Our Farmers Will Like It project (2023-25) aimed to renew our knowledge of our historical agricultural collections and also to reconnect the museum with Cornish farming communities. In the past, the museum collected tools and machines that were no longer used on farms such as hand tools and dairy-making equipment.

One dilemma we had was how do we collect and preserve more recent farming heritage given the equipment used is so much bigger–and in use! Teaming up with filmmaker Barbara Santi and Awen Productions CIC we collaborated with diverse Cornish farms to make little films about their work today.

We thought the best way to preserve what is happening in contemporary Cornish farming was to return to an old method used by social history or folk museums and that was to document the people and their activities rather than collect physical artefacts that can often become disconnected with their original uses.

Joining our Cornish Life Stories series are these four films which will enter our permanent collection and can be watched online via our Youtube and Facebook channels and in our galleries.

We would like to thank: Harriet Gendall, Tom Kemp, Will and Larisa Radmore of Cornish Golden Grains, Nick and Jacqui Dymond of St Piran’s Pork, Adrian and Sharon Scamp of Scamp’s Bulbs, and Beth Whell and her family at Leyonne Farm. 

Pillas

This film explores the recent reintroduction of the heritage cereal called ‘pillas’ in Kernewek (Cornish language) also known as the naked oat or Cornish oat, also known by other names and grown in other regions and countries. Hear from Harriet Gendall whose Cornish farming heritage informed her research at Kew Gardens and farmers Tom Kemp and Will and Larisa Radmore of Cornish Golden Grains who are successfully growing pillas again.

St Piran’s Pork

Meet Cornish farmers Nick and Jacqui Dymond of St Piran’s Pork. This new film discovers how the farm converted to a sustainable pig and sheep farm, including growing all of their own feed and selling direct to the public at Truro Farmer’s Market.

Scamp’s Bulbs

Cornwall has been historically well-known for growing flowers, especially daffodils. This new film looks at life at Scamp’s Bulbs with growers Adrian and Sharon Scamp. Hear how they diversified from cut flowers to cultivating rare varieties of daffodil and other spring and summer bulbs. 

Leyonne Farm

Meet Beth Whell and her family at Leyonne Farm. This new film explores life on this family-run Cornish dairy farm as well as Beth’s work organising Cornwall Young Farmers Club, a vital network for farmers around the Duchy.