Beginning to Update the Tremough Resource List

This week I have begun updating the History of Tremough Resource List , which is one of the many tasks the trainee will work on each year. For those of you who are not familiar with this list, it is a Research Guide, produced by Grace (2012-13 trainee) to offer users suggestions and direction towards where they might be able to find out more about the history of the Tremough Estate, which Penryn Campus is built on.
 

Unfortunately we do not hold many archives directly relating to the campus’ history (a growing number nonetheless!) but, understandably, we are often first port of call for those looking for such. This has therefore been a fantastic alternative to offer keen researchers.

Tremough House

When I first came to Tremough, I found it so unusual yet intriguing to see a historic house and grounds as the basis with a University Campus. Like many, I immediately wanted to know the back story behind this estate. Boasting a long history, that can be traced as far back as 1309, with early references to a Nicholas de Tremoghe, the estate has been everything from the C18th home of the Sheriff of Cornwall to a convent school in the C20th. I can very much understand the student interest.



Tremough House

 
Before I began to edit the list, I first and foremost did a bit of preliminary research into what makes a good resource list. It seems there are many archives who have likewise found producing guides useful for offering suggestions to aid our readers’ research.

Some particular favourites have been the Postal Heritage Archive Research Guides found here which include the use of highlighted tables, timelines and images from the archives to break up the text. The ultimate goal of a guide is always to find a way to present large quantities of information in an accessible way, and these are just some of the ways of achieving this. The West Yorkshire Archives also employ coloured borders and bullet points carefully to reach this same aim.

I’m looking to employ similar formatting techniques for our guide as well as editing the list to mimic the path a researcher would naturally wish to take when exploring resources – starting with books held here at Tremough library, on the Penryn Campus, and leading finally to archive material held further afield.
 

The really exciting part will be that I am able to undertake some additional research myself, with potential visits to local institutions, such as Penryn Museum, to see what resources I can uncover and add to the list.

As well as building on our knowledge of the sources that can be found locally, shifting from the role of research facilitator to researcher at regular opportunities is also beneficial when working in archives to maintain an understanding of the needs and aims users may wish to have met, which can only strengthen my ability to provide a good service in the Archives.  You can follow my progress in the search for resources on this blog.

 Now that I am feeling rather inspired, I am ready to get stuck in and hopefully do justice to all of Grace’s hard work and invaluable research. What will the next trainee add I wonder?

Tremough garden

Sir Tony Robinson

Sarah Jane, Tony Robinson and I

Archivist Sarah Jane and I were recently lucky enough to attend a talk given by Sir Tony Robinson at Cornwall Records Office in association with ancestry.co.uk about his interest in history and genealogy.

His talk gave an interesting perspective on digitised records and how it has transformed the way many people go about genealogical searches due to the introduction of such websites as ancestry.co.uk.

I especially enjoyed hearing about how he became interested in history through his father who fought in World War II and was fascinated by the subject himself. It is particularly inspiring how Tony did not study the subject further than O levels but he went on to become television’s best loved amateur historian through pure passion and enthusiasm.

His talk was also very amusing and included many anecdotes from his time with Blackadder and Time Team, as well as touching references to Mick Aston.


Tickets for the talk were well oversubscribed and this celebrity endorsement was great promotion for Cornwall Records Office. They are in the planning stages of building a much larger purpose-build history centre in Redruth to relocate to and this allowed staff a chance to have a chat with visitors after the talk about the plans and to gage some informal feedback.

Whist here the visitors were offered the chance for a tour of the strong rooms to see their extensive holdings. CRO holds over four miles of records and it was interesting to see an archive of such a scale. Some particular gems included a beautifully illustrated Elizabethan document and letters that belonged to John Couch Adams, the man who discovered Neptune.


Some of the many holdings at Cornwall Records Office

I really enjoyed my evening and it was interesting to think about how the way people go about genealogy searches is changing and how talks such as these are a great informal way for an archive like CRO to reach out and chat to those interested in new projects.

My First Enquiry: The Case of the Missing Tools...

