16
April
Tuesday
7:45pm
Falmouth History Archive: The Arwenack Archives - Lost & Found
It is not widely realised that from the 17th century to the mid-20th century a huge collection of unique papers relating to Falmouth's history were stored at the Steward's office at Arwenack Manor. Family letters and huge maps, old leases and manuscripts; there were thousands of unique items generated whilst the Killigrew and Wodehouse families ran the Falmouth estate.
Then, within living memory, the entire collection was broken up and these irreplaceable items were scattered to the four winds. Just fifteen bin bags of damp and damaged papers were salvaged from Arwenack in the 1970s, being then deposited with the Cornwall Record Office (and now forming the core of their Falmouth collection).
What happened to the rest of the items is not well known. For the last 12 years Tom Weller has been trying to track down the missing estate papers. This is a talk about how he went on the search, what he has found and what is still missing.
Tickets: £6.00 / £5.00 (inc. Poly Fund)
