The museum building is our largest object being made up of two former Market Houses and Drill Hall. The first building the museum occupied in 1949 was originally designed as the town’s Market House in 1837 for butter and eggs. The Museum expanded into the meat market in 1983, then into the adjoining Drill Hall in 1999.
The building was in need of some care and thanks to the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND), with criteria set by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Arts Council England, Historic England (HE) and The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), we were been awarded a grant by Arts Council England with funding provided by DCMS to carry out this needed work.
In September 2025 scaffolding went up to allow us to complete the first part of the project to improve the exterior of the museum. We painted the outside of the museum, replaced the guttering and the wooden beam that supports the bell in the Meat Market bell tower. When we were replacing the beam we spotted markings on the bell and discovered it was a pre-reformation bell. It was cast between 1426 and 1456 by William Chamberlain of London.
The bell we discovered had most likely been the ‘old market bell’ which was moved from the old Market House on demolition in 1837, ‘the Bell is now dispatched to the New Market to be used as the Market Bell ‘ (source in Kresen Kernow of note by John Davies Enys in 1837). We don’t however know where the bell came from before this but think it is likely that it came from the Chapel of St Marys.
The Chapel was founded in 1283 by the Earl of Cornwall just outside the castle gate in the middle of what is now Coinagehall street. The Chapel was the burgesses’ own free chapel and outside of the control of the vicar of Wendron and became a popular place of worship. The townspeople were particularly devoted and it soon became rich. At the Reformation the Chapel became the property of the Crown and was sold to the town in about 1547. We think that this Chapel is where our bell originally came from.
The museum has 36 windows that all needed attention including 6 that needed replaced. A long term project has been started by the volunteer team to put UV blocking film on each pain. This is a mammoth task as to give an example the 3 large windows that look down to the Meat Market are made up of 58 individual pains.
In repainting the building and facia boards we have also made sure that that water flows round the channels at ground level stays in the channels rather than into the building.
In December 2025 work began on the second part of the project making the museum more sustainable and a nicer place to visit with the installation of insulation to the upper floors in the Drill Hall. We began with relocating all the items in our object store to the temporary exhibition gallery. As part of this we had to close the Drill Hall for three months from January to March 2026. Visitors at this time were still able to access the Butter Market and Meat Market buildings. While we were closed we moved all the objects from the upper display area in the Loft, put in insulation and then returning all the objects.
Top photograph of outside of museum Philip Sayer Museums Journal, second bottom photograph of loft area before building work Tom Young
