Welcome to Geevor’s blog!

This is Geevor Tin Mine Museum’s blog.  The blog provides a way for us (Geevor’s staff) to let you know what’s going on at Geevor. Including current and upcoming events, our collections and even just for you to see what we do on a daily basis to make sure you have a enjoyable visit to Geevor.

why a blog?

At Geevor we believe in community and in the importance of the visitor experience.  The local community plays a unique part in the development of the Geevor’s museum.   Since 2001, Geevor Tin Mine has been managed by Pendeen Community Heritage, a village based registered charity. Blogging is a new way for us to interact.  Here anyone and everyone can interact and find out more about us at Geevor.

Definetly not chardonnay….

Geevor’s Curator Jo W, blogs on the dramas of opening an exhibition….

October was probably one of my busiest months this year. The excitement and hard work revolved around opening our new exhibition in the Hard Rock Gallery; Wildlife on the edge.

Putting this exhibition together was relatively straightforward in exhibition terms. David and Steve were a joy to work with and David even offered to help hang the works. His maths skills (both speed and accuracy) meant that he had the role of doing the complicated calculations to discover how many inches apart the pictures had to be! Excellent. Alas it transpired that some of Steve’s images were upside down (you be the judge!) so I had to rehang a whole wall with Pat’s help at the last minute and with no David to add up. So of course I got it wrong on the first attempt. The difference between a five and a four inch gap lost us about 3 hours of hanging time. However, both Pat and I are now power tool addicts! Captions came together smoothly and invites were sent out without drama.

Rebecca and I were taught how to install vinyl to the walls in order for us to keep costs down in the future. This was a bit nerve-wracking (I’m not that good with straight lines) but worth it! Claire and Rebecca worked lots of learning magic and the fox tracks, especially, bring the whole exhibition together. The sounds are a touch of genius and the soon-to -be smells (they sent the wrong ones!) will hopefully add another sensory element to the exhibition. I must mention that Nick T now seems to be spray mount king of West Penwith!

We also hung the winners and runners up of our amateur photography competition. It was great to meet some of the folks involved at the private view. This time the private view was held on a Friday afternoon and although it is still faffy, we now have this off to a fine art. Now added to our resources is a lovely new white linen table cloth. Hurrah. But never try to iron it whilst on top of a plastic table!! Without Claire Ross, Claire Scott did an equally visually stunning collection of nibbles. I had to sort out drinks. Being a non wine drinker, this can easily have disastrous consequences. So armed with my sister’s advice ‘don’t buy chardonnay’ and a keen eye for an interesting label design as well as a 3 for 2 bargain I think I did ok! Jess and Bernie rocked up and did their PR bit wonderfully. Well done all and thanks.

So now we can breathe a little. Or not, as the case may be. I am now 4 weeks into my secondment which means that I only spend 2 and a half days at Geevor, and 2 and a half days on my seconded job, based at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro working to help develop smaller museums in Cornwall. So putting an exhibition on on 2.5 days was more than a little crazy and I didn’t get much sleep! From now on, priorities will have to be agreed and stuck to and I will have to say no to some things that are simply not physically possible in 2.5 days. A lesson learnt.

David Chapman presenets winner of the U16 competition Alex Valenti with his prize. Lill'ole me on the right...

Another action packed month on the cliff edge…..

Another action packed month at Geevor ! No really! We have had school groups back on site which has been great as small people are generally very amusing! We all have been working very hard on the new Wildlife on the Edge exhibition in the Hard Rock Gallery which opened on Friday the 21^st October. We had a bit of a ‘do’ for everyone who contributed. The two professional photographers Dave Chapman and Steve Jones whose photos make up the majority of the exhibition and the winners and entrants of our photo competition (the youngest is 3!) joined us. Really looking forward to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s travelling exhibition to arrive on the 20^th November that will be shown simultaneously, all very exciting….watch this space or a space!

We also held our Bat Detecting evening which was brilliant and very well attaneded, two different species of bats were located on site despite a brisk on-shore wind, many thanks to all involved.

Just getting to the end of October half term week which has been busy, especially considering you can’t see your had in front of your face today the fog is so thick! (How can it be so windy and so foggy at the same time, where does it all come from?) We had a very special visit from Hilary Bracegirdle from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) whose input has paid for the Hard Rock Museum and all the new roofs on site amongst other things. The HLF (aka National Lottery) is celebrating its 15 year anniversary, and to join the celebration we have held some special events over the week to coincide with the half term.  I led a drop-in session in the Hard Rock Gallery where people could get advice on how to encourage and create habitats for our native wildlife in their gardens, be they big or small. There were also wildlife related crafty activities for the smaller ones; everyone who took part seemed to really enjoy it!

