Louis Turner of the Poly gave a fascinating illustrated talk about old Falmouth and the Polytechnic building.

He told us how the Poly was associated with the very earliest days of photography, showing some photos produced by Opie, an early commercial photographer in Falmouth. There is a massive resource of photographs in the Poly which are being restored and many of them scanned to the web at www.rememberfalmouth.co.uk.

Amongst the photos was one of the founders of the Polytechnic, Anna Maria Fox and Caroline Fox. The photograph was taken in 1859. Many interesting old photographs were donated by John Chard who ran Chard's Fish Shop in Church Street, a photograph of which was shown. Amongst the collection is a dramatic one of the raid on Swanvale Oil Depot in World War II.

The elephants and camels came to town in 1910 and there were photographs of them. There is still much work to be done to collect information on famous residents of the town. Work at the moment is being done on the marine artist Hemy.

The Poly itself is a very interesting building and has changed a great deal over the year. Michael Carver gave a taster of his talk on the Poly and we look forward to welcoming him back in April with a talk on Cornish Miners.

Our next event is the AGM on Wednesday, March 27 when Nick Johnson, former county archaeologist, will talk about "Fortress Falmouth: 1850-1950 - the ending as a garrison town." It will be held in the Carnes Suite of the Green Lawns Hotel, Western Terrace, Falmouth. New members are always welcome. Please contact secretary@falmouthcivicsociety.org.uk. Details can be found at www.falmouthcivicsociety.org.uk