The Town Forum Working for Fowey
Fowey Town Forum secures Heritage Lottery Funding for harbour wide heritage project.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £41,800.00 to the Fowey Harbour Area Heritage Project. This project will improve the interpretation of the town, reflecting its history and what it has to offer to visitors and local people alike.
The award will allow the Fowey Harbour Heritage Project to focus on the rich and
diverse history and heritage of the Fowey Harbour area. Fowey is historically significant
as a sea port and market town and was an important medieval port, retaining an historic
medieval core. It contains 103 listed buildings and many examples of industrial archaeology
it also has an interesting literary history with associations with Daphne du Maurier
and Sir Arthur Quiller-
The project will encourage people to actively engage in the heritage of the area by promoting a number of long and short circular walks taking in Polruan and Bodinnick as well as Fowey. Walks will be self guided with assistance from interpretive panels and a leaflet. A series of oral histories will be collated and some of these reminiscences will be used in the production of an audio trail.
A website with more detailed information will be produced and this will also host an education pack to be developed in partnership with the two local primary Schools at Fowey and Polruan. The pack will be tested by local school children, and will include content and illustrations produced by the children themselves. Older students from the area will have the opportunity to gather and transcribe oral histories from local people, which will be deposited with the Cornish Studies Library, as well as being used in podcasts and on the website. Young people will also be invited to undertake a photo safari of the local area, to identify what their local heritage means to them.
The Fowey Town Forum welcomes wider community engagement with a series of activities helping to research the area’s heritage in the form of focus groups, reminiscence events and a series of winter talks and walks. The project will encourage and provide opportunities for local people and visitors to learn more about the development of the harbour, the buildings and the literary icons connected with the area. There will be plenty of opportunity for local involvement with the research, to lead guided walks or to deliver talks at events.
Lynn Goold (Chair of Fowey Harbour Heritage Project) said. “The committee have worked really hard to get this far. We are all delighted to be able to encourage more people to find out about the heritage of the area and to share their knowledge. This grant will enable us to celebrate the heritage of both sides of the River at Fowey and to share this information. We are pleased to have the support of Fowey Town Council, Lanteglos Parish Council, Polruan Town Trust and many other organisations. We are also grateful to Cornwall Rural Community Council (CRCC) who has given invaluable support in the development of our bid.”
The Town Forum Working for Fowey