by Anne Pond
On 5 November a group of 14 staff, volunteers and NADFAS volunteers visited the Cornwall Record Office (CRO) in Truro. On arrival we were welcomed by Chloe Philips, the record office Learning Officer and her colleague Archivist Jenny. We were split into two groups, to be shown the strong rooms and the main search room where documents were laid out for us to view and handle; some we had requested and some suggested by Chloe and Jenny.
The Cornwall Record Office has 7 strong rooms. The first we entered held collections from many of the Cornish families and estates such as the Arundell’s of Lanherne, Tremayne’s of Heligan, Vyvyan’s of Trelowarren, and the recently acquired collection from the Enys family of St. Gluvias.
A further strong room held the Cornish Parish Registers. Before 1837 the collection is not complete. A few registers date back to 1538 when some parishes started to keep records of births, marriages and burials. The registers are used regularly by the public when tracing their family history. Because of this, most registers are now on microfiche which are available to use in the search room. We were also shown some of the largest documents held by the records office – nineteenth century ledgers from Harvey’s, the spine width up to about 18”.
A further strong room held Cornish school log books from the nineteenth-century which would make interesting reading. As Chloe commented, written in one school log book by a school inspector who had noticed that a classroom of children were whispering and giggling and not paying attention – no different to today’s classrooms! This strong room also held various court and prison records.
The CRO holds several thousand maps; a large number of mining maps of Cornwall which are still used by solicitors when checking for mining works in house conveyancing. The largest map held is a South West Water map. Too long to be taken out the normal way, if needed it can be carried out through the fire door – only when the weather is good! Also held are the Cornish Tithe Maps from 212 ancient parishes. They were produced between 1836-1846 when the church started to collect money for the rental of land, rather than receive payment in kind. The maps show roads, rivers and fields and give information on land ownership, size of farms, and age of buildings. The maps and the accompanying survey books are being digitised and available to access on computers, in the search room.
The oldest document, held at the CRO, goes back to the 12th century. It is written in Latin and is about the borough of Lostwithiel, still with the original seal.
In the search room we were given time to consult various archive material from a document of the seventeenth century on the siege of Pendennis Castle and various demands made at the time to a beautiful coloured map of the River Fal produced in 1597, showing the river from Truro and Tresillian down to Falmouth Bay. The map showed settlements, churches, ferries, sailing ships, Arwenack Manor and the castles of Pendennis and St Mawes. The map was drawn by the Italian mapmaker Baptista Boazio.
Other items of interest were:
• several oaths’ of Edward Angove made between 1806-1809 when he was deputy mayor and mayor of Falmouth; Edward was the GGGGGrandfather of one our group
• Navigation Exercise book by John Tregerthen Short (1785-1873), born in St Ives. In 1814, after several years at sea and captured by the French, he returned to St Ives where he became master of the St Christopher Hawkins Free School, a charitable institution for the education of poor boys. The principle subject taught was navigation. The book contains questions on trigonometry, traverse, parallel and Mercator's Sailing and also a description and use of the log, half a minute glass and compass and the method of finding the latitude and meridian altitude of the sun. Solutions were worked out with explanations, calculations, tables and diagrams
• Copy of a signboard displayed at Burton's Old Curiosity Shop, Falmouth with some rather amusing little ditties on it
• Will dated 1797 of Richard Bospednick, mariner, of Falmouth
• A parish register
• Diary of Eveline Cox (born 1879), daughter of Joseph G Cox, one of the partners owning Falmouth Docks. The diary begins in July 1894. Eveline was mainly concerned with her opinions of her own character and religious feelings. She writes about her widowed father, her brothers Alf, Ern and Gerald and sisters Ivey, Elsie, Alice, Winnie and Carrie. The diary finishes in 1909
• Merchant Shipping Registers showing Crew Agreements and logs of two ships named Sarah Fox, one built in Fowey in 1869 and the other in Hayle in 1873, showing their voyages representing the coastal trade that Cornwall was very much involved in.
A most interesting and enjoyable couple of hours was had by everyone.
