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15 - Band outside the Drill Hall

This Drill Hall (now the Phoenix Cinema) was built in 1873 as the training centre for the 3rd Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Rifle Volunteers. It continued to be a training base for the local Territorial Force both before and during WW1.

Howard Spring and the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society

Howard Spring joined the RCPS shortly after he moved to Cornwall in 1939. During the war, the Society continued to put on lectures, but faced difficulties including the threat of requisition of the premises (in 1939 a detachment of Royal Engineers made use of the Hall for about 8 weeks; potential use by both the British and American Navy was reported in 1943 and 1944). 

The Poly in the time of Howard Spring

When Howard Spring joined the RCPS in 1940, it was a Society of 217 members. The Church Street building was owned by the Society, but parts of it were sub-let. There was a Library and the Falmouth Museum was housed in the gallery above the Large Hall and in the Chellew Room.  A caretaker was employed. 

Elsewhere in Falmouth the Society ran a Meteorological Observatory. The focus of the Society as reflected in the Annual Reports of the 1940's was Cornwall wide, not only Falmouth, with lectures, visits, an essay competition, weather reporting, a library and museum.

Read about Howard Spring's involvement with The Poly here.

Robin Knox-Johnston

Robin Knox-Johnston and his yacht Suhaili arriving off Falmouth on 22 April 1969 after the first-ever solo, non-stop circumnavigation. His reply of "Falmouth" to the challenge made by Falmouth’s Custom Officer "where from?" is on a par with those contemporary words of Neil Armstrong when he took his first step on the surface of the moon: "one small step for man...".

Photo copyright: Alison George, née Osborne

Early Congregational Churches

The first Congregational Church in Falmouth was built on the High Street in 1662. This became a town hall when a new building was constructed on Prince Street.