Thanks to a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund,  ‘A Window in Time – St Just and St Mawes Remembers’ will unearth stories of the historic buildings at the heart of St Mawes and St Just on the Roseland Peninsula, in turn revealing the wider heritage of the place and people who lived and worked there. 

In St Mawes the project will focus on a row of shops and houses that overlook the harbour. These include ‘Pomerys Garage,’ a prominent building part of which the St. Just & St. Mawes Heritage Group inherited in 2016. This building has had a fascinating history and its many usages have included being a pilchard shed, a reading room for American soldiers in WW2, accommodation for local hotel staff, a garage, artist’s studio and gig club. In St. Just in Roseland the project will centre on the buildings that surround the square, representing the oldest part and heart of the village.

‘A Window in Time’ will begin a series of oral history interviews and Memory Walks. These will capture memories of buildings at the heart of the two villages, exploring their change of use and occupancy and their shifting place within village life. These interviews will reflect the wider social, cultural and economic activities of the villages and, by providing training to volunteers, community members will also be able to collect oral histories.

The oral histories, photographs and research gathered through the project will be taken into St.Mawes Primary School and the local Youth Group to enable young people to learn about their villages’ heritage. Further stories collected through these workshops will become part of the exhibition that accompanies the screening events. All material gathered through the project will be archived through the St Just and St Mawes Heritage Group and will later be made accessible to a much wider audience of visitors through the future Heritage Centre.