Hayle Heritage Centre closed at the end of August following a fantastic season. Our exhibition “Hayle HerStory: untold women’s stories at the heart of a Cornish town” – which received rave reviews – saw record numbers of people through the door. We were very pleased to welcome the families and descendants of some of women who featured in the exhibition, including Judy Wright, the Champion Swimmer Tilly Mitchell, who was born at Carnsew Cottages. Judy was visiting all the way from Australia.
The building is now closed for us to undertake essential refurbishment work and will reopen in 2026. This project will fix the poor drainage and remove and replace a failing Barlow Rail floor.
During the late 1840s construction of the West Cornwall Railway line between Truro and Penzance, Chief Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel championed the use of a new type of track: Barlow Rail. This was cost-saving at first; due to its unique shape, Barlow Rail could be laid directly in the ballast without the need for sleepers. However, problems soon occurred wherein the shifting ballast caused several serious (though fortunately non-fatal) derailments. Brunel’s vision had failed, and the track was steadily replaced. As was typical, Harvey & Co. held a waste not-, want not-attitude and used the redundant Barlow Rail in their building practice, including here at 24 Foundry Square, the former Harvey & Co. office, which now houses Hayle Heritage Centre. Once the current project is complete, the building will be taken off the Heritage At Risk Register. This will allow us to reopen with new never-before-used exhibition spaces, which will be fully accessible due to the installation of a new lift. This work is possible thanks to grant funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund Good Growth programme, Historic England and
National Heritage Lottery Fund. Whilst we are closed, we will be busy developing new exhibitions and our volunteers and staff will be undertaking essential work on our permanent collection and archival holdings of the former Hayle Community Archive (previously housed at The Brewery Office, Sea Lane, Copperhouse).
New under 5s workshop for November
Despite the Heritage Centre being closed until spring 2026, we will be running events and activities throughout 2025 to connect with local community. This will include a series of beach cleans and creative workshops with Castaway Ropeworks (the first of which was successfully delivered during October Half Term), a family event on the Ropewalk behind Millpond Gardens, and a community consultation event called “Love and Change” during which local residents can help us shape the future of Hayle Heritage Centre.
On the 23rd November 2024, we are running a tactile workshop with local Arts Educator Liz Howell aimed at Under 5s. This guided session will use objects and images from the Heritage Centre’s collection to create a group mural that will be displayed in the Centre and used as part of the “Love and Change” event. You can book a place for this event here.
