2005 was the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2. To mark the part played by women on the land, we have produced a commemorative book.

We located many Land Girls and their families and carryied out interviews. We also collected photographs and other memorabilia.

These were be used in the book, and also a DVD film, celebrating the work and lives of women involved in this valuable work.

We held a verry successful celebration of the Land Girls and the book launch in the summer of 2006. The first edition of Digging for Memories has now sold out but the second edition is available for purchase.

On 11th June 2005 we set up an exhibition about the project in the foyer of St. John's Hall, Penzance.

The occasion was a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2 and it was a chance for us to search for land girls.

‘It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.’ [Henry James in a letter to H G Wells, 10 July, 1915]

In 1895, the artists’ colony of West Cornwall was gifted with a gallery to exhibit their work – to show what they were ‘doing’, prior to sending their paintings to London and other great centers of art in this country and abroad. The John Opie Gallery as it was then known, was constructed in the fishing village of Newlyn by the Cornish philanthropist and newspaper scion, John Passmore Edwards.

Part of Passmore Edwards’ plan was to have a reading room in the Opie Gallery where art and literature, journals and newspapers would be available to all comers. But this was a nicety that the hard-pressed and hardworking artists never had the time to develop. Though literature is in itself an art, art is often not literary, though there are notable exceptions [Elizabeth Armstrong Forbes (1859-1912] and Charles W Simpson(1885-1971) being two of these].

The original design for The John Opie Gallery included a large reading room on the ground floor.

109 years later, the Hypatia Trust, with the financial support of Penzance Town Council, is providing this facility at Trevelyan House.

In 1995, in step with the centennial celebrations of the Newlyn Art Gallery, as it is now known, the Council of Management supported positively the idea of creating an Art Archive and Reading Room, open to all who are interested in the arts and artists of the area, past and present. Much material was gathered together in order to produce the centennial book, 100 Years in Newlyn, Diary of a Gallery. This cache consisted of minute books, exhibition sales books, auction and exhibition catalogues, posters and photographs - literally the bits and pieces left from artists’ studios and their homes as they died or moved on.

Equally the Penlee House Gallery and Museum had, since the mid-20th century, begun to receive and collect art objects and paintings, and the ephemera of artists living in the West Cornwall communities as part of its local remit.

To add a solid element to the Reading Room aspect of the project, the Hypatia Trust offered its extensive art book collection containing a reference library on world, British, and Cornish art, and also a smaller, focal collection on women’s arts.

All was housed temporarily at the Jamieson Library at Newmill and began to develop with financial support from Penzance Town Council, Penwith District Council, the Newlyn Art Gallery and the Hypatia Trust.

Now the West Cornwall Art Archive (WCAA) is a charity in its own right and a partner to the Hypatia Trust in under-writing the learning and teaching activities of Trevelyan House. A first fundraiser in April 2004 has enabled an endowment fund to be established, and further grant applications will be made to enable staff to be appointed. Congratulations and thanks to many donors and helpers for this great achievement, of giving new life!