Wheal Martyn - The Collection

The museum has a collecting policy to collect items related to the china clay industry past, present and future, the china clay country communities and the lives of those affected by the industry.

The museum houses a large and varied set of collections. The site itself is rare and has within the grounds a SSSI with most of the buildings and machinery forming a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

There are machinery and tools, geological specimens, ceramics, audio recordings, photographic, document and film archives, and a social history collection of items associated with the clay industry and the local community.

The museum also holds an archive of documents related to the industry including drawings, maps, photographs and books.Much of the material has come from either clay companies or from local individuals. It is all fully catalogued and there are research facilities for anyone with a specific enquiry.There are approximately 2,000 photographs and roughly 2,000 items paper documents.

This section of the website is designed to provide just a flavour of what the museum has in its collections and stores. These pages are still under construction and more information and images of the collection will be added in the next few months.

The museum welcomes enquiries from members of the public and appointments can be made to view the collections or archives by contacting the museum curator. The curator can be contacted by email (info@wheal-martyn.com) phone (01726 850362).