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The Morrab Library

Contact us

Morrab Library, Morrab Gardens, Penzance, Cornwall TR18 4DA

enquiries@morrablibrary.org.uk

Registered charity No. 309250

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morrablibrary

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Happy #fishandchipday everyone - yes it's a thing and yes this is our second post about chips!
Everyone knows Cornwall does it best. (Although eating fish & chips outdoors, especially in St Ives, is a perilous business - the gulls there have evolved). The fish & chip shop at the top of Adelaide Street, photographed here in 1963, is still there and recognisable - though it took us a few seconds!

#fishandchips #cornwall #cornish #fishing #seagulls #seaside #photography #archives #postcard

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We needed cheering up today and this baby tawny owl does just that 🦉 Photo taken at Mousehole Bird Hospital, c. 1950.

#photofriday #photography #archives #owl #owlet #birdsofinstagram #cornwall #exploreyourarchives

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We did the maths and have calculated that our 65 volunteers collectively donate more than 5,500 hours of work to the library every year! We can't thank them enough for all they do for us and are missing them so much right now.
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#library #volunteers
#nationalvolunteerweek
#volunteering #thankyou
#community #support
#librarylife #librarylove

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150 years ago, in June 1870, the Falmouth, Gibraltar & Malta Telegraph Company landed the final section of the first Great Britain-India submarine cable in Porthcurno, and what became the world’s largest submarine telegraph station was founded. Beneath that beautiful sandy beach, telegraph cables connecting England to the world were laid over the ensuing decades. Make sure you visit the brilliant Porthcurno Telegraph Museum when it reopens to learn more about this fascinating piece of Cornish history.

#PorthcurnoTelegraphMuseum #PorthcurnoToday #submarinecable #Telecommunications

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It's #worldbicycleday 🚲 and we just love this 1885 photo of the secretary of the 'First & Last Bicycling Club' in Penzance.

Bicycles make us think of a marvellous story from Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber', where a young man on a bicycle stumbles into a vampiric tale - “To ride a bicycle is in itself some protection against superstitious fears, since the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion. Geometry at the service of man! Give me two spheres and a straight line and I will show you how far I can take them...Beneficial to the health, it emits no harmful fumes and permits only the most decorous speeds. How can a bicycle ever be an implement of harm?”
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#bicycle #cycle
#bicycling #history #cornwall
#books #quotes #photography #archives #exploreyourarchive

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#blackouttuesday

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These very stylish ladies will be our inspiration next week - 2 metres apart of course!
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#photofriday #socialdistancing #lockdown #library #friends #edwardian #edwardianfashion #women #friendship #photography #archives #exploreyourarchive

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It's an important day today & we know you must all be extremely excited because it's paperclip day!

Photographs of our very own paperclips © morrab library stationery 🖇
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#paperclipday #silliness #librarylife #stationeryaddict #stationery #librarian #organised #library #desk

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Back in 2005, one of our longest serving volunteers, Glyn, wrote a poem about the library. It's still relevant today, perhaps even more so, as we look forward to opening our doors again. Here are some excerpts from it..... As I walked through that Garden in the month of May it soon became clear to me
The building in white behind the tree was the Bastion of Literacy

Those precious books upon the shelves are most important too
But they'll be here for evermore and we're just passing though

At night when all the staff have gone, they talk among themselves
In grateful academic tones for spaces on the Morrab shelves

The Members call and choose their books in this friendly atmosphere
We know them all and act polite, how are you today my dear?

Our kitchen is a social place, with coffee black or white
You may join the ladies there and help put the world to right

Salvation comes in different ways if you receive your pardon
But as you know it was for me the Library in the Garden

Times may come and times may go as the years go rolling by
And we must hand the baton on for someone else to try

Our ancient library in the garden is precious to all that care
And we must do our very best to try and keep it there.

#poetry #poem #libraries #librarylife #nostalgia #books #volunteer

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© Morrab Library 2020