Warm tributes were paid to retiring Treasurer Sue Amor, has who stood down after 10 years, and David Teagle was welcomed as her successor at St Agnes Museum’s AGM held on Valentine’s Day in the Methodist Hall. Sue reported a small loss in 2017, but the balance at the bank was £10789.
Clare Murton gave her Curator’s report saying that the very popular major new exhibition for 2017, Surfing in the Parish of St Agnes, will continue in 2018, and the Great War Display will continue for its final year. The Domestic Life display will be updated. New acquisitions included Delbridge family documents, a brass car horn, paintings by Gwen Clay and Nancy Homer, china from two Methodist churches, souvenirs from the wreck of the SS Eltham, and two Great War naval medals.
Chairman Roger Radcliffe thanked the whole team for working so hard to keep the Museum doing well. It was, he said, “A Joint Project”.
David Teagle was formally elected as Treasurer and Clare Morgan as Auditor, and other officers and the Committee were re-elected en bloc.
Clive Benney then gave an illustrated talk on “Sammy Solway – The Miner with a Camera”. Sammy Solway was born at Carn Bargus, educated at Mithian School, and worked as a winder at Wheal Kitty. He bought a camera costing £3-15-6d (£349 in today’s money), an enormous sum for a miner, and from 1906-1912 he photographed views and events around Trevellas, Crosscombe, Mithian and St Agnes, rarely travelling far afield. He photographed regattas, drilling competitions, tea treats and choir outings. It is not known why he stopped taking photos and selling postcards in 1912. He continued working at Wheal Kitty until it closed, but also farmed and, during World War I, delivered coal around Trevellas. During WWII he lost some of his land to the building of RAF Perranporth, but bred pigs raised on the swill from the camp canteen. He built himself a bungalow, “Hillcrest” at Trevellas and died in 1951.