Black and white

Acc.no: PEZPH : 2016.50.19

Identification

Item: Lower Market Jew Street, Penzance and Railway Station.

Description: A view of Lower Market Jew Street, Penzance with the Railway Station on the far right hand corner and a number of unidentified people outside. The property on the near right came to the attention of Penzance Town Council in January 1899, for the 'unsatisfactory state of the light at the corner or Mr Branwell's property near the Railway Station' (Cornish Telegraph Thursday 31 January 1889). The property concerned was held in parts by Mr Robert Branwell and Mr Fox, and lay on the south-east side of Market Jew Street, between Station Hill and Albert Street. Although a large piece of it had been Branwell's property for over a decade, it had yet to be improved because of years of wrangling and posturing between Mr Branwell and the town fathers. Although logic suggests that the granary would have been erected soon after the widening of the road in 1884, Branwell's used the old Serpentine Works at Wherrytown as their granary, for another seven or eight years - possibly with some milling machinery - although their main mills as such were at Vellanhoggan, Gulval. Coulson's Mills were just across the road in Wherrytown. It was late 1889 or early 1890 before work commenced on the Market Jew Street site, and one of the first reports of any work on the site came in February, from a brief accident report: 'Accident - A man named Martin was employed with a horse and cart on Saturday delivering stone at Messrs Branwell's new stores, now in course of erection near the Railway Station, Penzance, when a passing vehicle, belonging to Mr Mitchell, of Lelant, knocked him down and ran over his foot, dislocating the ankle, Martin was removed to the West Cornwall Infirmary in a cab' (Cornish Telegraph, Thursday, February 27 1890). Bramwell's new granary stores must have been completed by the autumn of 1892, when Mr Branwell appealed against the rating assessment of the building. See also 2016.50.18.

Condition: Good

Description

Material: Photographic paper

Production

Method: Printed

Category: Photography

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