Latest news with #NationalMaritimeMuseumCornwall
Irish Post
6 days ago
- Irish Post
Tall stories and tall ships in delightfully offbeat Cornwall
THE thing about Cornwall is its offbeat options. It doesn't take long to find secluded beaches, hidden coves and remote cliffs. Legends too — and from the very top drawer of mythology. Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor is the home of Excalibur – although one has to qualify the word legend here. The Bodmin story is all about magical powers being transferred to King Arthur. Legend has now been downgraded to unexpectedly arriving at the office with custard doughnuts for everybody. But laidback Cornwall is happy enough with that. Tall stories and tall ships form a wonderful alchemy, along with history, geological happenstance, popular culture, and cuisine. They seem to have thought of everything. And that includes the ancient port of Falmouth. Most British towns today come with a motto: 'York; so good they named it once', type of thing. Falmouth's kicker is: 'The spirit of the sea'. Although succinct and accurate, it's not the whole story. There's a boho buzz going on here too, and a burgeoning culinary scene. Falmouth in Cornwall has been at the centre of maritime affairs for centuries The sea, of course, is an ever-present backdrop — the town has been at the centre of maritime affairs since navigation began. Its deep natural harbour made it strategically important, particularly from the 17th century onwards. The town grew rapidly after the construction of Pendennis Castle by Henry VIII in the 1540s, which defended the estuary. By the 1680s, Falmouth had become a key packet station handling mail ships between Britain and its empire. The town flourished during the Napoleonic Wars — which helped reshape not just Falmouth, but the whole of Europe, toppling monarchies, and spurring nationalism. And in an 1805 newsfeed, the latest goings-on at Trafalgar arrived via the schooner Pickle. The good news? 'England won'. The bad? 'Nelson's as dead as the proverbial dodo'. You can visit the precise spot where this news was imparted. Pendennis Castle in Falmouth Ship happens, if you get my drift CHARLES Darwin's boat HMS Beagle docked here on the Fal River. Before landing at Falmouth, Darwin spent five years on board, puzzling over wildlife and fossils. The theory of natural selection was on its way. Darwin got paid just £180 for the publication of On The Origin of Species, but was lucky enough. A respected editor read it and urged Darwin to write a book about pigeons instead. 'Everyone is interested in pigeons,' he observed helpfully. Editors, eh? Our voyage round the harbour was on board Jonik, a 1930s motor cruiser with just room for eight passengers; a ticket for the boat also gets you inside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Eclectic is way too small a word for this place. Tucked away in Cornwall's charming harbour town, the museum is a delight for landlubbers and sea dogs alike. With boats hanging from the rafters — there's even a periscope poking above the roof — it's part museum, part nautical playground. Kids can hoist sails or climb aboard rescue craft, grown-ups can daydream about owning a yacht, and everyone learns something without even realising it. From voyages of exploration to tales to Cornish smugglers, it's a journey through seafaring history that doesn't take itself too seriously. Spanning five floors and housing 15 galleries, the museum also has its Tidal Zone for underwater views of the harbour and a 100-foot Look Out Tower for panoramic views of the harbour. The museum is currently hosting an exhibition on surfing. SURF! exhibition explores the history and cultural impact of surfing in Cornwall From vintage wave-chasers to modern-day surf heroes, an epic new exhibition SURF! surveys the last 100 years of the sport in Cornwall. Set against the backdrop of 422 miles of Atlantic-washed coastline, this, ahem, immersive journey uncovers how surfing shaped the region – and how Cornwall shaped global surf culture in return. From the 1920s pioneers paddling out on wooden bellyboards, to today's world-class athletes carving clean lines at Fistral, SURF! has the complete lowdown. Of course, you don't need a museum to appreciate matters nautical in Falmouth. Any stroll through the town will give you glimpses of the water through the opes – passageways with stone steps between buildings leading down to the water's edge. You'll see just about every type of craft here – yawls, ketches, sloops, gigs, pleasure cruises and working boats dredging for wild Fal oysters. This year sailing week is from Friday, August 8th - Sunday, August 17th. All manner of nautical matters will be taking place both on the water and the quayside, as well as a carnival on Saturday, August 9th. We wandered through the town on a spring day. The streets had a jaunty seaside air, with Falmouth's trademark fluttering bunting and a few murmurations of tourists here and there. Star quality shelter OUR destination and shelter for two days was the Star and Garter, a gastropub within a historic town house on Falmouth's high street. Outside, it looks like a classic smuggler's inn; inside are a handful of beautifully appointed apartments looking out across the Fal River. Here, I said to myself, is a place I'd like to relax in once in a while, maybe three or four times a week. There's a seriously good restaurant at the back of the ground-floor pub. The predictable nautical décor route of bits of boats everywhere has been eschewed in favour of leathery chairs, dark wood, candlelight, and mesmerising views across the harbour. If you have the great good fortune to be staying there, you only have to stumble up the stairs, after a memorably good dinner and cocktails, to your quarters – either the first-floor Starboard rooms, the second-floor Penthouse or the Crow's Nest in the attic. All have a kitchen, sofas and armchairs, views of the harbour and binoculars. There are also flat-screen tellies — I'm not sure if another type of television is available these days. But I suppose if you wanted one of those old televisions — huge box affairs with buttons saying odd things like 'vertical hold', the staff here are so helpful they'd probably see if they could get you one. The Star and Garter is a microcosm of Falmouth itself. It's a great place for dining, drinking, gazing at the sea, being happy. We'd go there as soon as possible, if we were you. Travel details Star and Garter, 52 High Street, Falmouth Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3QY For booking Jonik: Further information: See More: Cornwall, Travel
Telegraph
27-03-2025
- Telegraph
