Site last up-dated 1st November 2024

Meeting Reports Up-dated

2024 Programme now on Programme page.

We have recently been given some photos taken during WWII in Trago Woods. Some of the people in these photos came from St Neot. A couple of the photos show some of the "Lumber Jills" working for the

MINISTRY OF SUPPLY HOME TIMBER PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT.

Do you recognise any of them?

Historians Birthday Celebration!

At their December 2023 meeting the Historians celebrated their 35th birthday! The Club's 35th birthday and our President Jill Thomas' 90th birthday was marked by an exhibition of the work Jill has undertaken during the last 35 years. Have a look on the page recording our monthly meetings for more detail.

St Neot and Warleggan Archive will be open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10 - 12. It may be accessed at other times by ringing Chris and Barbara Timms on 01579 321299 or Martin Eddy on 01208 821613.

New page added April 2022, St Neot's Own Epidemic, Typhus in the Village 1830/1.

New publication 2022

This booklet measurers 18cm x 25.6 cm (approx) comprises of 52 pages containing 118 images of which over 100 are in colour. The picture of the contents page below gives some detail of the contents!

A copy of this booklet can be obtained from Tony Ward

treasurer@saintneot.church  £5.25 plus postage.

Publication October 2023

The third edition of The Shops of St Neot has increased in size to 68 pages and has many more photos. It is now available from Historian

Chris Timms. £6 donation to St Neot Historians

How about a walk through St Neot?

This booklet was produced by Mim McCormack and Chris Timms in 2021. It is available free of charge from the Historians or you can screen print a copy from the "A Walk Through History" page on this website.

St Neot Local Historians win

the Cornish Heritage Award 2018

St Neot Local Historians are celebrating success at the first Cornwall Heritage Awards which took place at Scorrier House in Redruth in March, having won the Cornish Heritage Award 2018 for the West Northwood Dig, Eat and Sing Community Archaeology Project.

Martin Eddy, Chairman, who received the award on behalf of the project team, said that the judges had praised the project's ability to raise the profile and understanding of Cornish Heritage. They were impressed by the number of people engaging with the dig, the volunteer support and the new knowledge gained about farming on Bodmin Moor 3000 years ago.

In their first year, the Cornwall Heritage Awards have been organised by South West Museum Development in collaboration with Cornwall Museums Partnership and were made possible by investment from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The award came with a cash prize of £500 which the Historians will use to digitise Mary Bellringer's films of St Neot and help to support a second community dig this summer. Our thanks go to everyone who made 2017 such a success.

VILLAGE ARCHIVE

Olliver Room

Cott Barn

St Neot

OPEN MOST TUESDAY AND THURSDAY MORNINGS 10 TO 12

Contact Chris Timms for other times if you can't manage the above.

Below is some of the past history of the Archive/Historians and how the Archive came into being. For a more up-to-date account of our activities have a look on the Meeting Reports page, you could of course come along to one of our meetings shown on the Programme page.

Archaeology Exhibition at Village Festival

Click here for link to view some photos

Our Past History

Our Move Downstairs

During the week commencing 9th January 2016 the Archive was moved downstairs (below where we were). This well organised move was undertaken by members of the Parish Council aided by some Historians. The Archive is now housed completely in the downstairs room, we now have our own groundfloor level access "front door". We still have use of the kitchen and toilet within the main biulding, accessed outside but under cover. The new facility is much warmer and affords us more shelf space. Come in and have a look at the new room.

 Our Heritage Lottery Fund grant has now been concluded and the finances passed and "signed off". Below is a copy ofthe newspaper report of our final act!

Welcome to the History of St Neot and Warleggan

St Neot Local Historians meet on the first Monday of the month,

please use the "contact us" page for further information.

This picture of Cott Barn (extreme right) was taken prior to 1906. Oliver Bligh is standing in white shirt by the gate. Oliver is mentioned in the January copy of the 1908 St Neot News.

"St Neot Local Historians wins Heritage Lottery Fund support 

Local people and visitors alike will be able to learn more about the traditional Oak Apple Day celebrations held annually in the village of St Neot, thanks to a grant of £8,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)."

This website was initially built to show the material recorded from the Oak Apple Day celebration in 2013 and the archived images etc taken in the village during the month of May. It also now contains historical information about St Neot, Mount and Warleggan that has previously been kept by the St Neot Local Historians and the Warleggan Historians. Please explore the pages, they can be accessed via the buttons on the right hand side of the pages.

The St Neot and Warleggan Archive is administered for the benefit of all in the parishes it covers. The group of volunteers maintaining the archive and digitising and cataloguing the contents of the community archive come mainly from the St Neot Local Historians. The Archive will be open on at least one day per week and there will be evening and daytime exhibitions. The time and dates of the exhibitions and continuing opening hours will be on the "Events" page on this site. The pages on this website give a representative sample of what we have in our archive. We are not able to put the vast amount of material we have in full on the site!

The Cott Barn Rural Resource Centre is administered and owned by St Neot Parish Council and has been funded by “defra” and the “European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development”. The St Neot and Warleggan Community Archive has been partly equipped by the “St Neot Historians”, St Neot Camera Club and also houses equipment obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund for use with the “St Neot’s Little Acorns and New Oaks” Oak Apple Day Celebrations and Archiving. The Oak Apple Day Celebration has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with contributions from St Neot Parish Council, Cornwall County Council, St Neot Local Historians and Warleggan Historians.

The Oak Apple Day Ceremony held in St Neot every 29th May has been celebrated for many years. The enhancement of this event and importantly its archiving has been made possible by obtaining a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

A small group of locals led by Martin Eddy also including John Keast, Jill Thomas, Brian Williams, Barbara Timms, John O'Neill and Chris Timms completed the grant application and have organised, with the help of many local groups/clubs and the Church, additional features to the established occasion for the 2013 event. The St Neot Local Historians have lodged their archive in the archive room also. The St Neot Local Historians meet on the first Monday of the month.

The archiving and digitising of the Oak Apple Day event material and the cataloguing and digitising of the Historians material is being carried out by Isobel Harvey, Maggie Smith, Barbara Timms and Chris Timms. The Archive will hold a series of sessions when individual residents and groups can view and reminisce about its contents.

We now have a Project Group embarking on a wide variety of Cornish archeological projects under our Project Officer Martin Eddy.

Cott Barn was renovated and restored during 2012. To view photos recording this click here. The project was finally finished just before Easter. The opening was postponed by the very bad flooding with less that a week to go before moving in.

Cott Barn Open Day 4th May 2013

Cott Barn Archive Room keys handed over by Council Chairman Fernley Rowe to Historians Chair Jill Thomas

Martin Eddy Chair of Archive Group & Liasion Councillor for Cott Barn Restoration (right) 

talks to Fernley Rowe (left) at opening ceremony.

There are hundreds of photos and a number of stories about "St Neot Families" in our archive. We don't have a complete archive of St Neot News but have some of them. An example from January 1908 can be seen here. There have been many descriptions of the beautiful painted glass windows of our Church here in St Neot, we have a small booklet of Rushforth's description in the archive.

Please feel free to use the "Contact us" form if you have any questions or would like further information. We also welcome comments you may wish to put on our Guest Book page. The Archive is called the Olliver Room, it was named this in recognition the kind gift from Agnes Olliver of a room specifically to house the Village Archive.

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Site launched 6th April 2013

Webslave C Timms  Copyright 2013