From September to April each year the Society arranges a series of talks held in Fowey, Bodinnick and Polruan. These are open to all and Members have reduced price entry.
There will be one talk by Zoom.
To join, or to renew your Membership for 2023/24, please contact Kath Pearce on 07977 572268 or email FHHSociety@gmail.com
The programme of talks for 2023/24 is as follows;
All on Saturdays at 2pm.
9 Sept. The History of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park. Malcolm Cross. Polruan Village Hall.
14 Oct. The Passmore Edwards Legacy. Dean Evans. Fowey Town Hall.
11 Nov. Robert Lenkiewicz, Artist and Teacher. Louise Courtnell. Whitecross Village Hall.
9 Dec. Lanhydrock and the Robartes family. Paul Holden. Squires Field Community Centre. (Please note change of venue from Fowey Town Hall.)
13 Jan. Harvey's Forgotten Shipyard. Daisy Culmer. Fowey Town Hall.
10 Feb. The Rashleigh family, Charles and the creation of Charles' Town. Andy Trudgian. FTH.
9 March. The RNLI, 200 Years of saving Lives at Sea. Helen Doe. Delivered via Zoom.
13 April. Captain Lars Berg and the Timber Trade between Norway and Cornwall. Julie Tomlinson. Fowey Town Hall.
From Beauty to Bounty; the Past, Present and Future of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park.
Date/Time: 9 September, 2023. 2pm
Venue: Polruan Village Hall
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Taylor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
Synopsis
This illustrated talk will focus on the history of Mount Edgcumbe Country Park with particular reference to the creation of the designed parkland in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It will conclude with a brief overview of what has happened since the park was sold to Plymouth City Council and Cornwall Council in 1971.
Dr Malcolm Cross is a retired professor of economic and social history, now living in Kingsand, overlooking Mount Edgcumbe Country Park. During his career he has held teaching posts in Holland, Italy and the United States as well as the UK. Since retiring he has concentrated on local history. His last book was A House by the River: West Indian Wealth in West Devon (2022). He is currently working on a history of the Edgcumbe family and estate.
The Passmore Edwards Legacy
Date/Time: 14 October at 2pm
Venue: Fowey Town Hall
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
Dean Evans has been studying the life and work of the Cornish Philanthropist, John Passmore Edwards, for more than 15 years. In 2011 his biography of Edwards, "Funding the Ladder, The Passmore Edwards Legacy" was published and was awarded a Holyer an Gof Prize in 2012. The year 2011 was also the centenary of the death of Edwards aand Dean organised or coordinated more than 80 events to mark the occasion.
Passmore Edwards was born in 1823 so this year is the bicentenary of his birth and Dean has once again been busy coordinating events to celebrate the life of this extraordinary Cornishman, in all of the communities that benefitted from his bequests, in Cornwall and across the south of the country.
Robert Lenkiewicz - His Work and Teaching. Talk by Louise Courtnell
Date/Time: 11 November 2023 at 2pm
Venue: Whitecross Village Hall, Bodinnick. PL23 1NF
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Taylor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
Robert Lenkiewicz - His Work and Teaching by Louise Courtnell.
Robert Lenkiewicz (1941–2002) worked within ‘Projects’: large-scale exhibitions of paintings and research notes related to sociological issues. His themes – vagrancy, mental handicap, old age, suicide, death – sought to illuminate the lives of those he called “the invisible people’. He moved from London to Plymouth and painted in Fowey.
The artist Louise Courtnell met Robert Lenkiewicz in 1987. He became her mentor and teacher and there followed an intensive two year ‘apprenticeship’ in painting, which concentrated on the understanding of tone.
Louise’ work includes landscape and still-life, however she has always had a passion for portraiture. She has been a regular exhibitor at the National Portrait Gallery, (BP Portrait Award) from 1991 to 2001 and was commended for two self portraits. Commissions have included Dr. Rowan Williams, (2002) and Robert, Earl of Edgcumbe, (2008).
Lanhydrock and the Robartes Family by Paul Holden, FSA
Date/Time: 9 December 2pm
Venue: Squires Field Community Centre (Please note change of venue from Town Hall)
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
Lanhydrock and the Robartes Family by Paul Holden.
Acquired in 1620 by the up-and-coming Robartes family, Lanhydrock was hardly occupied until the early 19th century when Anna Maria Agar (nee Hunt) inherited the house and the failing estate. She turned its fortunes around to hand over to her son Thomas James Agar-Robartes in 1829. A fire in 1881 forced the family to rebuild and extend the house into the grandest and most technologically advanced house in Cornwall. This talk will follow the fortunes of Lanhydrock and its resident family between the 1620s and 1970s. It will also consider the transfer of the house and grounds to the National Trust in 1953.
