Mariners Project Press Release February 2012

We are delighted to announce that the Mariners Project has been given the green light by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Cornwall Council to start developing plans for the renovation and refurbishment of the Grade II Mariners Church in St Ives.

The proposed project will preserve one of St Ives most prominent  buildings, which has been the home of the St Ives Society of Artists since 1945. alongside providing a new, long term home for the St Ives Archive.

Together, these two organisations are forming a partnership to manage the project, and are currently tendering for a design team to produce plans for the building.

Key elements of the Project will be developing learning opportunities and activities for the wider community, improving an understanding of the town’s heritage, and working in collaboration with other cultural organisations in the town.

Heritage Lottery Fund has provided £29,600 and Cornwall Council has provided £30,000 to develop the project to the Stage 2 phase. It is hoped to submit the Stage 2 application in about twelve months time.

Richard Bellamy, acting Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said:

“We at the Heritage Lottery Fund are pleased to support Mariners Project and bring the vision of St Ives Society of Artists and St Ives Archive a step-closer to reality. The Mariners Church is a local heritage treasure, and with our support this proposal can be further developed to ensure that the building and the wonderful archive are preserved for future generations to explore and enjoy. There is still work to be done in developing the project but HLF will be offering their full support in taking their application further.”

Quote from Tamsin Daniel, Cornwall Council Culture Team:

“The Culture Team is delighted that the Mariners Project has been awarded a Stage 1 pass from the Heritage Lottery Fund which, with match funding from Cornwall Council, will enable the project to appoint a design team to move the plans along and for a new partnership to be formed between the St Ives Society of Artists and St Ives Archive. The project will address the building deterioration that is evident at the Mariners, and will create a new home for the Archive and improved gallery conditions for the Society, as well as opportunities for the community to participate more in learning about and preserving the history of St Ives.”

Quote from Lar Cann (St Ives Society)

“Sadly, our fine old Mariners Church building is showing the combined results of indifferent maintenance and the worst the Atlantic has thrown at us over the years. It is heartening to know that the HLF and Cornwall Council think highly of the project and have generously supported this development stage of the partnership bid.”

Quote from Lyn Burchess (St Ives Archive)

“It is a wonderful opportunity for these two organisations to be working together, and exciting for the town as well.”

Quote from Mark Osterfield, Executive Director, Tate St Ives:

“The Mariners Church is a key part of the cultural heritage of St Ives, home to the Crypt Group – the precursor to the Penwith Society – which marked the split between the St Ives Modernists and the more traditional St Ives Society.”

Quote from Deborah Tritton, Archive Services Manager, Cornwall Record Office:

“Cornwall Record Office is delighted to support the project which will make the wonderful sources the Archive holds available to a much wider audience. The new facility will enable it to build on its successful learning and engagement programme, as well as providing a much better working environment for volunteers and the public.”

The St Ives Archive, opened in 1996, was originally part of the St Ives Trust, a charitable organisation set up in 1965 to preserve the history, architecture, geography and natural history of St Ives.  The St Ives Archive became an independent registered charity in September 2010 and its charitable objectives are: to advance the education of the general public in the history, geography, natural history, arts, architecture, culture and inhabitants and to cover the parishes of St Ives, Halsetown, Towednack, Carbis Bay and Lelant in particular. 

It holds information on every aspect of the town in newspaper articles, maps, legal documents, correspondence, catalogues and books.  It has an extensive collection of photographs which have been taken over the last 140 years.  These clearly document how the area has changed over the past century. 

Comprehensive data is available for researching family history and migration including census returns, parish registers, burial books and trade directories.   It holds a wealth of Material about St Ives artists, galleries and art societies covering the period from the artists’ first arrival before the 1880s to the present time.  More recently, St Ives Archive has been central to the Memory Bay oral history project.  The Archive also holds recordings of people speaking Cornish and in the local dialect.

St Ives Archive was first established in St Ives library in 1996, then, with the library’s refurbishment, moved into temporary accommodation in the town’s parish rooms where it has had a series of five year leases.  This building is now the subject of a major redevelopment by the Parochial Church Council and it is not possible for the Archive to secure a satisfactory length of tenure that would enable it to invest in fixtures that would permanently improve the space.  

The Crypt at Mariners’ Church and the new partnership with the St Ives Society of Artists offers a transformational opportunity to the Archive and would place the Archive at the heart of the town’s ‘cultural cluster’, a few steps away from Porthmeor Studios and St Ives School of Painting, and within a few minutes walk of Tate St Ives, St Ives Museum and Penwith Galleries. The Leach Pottery, at the top of the town and about 15 minutes walk away, already has a close relationship with the Archive as they have collaborated on exhibitions, public events such as film shows and it holds the local archive on the pottery. 

Note about St Ives Society of Artists

The church was built in 1905 on the site of an old loft known as the ‘Long Run’   but by the early 1940s it had fallen into disrepair. It was used as a field hospital during the war and then became the permanent home of the Society.

The Society was formed in 1927 by Commander George Fagan Bradshaw, the Society was first based in Lanhams Gallery in the town, moving to Julius Olsson’s old studio on Back Road West in 1928 where they remained until moving in to the Former Mariners Church in 1945, renaming it the New Gallery.

The Crypt of the Church was used for the exhibitions of a small group of the more avant garde members many of whom had moved to St Ives during the war. This group included Barbara Hepworth, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson and Patrick Heron, and they became known as the ‘Crypt Group’. Members of this group went on to form the Penwith Society in 1948. Borlase Smart (secretary of the Society from 1933 until his death in 1947 and also its president) was the driving force behind the early success of the Society. Many Royal Academicians were members – Stanhope Forbes, Lamorna Birch, Sir Stanley Spencer, Sir Alfred Munnings and Dod Proctor. Society exhibitions toured the country and even as far afield as South Africa.

In 1956 the lease ended and the Society managed to purchase the building but the Crypt had fallen into disuse and was rented out to the St Ives Operatic Society. In 2004 the Society, with some help from the Arts Council opened up the membership to those whose art was more contemporary and extended the exhibition programme to include’ invited’ shows from groups outside the membership. The current membership represents a diverse and vibrant mix of local artists.

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