Penwith Local History Group
The PLHG Archive
The History group Archive was set up about five years ago and contains research done by members and materials that members have collected. As an archive it has some interesting and useful material that can be used for research purposes although little of it is original or valuable.
The catalogue and filing system aim to make the material easily accessible for use, and we hope that people will make use of it. There are two catalogues, one for PLHG members and one for the Morrab. The material is available to all members of the Morrab as reference material but can only be taken out of the archive by history group members. An original intention of the group was to develop local history resources by pooling research, developing indices and catalogues, and collecting photocopies of important documents. A great deal of this was achieved, and some items are on permanent loan to the Morrab, such as the card index listing the people of the 25 parishes in Penwith during the 1500s and 1600s, created from a number of sources and the index of subject matter from the cuttings in the J.B. Cornish Scrapbooks. More recently, books from the PLHG archive have been put in the reference section of the library. The archive is on permanent loan to the Morrab with these provisos:
• Material to be available as reference material to members of the Morrab under their normal conditions except the two Restricted Files, which may only be seen with permission of the PLHG.
• All materials to be available as loan material to members of the PLHG.
• The PLHG to be responsible for updating its archive and its catalogue.
Currently the archive contains the following:
The PLHG Catalogue & Data Base
1. The Filing System & File IDs
The archive is filed in boxes, ring binders and albums which are labelled with Names and PLHG numbers (the File IDs). The exception is ‘Books’. Books are stored in the reference section of the Morrab Library and identified in the data base as PLHG 00 Morrab Library.
The Archive contains the following files:
Ring Binders
PLHG 01 Restricted
PLHG 02 Minute File
PLHG 03 Maritime & Military
PLHG 04 Industry
PLHG 05 Education & Religion
PLHG 06 Place
PLHG 07 Biography
PLHG 08 Wills
PLHG 09 Resources
PLHG 10 Kelly's Directory
PLHG 14 1841 Census
PLHG 15 1871 Census
PLHG 16 1881 Census
PLHG 17 Farming & Taxes
Box Files
PLHG 11 Surname Index
PLHG 12 Listed Buildings
PLHG 13 Electoral Register
PLHG 18 Newspapers
PLHG 19 Notebooks
Other
PLHG 20 Royal Cornwall Gazette (Hard copy & Database on CD).
PLHG 21 Gillian Green’s Album
2. Sections
Most ring binders (PLHG 03 Maritime & Military, PLHG 04 Industry, PLHG 05 Education & Religion, PLHG 06 Place, PLHG 08 Wills, & PLHG 17 Farming & Taxes) are divided into sections based on Penwith parishes.
These sections are: 01 Penwith, 02 St Buryan, 03 Gulval, 04 St Ives, 05 St Just, 06 Lelant, 07 St Levan, 08 Ludgvan, 09 Madron, 10 Morvah, 11 Paul, 12 Penzance, 13 Sancreed, 14 Sennen, 15 Towednack,16 Zennor, 17 General.
These Penwith Parishes do not include all the Parishes that were in the old Penwith 100 and information about the missing parishes is contained in 01 Penwith. Data about Cornwall and other data of interest to PLHG that cannot be filed under these sections are contained in 17 General.
The ring binders that are not divided into sections based on Penwith Parishes are: PLHG 01 Restricted, PLHG 02 Minute File, PLHG 07 Biography, & PLHG 09 Resources.
PLHG 01 Restricted is divided into the following sections: Archive, Business, Members & Publication. Each of these sections is filed chronologically from earliest to latest date.
PLHG 02 Minute File is also filed chronologically from earliest to latest date.
PLHG 07 Biography is filed in alphabetical sections A-
PLHG 09 Resources is divided into the following sections: Advice, Contacts, Indices, Method, Morrab, Statistics & Topics.
3. Items
Each item in the archive has a unique accession number which identifies it in the computerized data base and within the files.
All file sections are organised using the accession numbers, from lowest to highest except PLHG 01 Restricted & PLHG 02 Minute File which are organised chronologically, and PLHG 07 Biography, which is organised alphabetically.
4. Computerized Data Base
The PLHG data base is available on a CD which can be used on a PC with a Windows
operating system and Office software. The CD provides a read-
Fields in the Record
No:
This is a uniquely generated number. No two records in the data base could have the same number.
Item
Article, Book, Card, Census, Chapter, Collection, Cutting, Data base, Document, Drawing, Email, Fact sheet, Image, Index, Invitation, Leaflet, Letter, Licence, List, Map, Menu, Minutes, Newspaper, Notebook, Offprint, Oral History, Pamphlet, Papers, Photocopy, Photographs, Poem, Postcard, Poster, Printed matter, Programme, Proposal, Publication, Receipt, Register, Report, Source sheet, Statistic, Table, Talk, Timeline, Typed paper, Web page.
Category
Category covers a wide range of topics including Anglicanism, Antiquities, Boats, Boer War, Boyhood, Buildings, Census, Chapel, Church, Domesday, Event, Exhibition, Family History, Farming, Fishing, Georgian Theatre, Handwriting, Harbours, J.B. Cornish, Language, Lease Book, Manufacture, Maps, Mariners, Methodism, Military, Mining, Missions, Musters, Napoleon, Newlyn Institute, Newlyn Riots, Ordnance Survey, Population, Probate, Protestation, Religion, Royal Cornwall Gazette, Schools, Seafaring, Shipping, Shopping, Smallpox, Smithy, Subsidy rolls, Surnames, Taxes, Tithes, Watermills, Weapons, Wells, Wills, Writing. Year This is the year identified in the Description field
Date
This is the date identified in the Description field
Subject
This is a brief description of the item
Source
This is the source of the information
Place
This is the places named in the Description field
Name
This is the name of the person identified in the Description field
Description
This is a full description of the item including information in other categories.
Bibliography
This is a full reference for books, articles etc.
Location ID
This is the location number given to the file or box containing the material. There are 21 Location IDs, which were listed earlier.
Location
This is the location name given to the file or box containing the material. ( See section 1 earlier)
Section
These are the sections into which files are divided (See section 2 earlier)
Prepared by PML
February 12, 2009
