"The BIGGEST Little Museum in Cornwall"

2018  SEASON

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Our Window Display for April 2018

The well-documented history of Lostwithiel's Fire Service features in our latest Museum Window Display.

Lostwithiel fire records go back as far as the Civil War [1644] when a number of buildings were set alight by the occupying Parliamentary Army. As the town was re-built the beginnings of a fire fighting service, one of the first in Cornwall, were developed.

 For almost 300 years St Bartholomew's Church bell was rung to call the Firefighters to deal with an emergency fire. This practice  only ceased in 1939 at the outbreak of WW2 when the now familiar siren was introduced to alert a fire emergency. It may be hard to believe that the Georgian building now occupied by Lostwithiel Museum was once a Fire Station. Enter the museum today & the main exhibit you see is Lostwithiel's first fire engine given by Lord Edgcumbe in 1716.

It was this engine, with others, that attended the major fire at Lanhydrock House in 1881 when much of the building was destroyed. This fire engine, akin to a portable water trough, was pulled by several men with leather buckets filled with water. One of these heavy leather buckets can still be seen in the museum.

Lanhydrock Fire 1881.
(Click on image for larger view)

With a generous grant from Association of Independent Museums [AIM] in 2008, the Fire Engine  on display was conserved and is back in working order.  You can read more about the conservation project on this page. 

 The Fire Service Window Display has been generously sponsored by The Children's Clinic for Cornwall [CCC], based in the Old  Cattle Market  Building [opp Lostwithiel Medical Practice in the main car park]. For more information about CCC please visit their website.

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