We also participated in the Big Draw this year, again a really busy day with a lot of very creative goings on. We don’t have many creations to exhibit as everyone wanted to take their pictures home with them…a lasting reminder of Geevor!

Next mission: Christmas.……..ho ho ohhh!

Astronomy Dominie

How excited was I about the lecture given to us by Brian Sheen, Astronomer, at the beginning of September here at Geevor?. Very!. Firstly Brian gave a talk with the most amazing presentation of  what the night skies looked like in this part of the world on the big screen. And then we went outside. We were blessed by a clear night and being this remote there was very little in the way of light pollution. Numerous strange-looking bits of kit were assembled and we all had the chance to look through them. Amazing. We were able to see Jupiter (plus three of Jupiter’s  moons), the Andromoda galaxy, Altair, Deneb and  Vega (the summer triangle) the Plough (an old favourite!), the Milky Way (very clear!),  to name but a few that I can remember. The moon was bright but the Dark Side thankfully eluded us.

Is There Anybody Out There? Well, the International Space Station passed over a couple of times and a few other satellites were visible. I have always intended to inform myself about The Great Gig in the Sky and I think this might be the beginning (let’s not mention that I have actually worked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich ….!)

Otherwise, we were still quite busy in September due to the fact that the sun actually shone. Not quite warm enough for that evening swim or beach BBQ but certainly lovely enough for people to want to be outside exploring Geevor. Wish You Were Here?.

So we have begun the big catch up on the things that didn’t get done over the busy summer. This includes an unprecedented number of enquiries.  Mainly of a family history nature. Rebecca and I had a great trip to visit the Cornish Studies Library in Redruth, where we were shown round by Kim, who is lovely and knows lots. This is a great place and the starting point for most Cornish history enquiries. Near to the top of my (fantasy curatorial) list for Geevor is to do something about computerising some of our records so that these enquiries can be done at the touch of a button.  Help!  Welcome To The Machine…

In the very last week in September I began my new working arrangements. As a six month secondment, I am working half the week on a different job, based at the Royal Cornwall Museum. This new role is about working with and supporting smaller museums across Cornwall. I’m very excited but also aware of having to deliver on both jobs, in such little time. Yikes. No pressure! Set the controls for the Heart of the Sun….

The photo attached is of one of our Interactives in the museum. Every day we see our visitors trying to solve this puzzle – which involves figuring out a sequence for the wheels to link up in order to turn the handle and ‘lift the cage’.  This particular sequence is cleverly impressive and visually stunning. Thank you to whoever did this. Flaming!

September blues or should I say moos….

Well it has been a funny old month what with Claire Ross leaving and all! I am now by myself in the shed/office and its quite lonely, was thinking of inviting some of the cows over for tea (see Jo’s previous blog) Should I to offer them milk with their tea…hmm cow etiquette!

 Anyway, the events over August have gone well, the Bat Day was very exciting although we had to call off the Bat Detecting walk due to poor weather conditions. It has been re-scheduled for Friday 25^th September at 6.45 pm, if you would like to find out more about our local bats and see how a bat detector  works give reception a shout (01736 788662). We are hopeful of finding bats but it is very dependent on weather conditions i.e. rain/wind = no insects flying= no bats… but we shall see!

Just before Claire Ross left we had the chance to go down Victory Shaft (2^nd time for me!) I took one of our hand held camcorders with me and have produced a 4 minute film of our experience. It certainly gives you an idea of what is was like down the mine. Bill kindly took us down some side passages with water so deep it up to my knees (and well into my wellies!) the moment was captured on film

Pictures can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geevortinmine/

All very exciting. Looking forward to having some school groups back on site where we get the chance to run some of our new workshops……… I am still keeping an eye on the cows though.

The fog

Have you ever seen the film the fog? I’ve been half expecting pirate-clad skeletons to emerge from the sea and take over the mine for the last two days. The fog has been so bad. Even the cows are starting to look sinister… As I type I cannot see the top of Victory Headgear which is about 25m from my office. Where has the sunshine gone?

For July and August my main responsibility was to ensure that our rather ramshackle ‘what’s on’ board was kept up to date daily with events on site. I have decided that as it is being used so often I shall invest some money in at least trying to make it look good. It is the first thing that visitors see upon arrival – after the toilets that is! My lettering techniques using a white board pen have come on enormously. Some days I even added flowers or butterflies….

As well as holidays and guiding, not a great deal else has happened in the last two months except for record numbers of visitor, clearly a good thing. We are not normally open Saturdays and we experimented this July and August with opening Saturdays. So, for three summer Saturdays, I gave up my Saturday-morning newspaper and coffee hallowed time to come and work and talk to people all day. The sacrifices!

