Newlyn Archive

Started in 2009, the Newlyn Archive is a collection of material, written or digital about Newlyn and its history dating back until earliest times. It is a voluntary organisation run by a committee elected annually by the 250-strong group of Friend of the Newlyn Archive and it has an honorary archivist. Friends of the Archive provide the photos, papers, books and other items about Newlyn that make up the Archive; they find house deeds and other family papers for us to copy; they are our archive detectives, collecting information about old Newlyn and encouraging people to record memories for the Archive.

The Archive has expanded recently so that alongside the general catalogue, which contains almost 5000 entries, there is a catalogue for Arts & Crafts which contains 1000 items. In 2012 we inherited the West Cornwall Art Archive and the task of sorting through and listing this material is being undertaken by a group of Friends of the Archive so the cataloguing is at an early stage.

The items listed in the catalogues are kept in paper or in digital form and include documents, certificates, pamphlets, books, photographs, paintings, sound recordings and films. The archive also maintains a number of databases on particular themes including PZ Fishing Boats (there are just under 1000 boats listed) which are linked to material in the archive. Lists of archive holdings are available on the website and can be downloaded as PDF files.

There are four Archive Open Days each year, with free admission and refreshments, which take place in the main hall of Trinity Centre. The open days provide visitors (including school children, whom we actively involve in some of the projects) with an entertaining and educative window on aspects of their local history. Based on thematic archive projects, each open day shows a selection of material from the archive, and encourages people to donate papers, photos and other printed memorabilia on that theme to the archive. The themes that are chosen are associated with an archive project, such as Newlyn at War on June 28, 2010 and Newlyn at School on November 17, 2012; both these open days led to books published by the Newlyn Archive.

The archive is open every Friday morning ( except for public holidays ) in the Mount’s Bay Room at Trinity Centre, Chywoone Hill, Newlyn. Our website can be found on www. newlynarchive .co.uk and we can be contacted on newlynarchive@aol.com or on 01736 364537

This archive entry was last updated on 08/07/2019. Information incorrect or out-of-date?
Add an archive
Do you know a community archive that isn't in our list? Please add it.