Volunteers

Falmouth DFAS has three volunteer groups. The first was founded in June 2001, following a request from Captain George Hogg R.N., who was setting up a maritime reference library at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, which opened in 2002.The group is working with book restorations at the Bartlett Library, named after Captain Hogg’s friend, John Bartlett, who kindly donated his collection of 6000 maritime books to form the core of the library. There are currently some 11000 books there, making it the largest collection of maritime books in the South West.

Help was needed to repair the books, which date back to the early 19^th century, and amongst which are large collections of Lloyds’ Registers and Mercantile Navy Lists. Other book subjects include naval history, sea voyages, boat building, sailing, fishing and sea rescue – to name but a few. Perhaps the most exciting collections are the Falmouth related ones. The volunteers are currently repairing beautiful leather bound ledgers, which contain hand written records of harbour masters reports, account books and cargo shipping movements to and from the port. These records also date back to the19th century.

Renovation of the books includes spinal repairs, torn coverings, page tears and dressing the covers and bindings – intricate but fascinating work.

Currently members of the team are working in the library each Monday on a rota basis, assessing future work to be done. In order to do this renovation the volunteers received expert tuition from Caroline Bendix, who is an accredited library conservator.

We have a Church Recording Group, which began work in October 2003 on Mawnan Parish Church. The Church Record was finished in November 2005 and was presented to the Rev Caroline Pinchbeck at a ceremony at Mawnan Church. Among those present was the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Bill Ind. The Church Recorders are now working on Mabe Church.

To see pictures from Mawnan Church, move cursor over ”volunteers” link on the left.

There are also FDFAS volunteers working at Helston Folk Museum, photographing, collating, labelling and repacking the costume collection at the museum. After initial training for the handling and conservation of textiles, two working groups were set up, and work started in October 2003. The two groups attend the museum one morning a week, on alternative weeks. The project is immensely enjoyable for the volunteers, and the museum curator, Janet Spargo, has been very supportive. Falmouth DFAS has given a donation of up to £400 to the museum, which is used to produce a reference catalogue of enlarged colour photographs of and information about costume items in the museum. This will be for use by the general public, and particularly for those studying textiles and costumes.

If you would like further information about the volunteers, please contact us.