open the new Fish Market. His interest in fishing boats also led to his fascinating collection of boat tallies which identify the fishing boats that have unloaded their cargo at the fish market, which will also be on show.

Alongside the exhibition, visitors can look at some of our archive display books showing the growing PZ Fishing Boat data base which Linda Holmes is developing. Denny Harvey will be on call with advice about how to get your old video tapes copied for the archive. There will also be films about Newlyn, a quiz linked to the exhibition for youngsters, the book stall manned by Liz Harman and visitor Mike Butts, and some knowledgeable old Newlyners who are happy to share their memories.

Poster_Fishing_2013.pdf25/06/2013, 11:06

Other News

Sadly we have heard of the death of Mary Llewellyn who many Friends of the Archive will remember from their schooldays at Tolcarne School in the immediate post-war period.

The minute book of the Newlyn Society of Artists 1924-1929 has been acquired for the West Cornwall Art Archive which is now part of the Newlyn Archive. This is the only minute book that was missing from the complete set. The original minute books are stored at Penlee House Museum and Art Gallery but will be included in the Newlyn Archive Catalogue in due course.