The Interactives in the new museum have taken a hammering this summer and we are now down to our last spares….It is difficult to decide between what has broken due to poor design and what has broken due to inevitable wear and tear….but generally things have been Ok. Our handdrilling sessions have been very popular and on one occasion our Geevor talks normally attended by about 15 people had over 70.

Rebecca and I have spent a lot of time planning for September and October – events and exhibitions but for now I am just glad to get my head down and clear some things in my inbox. One of those outstanding projects is to hang some more art around site. I have accumulated several lots of work for reception and outside the café and about to take on some more, so watch this space for some interesting work appearing around site.

Claire Ross left us in August and it was really sad to see her go. Consequently I have had to do Geevor’s twitter all week. Got quite into it actually, so good job my turn only comes round ever 8 weeks! The new geevor.com website is super and sparkles. What an improvement. Well done Claire. We are all determined to maintain the high standards of web presence you established for us.  We miss you already!

Goodbye Geevor…hello London!

Today’s my last day at Geevor! My time here as flown by! It only seems like yesterday I arrived smartly dressed, bright eyed and bushy tailed and excited about the project ahead. The smart clothes went out the window straight away! (there is no place for shirts and heels at a mine on a cliff edge).

I have certainly left my mark at Geevor, mostly dents in doorways where I have banged my head so many times, earning my title as possibly the clumsiest person in the world. I’ve also brought my special brand of endless enthusiasm and my extreme tea and cake eating abilities to Geevor.  Especially with the girls in the learning team, hopefully Claire S will carry on this tradition with style.

I’ve loved working here, it hasn’t been easy and yes I have ranted and raved, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and can not thank the University of Exeter, Geevor and KTP for giving me this opportunity.  I have made some good friends and even more great colleagues, I have so many thank yous I’m not even going to begin, but I thought I’d leave you with some of my best bits….

• The Blog! I love it! it shows a side to Geevor that you don’t get to see when you visit! A behind the scenes look at the goings on at Geevor. It also gives you an insight into the sense of humour of the staff, Bill’s posts make me laugh so much.
• Flickr and Twitter- brilliant tools that are encouraging Geevor to interact with the outside world, and for you guys to interact with us! Some of the photos on the Geevor Flickr group are truly inspirational.
• Banging my head on one of the new cases in the Hard Rock Museum a week before the grand opening and getting concussion. Nick T being more concerned that I’d got blood on the case, before tending to the egg shaped lump on my head and taking me to hospital.
• Bringing an ethos of ‘tea?’ to the learning team. What on earth did you do without me and tea?
• My endless enthusiasm, no matter what gets thrown my way.  I am excited by everything and love the potential that Geevor has. I hope this pro active and opportunistic mentality sticks with Geevor as they go from Strength to Strength.
• And finally, the website! It was hard going and I’ve done my best with the resources and time available! Its not bad for someone with no web experience what so ever! Dress the miner seems to be going down well, and my favourite is the whoosy image thing (lightbox that does cool things to see the image better) when you click on an image thumbnail.  As I said in a previous post, there are so many things I would like to develop and improve on, but I now leave it in Geevor’s capable hands and look forward to watching it grow.   I hope you like it.

And where am I going? What am I doing next?

Moving back to London that’s what!? After two years in idyllic Penzance, I’m moving back to the big city,  back to UCL! Im gong to be working on a project call Linksphere looking at virtual learning environments and social media.  I get to geek out basically, looking at how/if academics are using blogs, twitter, wikis and facebook.  Yes I am a nerdosaurs.  I’m very excited about it.  but it doesn’t mean I will forget about Geevor. .. I’ll be keeping my eye on you….

if you are interested in my exploits you can find out more on my new blog, from one blog to another.

Claire signing off.

New e-learning website for Geevor

Harry (aged 9) and his Mum and Dad get to grips with the new website assisted by Geevor’s Learning Team Manager Rebecca

Learning at Geevor has an added dimension as the mine, based in Pendeen, launch their new interactive website. The address remains www.geevor.com.

Jam packed with information, the website has been built through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the University of Exeter and Pendeen Community Heritage. Detailing many aspects of mining, the website boasts interactive games, information sheets, images and sound bites plus a whole lot more! Interactives include Dress the Miner, Guess the Mystery Object and a Time Challenge. A page dedicated to oral history enables the user to listen to stories such as ‘Children down the Mine’. Many images and downloadable fact sheets are easily accessible and highlight many different aspects of the mine from people who worked at Geevor to the jobs they undertook.

