The Old Guildhall Museum is open NOW: Late March to October 2011. Every day 11am to 4pm.
Guildhall Museum as it is today
Guildhall as it is thought to have appeared in the 15th Century
The Curtis & Pape scrolls
We recently received 3 framed scrolls listing the vessels built by Frank Curtis from November 1942 & Curtis & Pape from January 1946 until 1995. The eventual names of the vessels are not recorded & we would like to collect these names if possible. We are hoping that local people might be able to help us by calling at the museum or contacting us.
The scrolls are displayed on the wall of the lower floor of the museum.
Step Inside, Step Back in Time
This season, we are featuring the Old Guildhall building and it’s history. In addition to the display of Town regalia & scales, weights & measures, we have updated information about the long history of the Guildhall & the extensive restoration carried out in the 1970s by Michael Maddox.
As he had stripped the building right back to the stonework & old oak woodwork, he was able to draw several impressions of the way the building looked throughout the centuries.
We are often asked about what happened there and we hope to add details of the many cases which were held in it’s capacity as a Magistrates Court.
It was used as a Town Hall, Magistrates Court & Gaol, the Militia were there in the 18th century for a while & then, after the building of the new Guildhall in 1878, the upper floor became a Reading room, the lower floor a snooker room & then a caretaker’s flat.
With so much going on it is no wonder we have at least 2 ghosts!
Our displays about World War 2 continues so bring your cameras for a snap of dad in the tin helmet! We hope to add to tales of Looe at War from those who lived through those dark days.
There is the model of the B17 Bomber which crashed off Looe plus extensive information about the incident & even a photo of the crew.
Our second exhibition remembers the dark days of the onset of World War 2 in 1939/1940. We have many artefacts from this period & have put those which can be handled, on the round table upstairs. The most popular item is the tin hat which I think will feature in many photos this season!
We have been very lucky in having been loaned a register of many of those Looe men who joined the Home Guard. Whilst a couple of pages are missing, the details of the rest are valuable, especially to those trying to trace their family history. There are a few photos of the Home Guard & Evacuees.
On the lower floor we are displaying a model of the B17 to compliment our file of information & a piece of the plane. Looking at the young faces in the crew photo it is clear that they did a great job bringing the plane down without casualties in Looe or among the crew.
Looe Museum features the social and maritime history of the twin towns and much more as the area was affected by the history of England and further countries. Looe men went to war in English armies, Looe men and women were kidnapped by North African Pirates. Looe folk watched as Plymouth burned in WW2 and evacuees sought safety here.
Boat Building has a long tradition in Looe from simple wooden fishing boats to war time motor torpedo boats and beyond to the glass fibre construcions of more modern times. Later in the year, we shall be displaying a set of scrolls listing the vessels built by Curtis and Pape.
Looe Island, mystical Celtic Christian site, centre of an 18th and 19th century smuggling tradition and home to the Atkins Sisters from 1964 - 2004 is a popular choice for visitors.
In 2009 Channel 4 "Time Team" carried out excavations on the Island Chapel site and the corresponding site on the mainland, their findings confirmed many earlier suggestions as to dates and use of the buildings which made up the early Christian monastic community.
Two two-thousand year old artifacts, a tin and copper ingot and Phoenician amphora top lend interest to the local legend that Jesus came to Looe with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, a trader.
Family History
2008 was the year in which Looe hosted not only the Gorsedd but also Dewhellans, a festival at which descendants of 19th century emigrants who left Cornwall to find work abroad, return to their roots. The focus this year at the museum, was on Family History and events are being organised for research. We have fiches of Parish Registers for 13 local parishes and Census information for all except 1861 & 1901. In addition, we are collecting information about local properties and have some Deeds. Wills & Caradon listings to help people to trace the history of local buildings. Our visitors may even be able to find an image of family members or former family homes in our extensive photograph archive. For more on this go to "
Exploring Family History".
Looe Photo Archive
Many new owners come in to look through our large photographic archive for images of their house. We were given access to 3 local collections of photographs in 2007, these have been copied and, thanks to the generosity of the original owners, we are able to sell copies. We find that people like to look back at how Looe looked in the past. So come in and browse through a century or so of people, places & fishing boats.
Documents
We have collected a number of deeds and wills and are currently indexing these together with details of the deeds held by LOCS. Whilst it adds to the excitement of discovery to see an ancestor’s name in a document, it is not always possible to trace the exact position of a property, but it can be fun following the clues. Wills are, of course, very useful but so far we only have a few.
Watercolours
Our famous Samuel Cook watercolours have been restored and re framed and are now on view again giving a snapshot of Looe groyne ( pre Banjo Pier) the old mill and old bridge in about 1850. We have a few more watercolours depicting the bridge and the river. Prints of these paintings are on sale as is a print of the huge photograph of Looe in 1870.
Here are two photos that have recently come to life. The first is of the evacuees that were sent to Looe at the start of the WW2
And this one is of the local Home Guard. Anyone recognise anyone??!!
We look forward to seeing old friends & new this season.
Barbara Birchwood-Harper B.A. Curator
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