Perranzabuloe Museum in Perranporth

04/11/2026

13/09/2026

There’s something about a high tide at Perranporth that captivates everyone, locals for whom it is part of life by the sea, and visitors who stop in their tracks to watch the sea reclaim the vast sweep of sand. At high tide, the beach transforms as the waves rise to buffer and sometimes breach the promenade wall. In summer it’s a spectacle with onlookers dodging the spray. In winter, it’s a powerful reminder of the elements that shape our coastline.
We’ve gathered a few images of high tides over the years, each one showing a different mood of the sea. Let us know your favourite high‑tide memories

06/09/2026

A little slice of Perranporth’s social history… the Stork Club

We’ve been digging into the story of the former Stork Club on Beach Road a place that clearly meant a great deal to locals, visiting service personnel, and generations of holidaymakers. What we do know paints a wonderfully vivid picture… but there are still gaps we’d love your help filling. From what we can trace, there seems to have been a property on this site from around 1910, though we don’t yet know exactly when it first opened as the Stork. By the 1920s–30s, it was a charming tea room and garden, complete with a pond featuring a stork and a “wishing stone”.

During the war it became a club for locals and resident service men, including American forces stationed in the area. It was a members-only club visitors had to be introduced — and stories suggest a lively, welcoming atmosphere. A tall white flagstaff stood in the garden, used by American troops to fly a large Stars and Stripes.
By the 1950s, it may have been owned by the Hill family but there were likely other owners. It was still open 1959 because the County Council improved the paving outside The original building seems to have been more like a residential property, and at some point a newer building the Stork Café adopted the name. We don’t yet know exactly when that change happened. Today, the site of the later stork café is where the Doctors’ surgery stands.

Here it is pictured in 1948

Can you help us fill in the missing pieces?

30/08/2026

Taking a walk over Perranporth Beach this Bank Holiday Weekend? You might pass Alcatraz - a spot with more history than you’d expect. Once the site of a WW2 pillbox and gun store, it later became a familiar place to pick up beach goods, and today it’s home to a smart café. For decades, thousands of people walked past the old building every year as they headed onto the beach beside the bridge. Shown here in the 1950s, 2010, and again in 2021, it’s a great reminder of how places evolve while remaining part of our local story.

23/08/2026

Perhaps not as widely recognised as the historic art communities of St Ives, Newlyn or Penzance, but our Parish has long inspired artists and visitors to capture its distinctive sense of place. Our museum collections hold wonderful examples of this creative legacy, including works or records linked to Martha Tremewan, Alice Bizley, and the celebrated watercolourist Henry Harding Bingley.
Bingley, known for his delicate, atmospheric paintings, lived in Perranporth for a time and set up his first studio beside the boating lake at Boscowen Road. A second followed on St Pirans Road, opposite the former Sully’s Hotel. Both studios were compact around twelve feet square but featured large picture windows designed to showcase his work to passers‑by.
Over the decades, Perranporth has supported a lively network of galleries each sharing and selling local creativity. The space below our Museum was once also craft workshops and served as an exhibition venue. Here is the poster for Group 83 exhibition held there back in the day.
That tradition continues today. The Annual Perranporth Art Group Exhibition is now open at St Michael's Church Hall and local galleries such as Colour and Space host regular displays celebrating artists working in and inspired by our parish.

20/08/2026

Behind the scenes, volunteers are carefully cataloguing a lifetime’s collection of postcards recently donated to the museum. Photographic, or illustrated, each card captures a moment in the evolving story of Perranzabuloe. Some show familiar views of Perranporth Beach; others record tiny hamlets, rural lanes, school groups or community events that had only a very local audience. Even the short updates or tiny handwriting squeezed into every corner add to the picture of everyday life in the parish.

16/08/2026

Another place in our series on the parish’s buildings, shops and businesses: A & W May, Butchers of Perranporth

The May family worked from C***s in the early 20th century, sourcing and processing animals before delivering meat across the parish in their distinctive butchers’ horse and wagon. A photograph in our collection from c.1910 shows the van at Pixie Dell, C***s Hill used an abattoir, a property later converted into a dwelling by Mrs Smith, who owned the Riverside Café in Perranporth around 1951.

A & W May also operated a shop in Perranporth, preparing meat for local customers. Early images suggest their first premises stood on the mine burrows in a small wooden building, not dissimilar to those once found at this time on Wood Street (now Beach Road). Later, the shop appears on St Piran’s Road, occupying part of the building beside the Unionist Hall (today’s Conservative Club), with a simple, functional frontage typical of the period.

Mentions of the May family appear in our collections from around the late 19th century, including Thomas May, a farmer at Reen who may have been connected to the business. A wartime memoir by Mike Edwards notes that the shop remained closed during the Second World War but it reopened and can be seen in the background of Carnival photographs in 1947.
Can any of our followers help us add more to the story of A & W May Butchers?
We’d love to fill in the gaps.

13/08/2026

And another Throwback Thursday moment.
This time of year always brings a buzz of outdoor music festivals and our Parish has enjoyed plenty over the years. Today we’re looking back to the Millennium Music Live festival on the Inner Green, a brilliant celebration that all ages enjoyed with local talented performers.

10/08/2026

Next Wednesday's partial solar eclipse is almost here, and it’s hard not to think back to that iconic summer of ’99. Crowds in their special specs packed Perranporth Beach, watching the Moon slip across the Sun. Here in Perranporth we were lucky that the cloud cleared at the right moment. That moment became part of our local story and now we get to witness another one.
Who’s heading out for this year’s celestial show?

06/08/2026

As wildfires break out across the coast in this spell of hot weather, Perranporth Fire Brigade is once again on the front line. Their efforts today echo a long tradition of service that runs deep in our local history.

Old news clippings tell the story: cliff rescues, gorse fires, mine‑shaft animal rescues, thatched cottage blazes, flooding, and the extraordinary Operation Pipeline, when firefighters laid a mile and a half of pipes to supply water to drought‑stricken communities.

This photograph of the brigade tackling a gorse fire decades ago captures that spirit of commitment rooted in community.