The website has been developed over a period of two years. The KTP Associate is Claire Ross who has project managed the revamp. She said, “

Now visitors can discover Geevor in their own home! The new website is the place to discover about Geevor’s part in Cornish Mining. Whether planning a visit to the Museum, discovering more about its history, playing games, or exploring the images bank, it has never been easier to find out about Geevor. It adds an extra element to the already brilliant experience that you can have on site at Geevor. I hope you enjoy it” .

The website also features a Resource Bank that enables teachers to download information for use in the classroom. Learning Team Manager at Geevor Rebecca Gardner, said:

“Geevor’s history is now accessible to a broader audience. The layered format of the website allows accessibility to a range of learning needs, from early years to lifelong learners.”

Go and have a explore at www.geevor.com

Old machines and new technology….

Well Blog me up! Apart from ducking the rain drops summer up until now not a lot has been on just quite a few people in site!  Today I was taken down to the Slimes Plant, which much to my disappointment wasn’t  slimy! There was however some VERY COOL STUFF.  The building was used to recover the tin from the ‘slimes’  which was the very fine particles from the shaking tables, this was the last chance for any particles of tin to be removed . The building was almost like another Mill pretty much un-touched. Lots of switches and buttons long since pressed, cobwebs and slowly rusting up machinery.  We discovered a computer from the late 60’s that was the size of a stand up drinks fridge that was to be used for on-stream analysing to continuously monitor the tin output from the Mill and the Slimes Plant. It was the first automatic control to be used at Geevor, using tape with holes in (see invention of Jacquard Loom in 1801, worked on same principle). Even more excitingly and thanks to the progression of technology I was able to film our visit with our new hand held flip camcorder!  Very high tech, and I was able to film myself walking into a low beam as I wasn’t looking where I was going! .

Sadly the other Claire will be leaving next week so we are making the most of picking her brains and learning how to do web site stuff and today edit film and upload on YouTube! Look out for the new spangly and informative web site launching on Monday 17^th August.  Also check out the cool Biodiversity Events we are holding over August, it’s not just a mine you know……..

Back to the 60’s…..

Where does the coke come out ?

Midsummer Madness at Geevor

It’s been a busy summer and it’s not over yet. We have had the ‘best ever’ July in visitor numbers – it even seemed at times that Eric Murley’s Jersey heifers were fighting to get out of the field opposite Reception and join the queue of visitors.  August also started with a bang when on the 3^rd and 4^th we had probably the two busiest days in our history.

And we know why it happened! It’s because Geevor is ‘the best museum we’ve visited’ [as one visitor wrote on the survey form we use]. We know that ‘Hard Rock’ is a major new attraction and that visitors love the special atmosphere of the Dry. The main lure is still the underground: to cope with the rising numbers, we went over to a system which allowed visitors to go through on their own, with guides stationed at intervals to talk to them and ensure safety. This seems to be popular.

But maybe, just maybe, the weather had something to do with it. When it is wet in the holiday season, people look for alternatives to the cliffs, coves and beaches. We think that on average each holiday visitor to Cornwall will visit one ‘Heritage Site’ – so we have worked hard to make sure that there is more on offer here than anywhere else. So, we’ve done activities like having a go at hand drilling, demonstrations of bronze casting and smelting tin, guided walks, talks in the Gallery – things which add to the value of the ticket price.

So, if August is not ‘wall to wall sunshine’, and if the dreaded Swine Flu does not decimate our staff, we will have had a very successful summer.  After August Bank Holiday, most of us will be looking forward to a bit less frenzy and a chance to catch up on all the jobs we’ve neglected over the last few months.  But we have a target of 6000 visitors for September and maybe if we just did a few extra events . . .

So long and thanks for all the tea…

The end of school term marks a change for Geevor’s Learning Team, as we say goodbye to schools until September & turn our thoughts to developing (or repairing!) our resources ready for the next school year in this valuable prep time over the school hols. But we ended the school term with a lovely local nursery group coming onsite after an outreach session on Basil & Scraggs Go Underground at Geevor including the famous Mining Song! (Don’t you just love songs with actions!?!)

We also had to say good bye to Jo B until next year, as she goes on maternity leave - (we said goodbye with a very chocolatey chocolate cake! – thanks Claire!). By the next monthly blog, we’d have also said good bye to Claire R, who’s been developing this blog, and other online stuff, over the last year and a half but is heading off to London to meet the Queen! (well, kind of..).

One thing that won’t change in the dept though, thanks to both Jo B and Claire R founding it over the last year or so - is drinking lots of tea!! Though Claire S may potentially be worse than both! we shall see…