Organised by town councillor and chair of the Camelford History and Archive Trust, Philip Lessels, with his team of keen railway enthusiasts, the event came about when Cllr Lessels met local lady Nancy Handley three years ago, whose late husband, Joseph, worked at Camelford Station in the goods shed until the station closed in 1966.
Mrs Handley presented Cllr Lessels with a selection of old photographs from the days of the vibrant, up and running station in Camelford, with people bustling along the platform to get to and from all sorts of places across North Cornwall.
This inspired the ‘Last Train to Camelford’ exhibition, which, three years later, finally took place between Monday, October 10 and Saturday, October 15.
With boards displaying countless photographs of stations from Launceston, Egloskerry, Camelford, Otterham and more; as well as a table displaying old artefacts from the railways; a painting of Camelford Station, brought in by John Williamson; and a lifelike model of Camelford Station that took creator, Keith Gwatkins, just six weeks to make, visitors had a great opportunity to delve into the world of the railway, following its closure 50 years ago, and record their memories in the Railway Visitors Book.
Cllr Lessels eagerly invited the Post over for a chat, and enhanced the importance of events such as this.
He said: “What I wanted to achieve from this was to promote that this is all about the people who worked on the line, and the people that travelled on the line. All of this is recorded in their memories, and it’s so important; it’s the heart of the exhibition.
“It brings back incredible memories for people, amazing memories. I’ve always been brought up on the saying that history is written by academics for academics, but only recently all sorts of lives and stories are being recorded.”
Cllr Lessels pointed out one of the most ‘poignant’ moments for him, which was when two gentlemen met at the exhibition, and realised they had been in the same class at Sir James Smith’s School, Camelford, over 55 years ago, reinforcing the fact that this event has brought local people together to share some wonderful memories from the happy days of the local railway.
Cllr Lessels came up with the idea, inspired by his meeting with Mrs Handley, but stressed that the exhibition wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication and hard work of the team of people who worked with him.
In particular, he expressed his thanks to Keith Gwatkins, who captured the historic railway perfectly in his model of Camelford Station, which included intricate details of the buildings, people and railway line for people to marvel at; Val Lessels, who designed the tickets, as well as put the pictures together for the calendars on sale at the exhibition; and Phil Tucker, who printed the calendars. The proceeds from each calendar sold will be donated to the Camelford History and Archive Trust.
Cllr Lessels was more than pleased with how the exhibition had gone, with the approximate number of over 400 visitors being very complimentary, although he did add that there is always that one person who questions the layout of things.
Although he, nor his family, have any connections with the local railways, Cllr Lessels was the head teacher of Otterham Primary School for 15 years, and the first history project he did with the school was on Otterham Station. He laughed, claiming that he still had his daughter’s project from this at home, and was tempted to bring it to the exhibition.
On Monday, Cllr Lessels also held the opening of the ‘Now and Then’ exhibition at the former Lloyds Bank, made up of an archive collected over the last four or five years.
The bank will now be home to the micro museum, tourist information centre and will hold regular changing exhibitions.
He said: “People need a good reason now, to come into Camelford. If we can pick up what it was and restore it, then people will be able to understand Camelford’s history.
“It’s so important that local people remember the local railway. If people don’t understand the past, how can we understand how something works today?”