Mevagissey Museum

• Mevagissey and District Museum is a registered charity, and is housed in a Grade II listed building that once was a boatbuilding yard dating back to 1745. The Museum is situated at the end of the inner Harbour of Mevagissey.

• In 1968 a group of likeminded people decided to start a Museum and wanted a building to house it. Mr Arthur Frazier offered them the building we now know as Mevagissey Museum for a nominal annual rent. In 1981 when Mr Frazier retired, he offered the option to purchase the building for the Museum.

• A lady in Portmellon called Mrs Matson decided she wanted to help the Museum so offered a piece of land next to her bungalow on Chapel Point Lane to be sold and the proceeds used to buy the building. Through the generosity of this very kind lady, the Museum was secured for future generations.

• In 1995 a new felt roof was put on by a local builder and 3 of his workmen but due to the weather conditions the Museum experiences during the winters, it is now in need of a new roof.

• The Curators and Trustees over the last 55 years have kept the Museum open and have looked after its contents adding to the artifacts over this time.

• On display are larger exhibits such as the apple crusher and cider press, a detailed kitchen area and a history of fishing in Mevagissey. There is a wonderful collection of photographs illustrating village life in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as well as many small exhibits that perfectly depict life in Mevagissey over the years.

• Mevagissey Museum works in close partnership with the Cornwall Museum Partnership and we enter every year for the Cornwall Heritage Awards. In the summer of 2022, to commemorate the Jubilee, the Museum held an event entitled “All at Sea for the Jubilee”.

• We were awarded a community event grant to have a mural painted at the Museum to commemorate the Jubilee and to have the pupils of Mevagissey School each make a jubilee flag for the celebration bunting and “gobbies”. (A gobby is a floating boat made out of old fishing net cork, sticks and paper or material for the sail. It was a tradition for some boys and girls to make gobbies and race them in the harbour). These were then set afloat in the harbour for the Jubilee festivities.

• Every year we enter the Cornwall Heritage Awards and for 2023 we entered the “Innovation” category with the “All at Sea for the Jubilee” theme and we were the 2023 winners.

• The Museum has also set up a Facebook group entitled “Mevagissey Remembered” for all to share memories and experiences of Mevagissey from times gone by. There are now 3.5K members belonging to this group. Please see link below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3593306947446549/members/

• We have an excellent relationship with the Primary School and a School Project has been running for the last 54 years with the Museum and Yr6 pupils. The pupils come for the morning to look around the Museum and then go back to school and produce a scrap book version of the history of the Museum. Some of the Trustees then judge the projects anonymously and we award prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Endeavour to the winning pupils. We have children doing the project this year whose parents were children at Mevagissey School and they remember doing the project when they were at school.

• The Museum is now run by 7 Trustees all with skill sets such as accountancy, marketing, social media and local history that help keep the Museum running on a day to day basis. We have 36 Volunteers all committed to the welfare of the Museum. Without their time and commitment, the Museum would not be able to operate.

• The Museum is open from Easter to the end of October, seven days a week and visited by thousands of people, local, national, and international, many of which make return visits. It is also used as a community space throughout the year for talks, sea shanties, choirs and school visits.

• Tripadvisor quotes include, “This hidden gem will give you a real feel for this fascinating village”, "Once is not enough”, "A little tardis."

• The Museum now desperately needs to have a new weatherproof roof to preserve the building, its contents and local heritage and traditions for future generations.