Cornish Life Stories - Farming
Farmers will like it! That was the headline when the Museum of Cornish Life, Helston opened back in 1949 in the old market buildings of Helston. Farming and agriculture was at the heart of the museum and its collections so over the last couple of years we have been documenting stories of contemporary Cornish farming to preserve for posterity.
Commissioned by the Museum of Cornish Life as part of the 2023-25 project 'Farmers Will Like It' funded by the Museums Association Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund.
A grain no one has grown in Cornwall for 150 years. A handful of seed. A grandfather's obsession with cultural revival. In the marginal soils of far west Cornwall, where the Cornish language made its last stand, Harriet Gendall is coaxing a forgotten oat back to life — painstakingly bulking up samples from seed banks, persuading farmers to trial small plots, exploring whether this forgotten grain might hold something valuable for the future. But as the first pillas is harvested for the first time in over a century, Harriet begins to discover that bringing back pillas isn't just about agricultural diversity or climate adaptation - it's about asking a deeper question: where am I from?
Meet Cornish farmers Nick and Jackie Dymond of St Piran's Pork. This new film discovers how the farm converted to a sustainable pig and sheep farm, including growing all of their own feed and selling direct to the public at Truro Farmer's Market.
Cornwall has been historically well-known for growing flowers, especially daffodils. This new film looks at life at Scamp's Bulbs with growers Adrian and Sharon Scamp. Hear how they diversified from cut flowers to cultivating daffodil, tulip and other spring and summer Cornish bulbs.
Beth grew up on her family's dairy farm in Cornwall, where memories are made in early mornings, muddy fields, and the quiet rhythm of 450 cows coming in to be milked. Now back full time alongside her sister, she's part of the third generation carrying forward a way of life her grandfather and father built from the ground up — not out of obligation, but out of love. This is her story.
