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Our Vision
We have restored the former gardeners' house in Morrab Gardens to create a place for our West Cornwall community - opening in June 2025. We exist to celebrate the stories and landscape of our part of Cornwall, and to share it with the people around us.
At the heart of our work is a living archive—a growing collection that documents the rich history, stories and
natural landscape of our region. We want to expand our collection with the help of our community. The restoration of our historic building in Morrab Gardens will also provide a welcoming space for wellbeing workshops, community-led green projects, and a sensory garden.
Together, we are preserving the essence of West Cornwall for future generations, ensuring the voices of the landscape and its people endure.
A Glimpse of Our New Building
What will The Gardeners' House
be home to?
Our Living Archive
Donated by the Hypatia Trust, the Gardeners’ House archive collection showcases the achievements and stories from the last 200 years of the men and women connected to West Cornwall’s natural heritage.
Its new home will mean that the important collection is safeguarded and preserved in Penzance so that the community, researchers and visitors can fully access it and be inspired by it.
We will continue to grow and include items that reflect the thoughts, feelings and experiences of people in the community today, particularly in response to the natural world and the climate emergency.
Through many projects such as Morrab Memories, we will record the voices and stories of the community around us making sure we don’t lose this important local information and connections.
A Green Hub
We will provide connection for Penzance’s network of green environmental groups, and will become a base for Sustainable Penzance. In addition, our activities will support their target themes of climate action.
Our Sensory Garden
The Sensory Garden, made possible by generous funding from the Tanner Phoenix Trust through the Cornwall Community Fund, will be created in the area between the Gardeners’ House and Pengarth Day Centre.
It will give a tranquil safe space where people can reconnect with nature and hopes to enhance the lives of older people, particularly those living with dementia.
We will develop a range of people and plant-based activities including a Social and Therapeutic Horticulture programme to bring our heritage alive, reaching children right through to elders with particular focus on benefits for local dementia patients and users of the Pengarth Day Centre.
Our Community Art Project
The Gardeners’ House renovation will also include a community art project led by artists Jane Darke and Andrew Tebbs, working with the community to create designs inspired by illustrations and objects from the archive.
Local craftspeople will then be commissioned to recreate these designs in stone, metal and wood that will feature in the Sensory Garden.
