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THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.

PERRANZABULOE MUSEUM. This wooden stool came from an explosives factory at Perranporth and was sold for 6d.[2.5p] when the factory finally closed in 1918. Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, once owned the explosives factory originally known in 1889 as the British & Colonial Explosives Company. The Nobels bought the factory in 1892, but moth-balled it in 1905-14. Munitions were made here in 1914-18 and 1,000 people, mainly women, employed. RAF Perranporth took over the site in World War II.

The factory was sited at Cligga, an area of early cliff top adit mining. 100 acres of land were leased here by the company. Perranzabuloe Museum also has a model of an explosive store and caps used to stop sparks in the gunpowder room. Cornish gunpowder mills were also located in picturesque Kennal Vale, now a nature reserve.

Photo: Bernie Pettersen