Falmouth in 50 Buildings

By Mark Mitchley

Falmouth is a comparatively modern town, founded by the Killigrew family in the seventeenth century, close to Henry VIII’s Pendennis Castle built to defend the south coast of Cornwall by the River Fal. Arwenack House, home of the powerful Killigrew dynasty whose influence on the area as the founding family of Falmouth is felt throughout the book, still stands today. Many of the buildings of Falmouth reflect the town’s driving forces of religion and its strong nonconformism, the sea and sea-faring, and tourism and entertainment. Examples of religious buildings include the Church of King Charles the Martyr, dating from the town’s creation; the arts and crafts-inspired All Saints’ Church; and the town’s unusual Georgian synagogue. Representatives of Falmouth’s maritime history are the Custom House of 1785 as well as the National Maritime Museum of 2003. Reflecting tourism and entertainment are the beautiful former cinema, St George’s Hall; the Greenbank Hotel; and the town’s railway stations.There are also unusual buildings that give the town its particular identity, including the Arwenack Monument, which has moved around the town since 1737, and Jacob’s Ladder, a set of 112 steps commissioned by a busy merchant to help him reach his business interests more quickly. Today the town also boasts a university, setting up students for life in Falmouth and beyond for the twenty-first century.Falmouth in 50 Buildings explores the history of this fascinating Cornish town through a selection of its most interesting buildings and structures, showing the changes that have taken place in Falmouth over the years. This book will appeal to all those who live in Falmouth or who have an interest in the town.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Release date: Mar 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781445691626

Book preview

Rak Mark.

To my mother and father, Chris and June Mitchley, who first brought me to Cornwall and who saw the value of education.

In memory of my cousin Cecile van Rooyen, who was welcomed by Falmouth as a refugee from war-torn Belgium in 1940.

Thanks are due to the staff at Kresen Kernow.

First published 2020

Amberley Publishing, The Hill, Stroud

Gloucestershire GL5 4EP

www.amberley-books.com

Copyright © Mark Mitchley, 2020

The right of Mark Mitchley to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Map contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [2020]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781445691619 (PRINT)

ISBN 9781445691626 (eBOOK)

Typesetting by Aura Technology and Software Services, India.

Printed in Great Britain.

Contents

Map

Key

Introduction

The 50 Buildings

About the Author

Key

1. Arwenack House

2. Pendennis Castle

3. Church of King Charles the Martyr

4. The Old Town Hall

5. A Curious Hall

6. The Killigrew Monument

7. The Packet Office

8. Greenbank Hotel

9. Custom House

10. The King’s Pipe

11. Bank House

12. Fish Strand Quay

13. Wet Fish Shop

14. The Old Police Station

15. The Old Synagogue

16. The Royal Old Curiosity Shop

17. Marlborough House

18. The Old Catholic Church

19. Subscription Rooms

20. Church of St Michael and All Angels

21. Primitive Methodist Chapel

22. Royal Cornwall Polytechnic

23. Jacob’s Ladder

24. Gyllyngdune Summerhouse

25. Falmouth Docks

26. Falmouth Docks Station

27. The Falmouth Hotel

28. The Old Observatory

29. The Old Post Office

30. The Church of St Mary Immaculate

31. Earle’s Retreat

32. The Drill Hall

33. Wesleyan Chapel

34. Kimberley Park

35. The Athenaeum Club

36. The Recreation Ground

37. The Church of All Saints

38. The Seamen’s Bethel

39. The Cottage Hospital

40. The Town Hall and Library

41. The Packet Memorial

42. Falmouth School of Art

43. Prince of Wales Pier

44. Gyllyngdune Gardens

45. St George’s Arcade

46. Penmere Platform

47. Amy the Figurehead

48. Ships and Castles Leisure Centre

49. The National Maritime Museum

50. Falmouth University

Introduction

Falmouth is a new town. Though the name dates from the Middle Ages, it was better known as Smithick: a small village focussed on the Arwenack Manor, a fortification at Pendennis, and enough else to sustain a small fishing fleet. Penryn was the local town of note and yet it started its decline in importance and prosperity as Falmouth grew in strategic maritime significance. Thus a centuries- long rivalry began. In the three and a half centuries since its incorporation, the town has seen rapid growth through several times of war and has seen its status as military harbour and important commercial port wax and wane in both national and international importance.

The story of Falmouth is also the story of the Killigrew of Arwenack family, certainly for the first century of the town’s life. It was Peter Killigrew who secured the charter to establish the town in 1661 from a gratefully restored King Charles II, no doubt helped by Killigrew’s promise to dedicate the town’s new church to King Charles I. The Killigrews and their two-headed eagle shield will appear throughout this book, inextricably linked as they are to several of the buildings in Falmouth. After the Killigrews came the Fox family whose Quaker- inspired civic-mindedness influenced the town for the good, particularly during the nineteenth century and particularly in the field of education. Their imprint on the town is if anything, deeper.

The three dominant themes that link many of the fifty buildings are maritime, religious and tourist in character. Through its buildings we can see Falmouth as a global port, Falmouth as a tolerant place of dissenting worship and Falmouth as a destination for tourists. There are other categories, of course, but these three themes recur and colour the three distinct periods of growth in the town.

Sir Walter Raleigh, no less, is said to have recognised Falmouth’s geographical benefits as a deep-water sheltered harbour. During the next century, the town became the centre of the packet trade, which started to unlock the world in terms of mass trade. In the next century, people started to settle and this required new places of worship for them, which cosmopolitan Falmouth in nonconformist Cornwall encouraged and celebrated. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century, the town rebranded itself as ‘The English Riviera’ and a new form of transport, the railway, brought about further potential for growth, this time from tourism.

The date shown for each entry is usually the date of completion for the building and I have considered the word building in the broadest possible sense, so you will find gardens and obelisks telling their story next to manor houses and museums. They are part of Falmouth and will help tell the story of this young town and its speedy rise as not just a shipping and shopping place but also a home for the 22,000 people that live there. It is they who will continue the story.

Mark Mitchley

November 2019

The 50 Buildings

1. Arwenack House, Arwenack Street, c. 1260

Arwenack House is the oldest building in Falmouth and was the seat of Falmouth’s first major family: the de Arwenacks. It came