It is the keeper of a million objects, artefacts and manuscripts documenting 4,000 years of Cornish history, a trove beloved by generations of locals and a draw for tourists, academics and people keen to trace their family links to the far south of mainland Britain.
But the Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM) in Truro is facing closure after the Conservative-controlled unitary council suddenly pulled the plug on its core funding, a move that has drawn criticism from artists, historians and very many citizens.
The executive director, Jonathan Morton, said the museum – founded by the Royal Institution of Cornwall in 1818 – was “shocked, bewildered and stunned” that its funding had been cut in the middle of a financial year. The museum is seeking an emergency meeting with Cornwall council but Morton said it could be forced to shut.
“This is huge for us,” he said. “This was our one reliable source of core funding at a time when money is very tight. We are speaking to our auditors but there is a risk of closure.”
Morton said the museum had a 50-year relationship with the council. “But it seemed to change overnight with very limited communication.”
The museum has been inundated with impassioned messages of support. “That has been overwhelming,” he said. “It is so clear what the museum means to people. It holds the story of Cornwall.”
The novelists Patrick Gale and Liz Fenwick are among the many Cornwall-based artists who have expressed support. Gale said the museum highlighted Cornwall’s language and history, the importance of its mineral riches, and played a part in understanding the present – and future of mankind. Fenwick said: “This museum is vital to Cornwall. It is a huge resource.”
Mark Jenkin, the Cornish director of the celebrated 2019 film Bait, said the Tories were “wreckers”, adding that he did not mean this in the Cornish sense (taking valuables from a shipwreck).
Kensa Broadhurst, a Cornish language expert at Exeter University, expressed devastation. “It’s one of our principal archives. A wealth of knowledge is about to be lost to us,” he said.
Cornish nationalists weighed in. The progressive movement Kernow Youth tweeted: “Are children in Cornwall meant to grow up without any facilities whatsoever?”
Visitors lined up to talk about their favourite exhibits, from bronze age Cornish gold to an (admittedly un-Cornish) ancient Egyptian mummy. But its fans say it is no dusty repository but continues to reflect what is happening in Cornwall now. It has recently hosted Threads of Survival, a collection of quilts reflecting life during the pandemic, and 6,000 pupils from almost every primary school in Cornwall visit every year.
The council had supported the RCM through its cultural revenue grants programme but that has been replaced by the culture and creative investment programme. The museum applied for £150,000 from this fund.
Organisations including galleries and theatre companies were successful but the RCM was not. The council said it became clear this was not “the appropriate funding stream” for the museum.
The portfolio holder for neighbourhoods, Carol Mould, said the application process was “objectively scored” but said this was no reflection on the museum’s “excellent work in culture and the creative arts”. She said the council wanted to work with the museum to find “an alternative way forward”.
Andrew Graham, whose father, Winston Graham, wrote the Poldark novels, set in 18th- and early 19th-century Cornwall, said he was deeply worried. His father had made “intensive use” of the RCM for Poldark, which was adapted into television hits in the 1970s and in the 2010s.
“Museums play a critical part in the community,” he said. “Not only connecting us with each other today, but helping us to understand where we have come from.”
