The public response to our cornishmemory.com, our online collection of historic Cornish photographs, films and recordings, has been wonderful.

Shortly after we re-launched the website with 31,500 items in November 2015, the site quickly gained momentum as people discovered and shared their favourite views and sounds of Cornish life on Facebook and Twitter.

In the last week of November 2015, cornishmemory.com was viewed by over 100,000 people who browsed around 1.5 million pages in one week. It is the largest online collection of Cornish audio-visual archives in the world and at its busiest times, we have recorded over 750 pages per minute being viewed by audiences far and wide.

The material on cornishmemory.com was gathered from private collections, museums and community archives across Cornwall as part of the Re:collect Project, a Heritage Lottery Fund supported initiative. During the three year project over 100 volunteers helped to scan and describe items, helping to bring free online public access to our shared Cornish past.

Gems from the online archive include early photographs dating from the 1850’s, colour film from the 1940’s and audio interviews with all manner of Cornish characters including a bal maiden who recalls working in the mining industry at the age of 12.

We have received some great messages of support via social media. One person was moved to tweet “Everyone I know is loving cornishmemory.com we found a few photos of my Dad too, thanks you so much!”

At the time of writing the stats are still booming, with cornishmemory.com now having served 2.1 million pages from the site since its November launch. Sponsorship opportunities are available, and if you are interested, please contact us.