Museum news

St Agnes Museum’s major new exhibition for 2019 will feature the St Agnes life of renowned artist, Tony Giles, whom many will remember living at Polbreen with his wife Hilary, or will have met at the Railway Inn or St Agnes Hotel.

There is a selection of light, joyful paintings of St Agnes, several owned by the Museum, others kindly loaned by private individuals and never before seen in public. One, full of movement, depicts St Agnes Victorian Fayre in 1984. There are many playful cartoon-like Christmas and Birthday cards painted for his wife Hilary and recently donated to the Museum, and a loaned sketchbook. Centre stage are the railway engine and two carriages from the railway track that Tony laid around his garden. His well worn and much loved teddy bear is there in his original jumper. A pastel portrait of Tony by Ken Symonds, drawn in 1986, completes the exhibition. John Branfield’s biography of Tony Giles is on sale at the Museum, and the Museum is very grateful for John’s help in curating the exhibition.

After a brief introduction by Chairman, Roger Radcliffe, when he welcomed 45 Members of St Agnes Museum Trust to its 35th AGM at the Methodist Church Hall on Wednesday 20 February 2019, Treasurer, David Teagle, got the evening’s business underway with his Treasurer’s Report. He reported a surplus of £3194 and thanked Shop Managers, Mike & Lynn Furness, for the contribution the shop had made to Museum funds, with a profit of £3142. There had been an increase in donations and visitor numbers. He warned of the possibility of repairs to the roof which would deplete the surplus.

Honorary Curator, Clare Murton, said the collection now contained 10,008 items, with 13,000 photos taken of those items. There had been many requests for help, including from those born at Rosemundy Home, and from evacuees. She reported that the Museum had again been awarded Accreditation by the Arts Council, showing that the collection was cared for to the highest standard. The Museum’s two sculptures, busts of Passmore Edwards and John Opie, would now appear on the Art UK website. She listed some of the 64 items to have been accessioned this year, including an American gold watch, lantern slides of Goonbell Meeting House, 2 Erica Suttill paintings and a bottle of red wine from Bondai Beach Surf Life Saving Club. There would be a new display of Tony Giles paintings in 2019.

Membership Secretary, Mary Wilson, reported 192 Members, – 54 Single, 72 Family and 66 Life, – and thanked all the volunteers responsible for delivering the Newsletters and Journals.

The Chairman thanked all volunteers for their hard work, together with the Local Improvements Committee and the Parish Council.

The Officers, Chairman, Roger Radcliffe, Vice-Chairman, Clive Benney, Treasurer, David Teagle, and Secretary, Laura Coggins, were all re-elected. Committee Members, Isobel Burrows, Mike Furness, Colin Harris, Philip Mitchell, Clare Murton, Steve Roberts, Peter Thomas and Liz Thompson were unanimously re-elected en bloc. Claire Morgan was reappointed as Auditor. An amendment to the Constitution offered free non-voting Membership to the Under-18s.

After a tea interval, Members enjoyed the film “Cornish Tommies” about St Agnes Veteran, Henry Jennings. In the absence through illness of the producer, Tim Smithies, Clare Murton introduced the film which featured Museum volunteers, Philip Mitchell and Joan Bunt.

We are delighted to have taken delivery of this state of the art cabinet, for which St Agnes Local Improvements Committee made a most generous grant.

When we reopen on 1 April, it will contain Walter Henry Goard’s gold watch, together with the family history and some insights into Walter’s travels abroad.

St Agnes Museum feels extremely honoured to have been given this gold watch, a precious family heirloom, by Miss Ruth Pearce who wanted it to be conserved and its mining history kept alive.

The watch was purchased by Walter Henry Goard, Ruth’s uncle, while he was mining in America. His initials are engraved on the back.

We are very grateful to the Tufnells, Ruth’s good friends, who researched the watch’s origins and family history, and took this photograph.

It is an American “Railroad” pocket watch, with a Hamilton movement and a 14 carat three-coloured gold keystone case, set with a small diamond. It has an English chain and locket with photographs of two children, yet to be identified. We would love to know who they were.

The watch was made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in around 1911 and we will be displaying it, together with more information, in our brand new cabinet bought with generous help from the Local Improvements Committee.

The Museum is very excited to have acquired its first example of St Agnes potter Annette Bulkley’s work, thanks to Tom Thompson’s purchase of this little vase on eBay.

The Bulkley sisters, Annette (b.1868) and Helen (b.1870), had moved permanently to St Agnes in about 1922, making pottery and founding their studio at Wayside, which continued until at least 1937.

The Museum has several examples of Helen’s work, in its characteristic chunky style and vibrant turquoise colour (obtained from local copper which she sought out herself) but had no examples of Annette’s work until now. Possibly her output was less as she became very involved in caring for the countryside around St Agnes. She was a Committee Member of the St Agnes Countryside Protection and the Old Cornwall Society, and in 1934 was one of the honorary secretaries when the Council for the Preservation of Rural England fought to prevent housing being built on open spaces nearby, including at the iconic St Agnes Head.

Annette’s vase shares the same turquoise lustre as seen in her sister’s work but is finer and more delicate.

Annette died in 1944 and Helen in 1955. They gave Wayside and their two cottages to the National Trust who continues to own them to this day.