Paul Holden, FSA, is an architectural and cultural historian. He was House and Collections Manager at Lanhydrock for 20 years. Paul has lectured in America, the Czech Republic, Ireland and throughout the United Kingdom and has published widely, his most recent books are Cornish Distinctiveness (Shaun Tyas, 2023) and 50 years of the Cornish Buildings Group (CBG, 2023).
The Heyday of Hayle: Harvey's forgotten shipyard. Talk by Daisy Culmer.
Date/Time: 13 January 2024 2pm
Venue: Fowey Town Hall
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
The heyday of Hayle: Harvey’s forgotten shipyard.
By Daisy Culmer.
Hayle - a 19th Century industrial powerhouse, home to the Cornish Beam Engine, once the world's most important mining port and a forerunner in the global engineering market. This talk explores the lesser-known shipping history of the town - now part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage site - and the shipbuilding accomplishments of its world-famous foundry Harvey & Co.
Daisy has worked as the Museum Curator for Harvey's Foundry Trust at Hayle Heritage Centre in West Cornwall for more than seven years. There, Daisy is responsible for managing a diverse social and industrial history collection of around 8,000 objects and archival items relating to Hayle and the surrounding area.
The Rashleigh family, Charles and the creation of Charles' Town. Talk by Andy Trudgian.
Date/Time: 10 February 2024. 2pm
Venue: Fowey Town Hall
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
The Rashleigh family, Charles and the creation of Charles' Town. Talk by Andy Trudgian.
2023 marks 200 years since Charles Rashleigh’s death. To celebrate the bicentennial and to honour Charlestown’s founder, a series of presentations aims to shed new light on his life and endeavours. In this talk, the heritage of the Rashleigh Family in Cornwall is explored along with the ups and downs of Charles Rashleigh’s life. It ends by discussing the history and legacy of his greatest achievement, the port that drove the industrialisation of mid Cornwall.
Andy Trudgian is the chairman of the Charlestown History Group
The RNLI: 200 years of Saving Lives at Sea.
Date/Time: 9 March 2024 2pm. Delivered by Zoom
Venue: A Zoom talk by Helen Doe
Cost: £3 per screen for FHHS members, £6 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
The RNLI: 200 Years of Saving Lives at Sea
This charity began with a meeting in a London Tavern in March 1824. Since then its volunteer crews have saved countless lives around the coasts of Britain and Ireland and it is part of the fabric of every coastal community. Helen will give an insight into some of the incidents and the challenges faced by this vital service.
Helen is a well known maritime historian with a large number of publications to her name. She has been commissioned by the RNLI to write its bi centennial history, due for publication in March 2024.
Captain Lars Berg and The Marthe Andrea; the 19th century Norwegian timber trade with Cornwall
Date/Time: 13 April 2024. 2pm
Venue: Fowey Town Hall
Cost: £5 for FHHS members, £8 for non members.
Contact: Andrew Gardner 07769 977116 or andrew@gardner.be Or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety
Captain Lars Berg and The Marthe Andrea; A case history about the 19th century Norwegian timber trade with Cornwall. A talk by Dr. Julie Pinkney.
The chance finding of an 1859 newspaper report of the inquest into the suicide of a Norwegian ships captain, Lars Berg, at Restronguet near Mylor, sparked the interest of the speaker. Keen to understand the events that had led to this suicide, she contacted the National Maritime Museum in Oslo to find out more about his brig, the Marthe Andrea. This led to a collaboration with a Norwegian Emeritus Professor of History, who became equally eager to research both the man and his ship. A fascinating maritime tale unfolded that demonstrated the significance of the Norwegian timber and ice trades with Britain during the 19th century. Their research traced the history of the Marthe Andrea, including where she was built, her previous owners and captains, her routes and cargoes, until her final voyage. They discovered the life story of her final Captain, Lars Berg, where he lived, how he became a co-owner of the brig, why he took his own life, and what became of his family afterwards. This talk describes the vital maritime links that Cornwall had with Norway during the height of the shipping industry.
Dr. Julie Tomlinson lives in Cornwall where she works as an NHS Consultant Nurse and an independent historical researcher. She is particularly interested in the history and archaeology of the Viking Age and in Cornish maritime history. Julie has held substantive and honorary academic positions and has published widely. She is currently an Associate Researcher with the Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter, and is an Honorary University Fellow with Plymouth University.
Illustration courtesy the Haugar art museum in Tønsberg, Norway
