The Poly
24 Church St, Falmouth : 01326 319461
The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society
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Explore // Falmouth History Archive
Welcome to the Falmouth History Archive!
We are a team of local volunteers who
take great pleasure in looking after documents pertaining to Falmouth’s rich
and fascinating history.
The Falmouth History Archive holds a
wealth of original historic records, documents, photos, maps and books relating
to Falmouth and the local area.
Here is a taste of our extensive
collection:
- Find
some significant World War 1 landmarks on our World War 1 trail
- Look
back at some of Falmouth's maritime history
- Meet
some local personalities
- Visit
some notable buildings
- Browse
our catalogues, indexes, and registers
- See
how the face of Falmouth has changed over the years
We’re here to help!
Whether you're investigating the history
of your home, curious about your family, or conducting a research
project about Falmouth's history, people or places, we're always happy to help.
Just drop us a line and we can arrange a time slot for you to come to our
office.
The Falmouth History Archive in open for pre-booked visits only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10.30am to 12.00pm. Please email history@thepoly.org.
Falmouth History Archive images
We hope you enjoy the images on our
website. These are just a small selection of what we have available, and we
hope to upload more images in the coming months. Should you wish to obtain
copies, we would be happy to discuss this with you.
We are keen that our collections reach as wide an audience as possible and have recently added indexes for a couple of our collections to The National Archives. They can be viewed here: Browse records of other archives | The National Archives. More will be added in due course. Do have a look!
The Falmouth
History Archive Team
© Please note: All the
photographs and images on this site are subject to copyright. All rights
reserved. Our photographs are not licensed for gain, commercial or public use
or use in the public domain. Requests for usage of copyrighted materials should
be submitted to the Falmouth History Archive.
Falmouth and World War 1
Falmouth was not only a garrison town, with up to 14,000 soldiers at any one time, but also a defended port. Falmouth is the most westerly deep water port of the English Channel and Falmouth Bay was a strategic point for arrivals and departures. Early on in the War, photography and sketching became prohibited in the vicinity of the harbour and the coast for reasons of national security, so that we have very few visual records of the time. More
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Maritime History
Falmouth Quay Punt sailing in Falmouth's Inner Harbour ca 1900
(from Brian Osborne's 'Images of the Past' collection #551) More
Local Personalities
An Edwardian Group ca 1908 (from Brian Osborne's 'Images of the Past' collection #1407)
Explore and discover some of our town's most interesting people, characters and visitors. More
Notable Buildings
Arwenack Manor from the Harbour ca 1910 (from Brian Osborne's 'Images of the Past' collection #924) More
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Archive records
Index of the Ordnance Survey 1:500 scale map series of Falmouth of 1880 More
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The Changing Face of Falmouth
Post Office Yard with No. 49 Smithick Hill above More
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