Mevagissey Museum

A Memory of Mevagissey.

I have many childhood memories of Mevagissey. My parents bought a cottage in Cliff Street, Mevagissey during the late 1950s. We used it as a holiday home until 1965 when my father retired from designing Colt Houses (all timber construction that became very popular after the Second World War). He bought a plot of land and had a house built in Portmellon, which now is part of Mevagissey but at the time was very much another community just south in the next cove. He became a very active part of the Mevagissey community, getting to know many of the fishing families there. He also helped to gather local interest for the heritage of the town and the area around and was a prominant figure with the setting up of The Mevagissey & District Museum (which still survives today), converting a 17th-century part of the boat-building yard (Fraziers). During my time studying Art in Cornwall I have many memories of helping him and local people gather together archives and objects, with many Mevagissey families very kindly donating some of their past way of life. Even today the Museum remains an important part of Mevagissey's Maritime and Fishing Heritage. I also remember many of Francis Frith's photographs as postcards being sold at the museum.