As part of being a Graduate Trainee, you will often deal directly with answering enquiries and I was very excited to get a rather mysterious one as my first.

Colin, the enquirer, is co-writing a book which explores the history of Magdalen tin mine and he was searching for some wooden mining tools that were believed to have been found there in 1920, dating from 150 years prior. It was thought the tools in question were donated to a local museum but after contacting several in the area, he could not find any trace of them, and so got in touch with us in the hope that we may have record of their donation to the CSM Museum.

When I came to Cornwall I knew that mining was going to be a large and interesting part of the local history and our CSM archive does seem to attract a lot of interest from students and the general public alike so I was excited to get started.

After having had a long look through the CSM Magazines covering the 1920’s in hope of any mention, after nothing having surfaced in the CALM catalogue, I proceeded to search the Justin Brooke Mining Index.

Justin Brooke was an enthusiastic mining researcher and these documents detail his findings about Mining Companies in Cornwall so it can be very useful for identifying where to look next.

Having had no luck and whilst I was already mentally planning my ‘Unfortunately I did not find…’ response, I suddenly was caught by this extract from the entry for Magdalen Mine Limited 1924-1930:

‘Old equipment found in the mine included wooden pumps, an iron working barrel or pump cylinder, a wooden dish, a joint-ring from a door-piece, with the balshag wrapped around it still in excellent condition, and a 4” cast-iron pipe. These were presented (or loaned) to the Falmouth Museum, together with a collection of minerals from the mine’.

It was my first eureka moment!

After having excitedly relayed this information, I realised that the thing I have been most struck by in this whole process is the way in which, research will quite often open up just as many questions as it answers, as currently no ‘Falmouth Museum’ exists…

And finally the response that made my day! (Can I have this framed?!):

Hi Rosemary,

That is so super, excellent, fantastic news! You may not have them but I feel you might as well have for my elation at your news. My co-author thought I was wasting my time and that they were lost in time. They may still be of course, but the information you provide gives me some more leads to follow.

Hugs all round ... virtually, of course!

Thank you so, so much.

Colin ... One very happy customer!!

 
It has been very gratifying to be able to help someone in their research and to act as a bit of a detective.

Do you know what ‘Falmouth Museum’ may be referring to?

Have you had an interesting discovery through using an archive?

Hello!

A little bit about me

My name is Rosemary Everritt and I am very happy to introduce myself as the new Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant at Archive & Special Collections, Falmouth University & University of Exeter, Penryn Campus for 2013-2014.

I hope to use this blog, throughout the year, to track my journey into the world of archives, whilst I undertake this traineeship. I hope that I can introduce to you some of the tasks that a Graduate Trainee is likely to encounter, as well as showing you some interesting items in the collections that I come across along the way- and why you too should discover archives!

I know I found it helpful and interesting to read Mary’s and Graces’ blogs whilst I was learning about archives, so I hope that mine can perhaps go some way to being similarly useful for you.

Having relocated from Portsmouth for this post, I can't wait to explore Cornwall and its heritage whilst I am here. So far I have become particularly intrigued by the Cornish language used in the Gorsedh Kernow Collection! Diskudha Kovskrifenn, as is in my title, translates as 'discovering an archive'.

A selection of books held in The Chris Brooks Collection of Victorian Culture

 

 How I discovered archives

Over the last few years I have been volunteering in archives whilst studying English Literature at University of Portsmouth, most recently for The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection. Prior to this I also volunteered for the Dickens Community Archive Project with Portsmouth City Museum which sought to create a website highlighting the recent history of Portsmouth and its residents in celebration of Dickens’ bicentenary. Before this, I first of all carried out an internship with my local theatre as it began to set up an archive.

Therefore it was the study of literature and a personal interest in history that brought me to archives so now I can’t wait to have a peek at the Chris Brooks Collection of Victorian Culture, here at the Penryn Campus, with all those lovely Victorian novels!

I hope that this blog might be helpful in some way and I would love to hear from you about your interests in archives or these collections specifically, so please do feel free to get in touch.