Surf!: Middle England, here's why you owe surfers a debt of thanks
There's a Cornish word, mordros, for the relentless sound of the sea. You barely hear it in Falmouth harbour, outside the National Maritime Museum Cornwall; but inside their new exhibition, Surf!, it's inescapable. The very first video, on a passage wall, gives you both that roar and a surfer's-eye view of a perfect tube. You glide across water like blue-green glass. The wave curls and breaks above you, foam at its leading edge. This, to any surfer, is bliss. Surf! is a whirl of 350 objects, ranging from surfboards and vintage magazines to a VW campervan in '60s trim. You survey the century-old history of Cornish surfing, which amounts – since Cornwall was where Britons got on their boards – to discovering what this old Polynesian hobby, or sport, or lifestyle, has done for our culture generally. Curator Sam Bleakley, a man with salt sea in his veins, has spent over a year sourcing these objects, then laying them out among briskly informative labels and videos in which surfers ride and fall. The heroes are the boards, 103 of them, elegant monoliths arranged around the hall. As their shapes and sizes change, so does social history. The first one, from the 1920s, resembles a coffin lid, and was carved by the local undertaker in nearby Perranporth. Back then, 'prone' riding was the way: surfers lay flat, as bodyboarders do. The assimilation, as you learn, was at this point going well. A 1930 Southern Railway poster offers 'Bude, for Sunshine and Surfing'. Woollen swimsuits abound. On the cover of a 1945 issue of Illustrated magazine, a smiling young woman stands in the shallows, toting a wooden board: 'a war worker on holiday'. Over the next few decades, the boards got longer and the riders leapt to their feet. Some beaches, in the late 1960s, banned surfers from doing this, notionally for reasons of safety but with an understreak of disdain. The police would descend on beaches to keep the middle-class picture of peace. Surfing acquired, or was given, an edge – hippies, Californians, 'alternative' types, allergic to mainstream society – a profile that endures. But society owes them thanks. In 'Activism', a section that might have been larger, you see how the collective Surfers Against Sewage, formed in 1990, fired an early salvo in what's now a war, waged from across the political spectrum, against the poisoning of our waterways. This exhibition means something to me: I grew up surfing in south Wales, which in climate, atmosphere and (whisper it) quality of surf, could be Cornwall's Celtic twin. I was inclined to be impressed, then, and I feel churlish in suggesting flaws – that the show's a little overstuffed for the modest space; that some corners seem accordingly cramped; that the small skateboarding display wasn't, to my mind, justified. In every other respect, Surf! is relentlessly fascinating, and shows how an apparently marginal activity captured Britain's changing face. At the same time, it conveys something more elemental: what it is to paddle out, turn back to the shore, and feel momentarily free.
BBC News
16-03-2025
- General
- BBC News
Cornwall museum displays wreck to highlight abandoned boat issue
A small yacht that was left to rot in a Cornish creek has been given a new lease of life as a museum Hurley Burley has been installed in the foyer of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to raise awareness of the growing problem of abandoned "end of life" say "hundreds" of mainly fibreglass boats have been abandoned on the Fal and Helford Burnyeat, from Wreck Free Fal and Helford, said more than 150 abandoned boats had been logged so far on an online map but he warned "there are many more". 'Powerful symbol' Mr Burnyeat, a sailor, said: "Most of the boats abandoned around our foreshores are small GRP [glass reinforced plastic] boats from the 1970s and 80s."Boats have got bigger since then and production volumes increased, so what we see now is a sign of a bigger problem to come."Campaigners and local council members have previously called for registration schemes to help identify the owners of abandoned Maritime Museum Cornwall director Richard Doughty said exhibiting the Hurley Burley made it "a powerful symbol of the environmental impact abandoned vessels have".He said the yacht highlighted the "growing risk they pose, to our natural landscapes and wildlife." The vessel was dragged from a creek using a VW camper van driven by Steve Green from Clean Ocean said he hoped the yacht made museum visitors stop and think about what happens to boats at the end of their life."We think she had been abandoned some 20 years ago and would have sat there for many more," he said. "Their owners run out of money, they run out of time, they find another hobby, they buy another boat, they move away, they get ill or they die. "We can't change that but we can stop boats getting abandoned by providing a viable alternative with free at use scrappage." 'Difficult and expensive' Cornwall Council maritime manager Chris Jones said 74 abandoned vessels had been salvaged and scrapped since 2015 "at a significant cost to Cornwall Harbours"."It would be a lot cheaper if we could deal with end of life boats before they get abandoned," he said."The longer they are left to decay, the more difficult and expensive they are to deal with."
BBC News
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Maritime Museum plans to 'reopen with a bang' after roof repairs
The National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) will reopen this weekend after being closed for repairs and other work since early January, the museum's managers have in Falmouth, will reopen on 15 February after repairs to its roof and cafe windows, as well as staff training and a refresh of its permanent Doughty, NMMC's director, said the museum would open a week-long science show on Saturday, featuring a liquid-nitrogen-powered teddy bear cannon, adding: "We're reopening with a bang."The 25-minute Science of the Sea live show would run every day during half term, Mr Doughty said, and would also feature a rocket-powered car and exploding breakfast cereal. Mr Doughty said the museum wanted to make itself relevant to Cornish people as well as tourists, with a new exhibition about surfing opening next - which celebrates 100 years of surfing in Cornwall - would run from the end of March until January 2027, he Nicholls, from the museum's learning team, said it was "thinking how [it could] help locals" and had introduced tickets that were valid for a year, encouraging people to return throughout the museum carried out the work using a £499,000 grant from the Arts Council.
