Here at the Charles Causley Trust, we are lucky enough to have in our possession a range of photographs and items once belonging to Causley himself – allowing us to unravel our beloved poet’s life story and inspiration behind his poems and writing.
However, these artefacts, photographs and objects piecing together Causley’s story currently sit in an unofficial archive spread between our living museum at Cyprus Well, the Lawrence House Museum in Launceston, and Exeter University.
We are working with a number of agencies and stakeholders to expand on this and are looking for artefacts to increase the Trust’s digital and oral history archive. We started embarking on this journey at the beginning of 2021 and hope the project can be achieved within the year.
This is where you, our loyal supporters, lovers of Causley and Launceston, and enthusiasts of history and literature as a whole can help.
Charles Causley was, of course, a renowned poet and was well-acquainted with the likes of Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney and Siegfried Sassoon.
But closer to home – his beloved hometown of Launceston – he was once a pupil and a teacher of the National School. Here, he taught hundreds of Launceston residents who still hold Causley dear to their childhood memories, and many of whom have drawn inspiration from him for their own creativity.
He was also a popular character within the community, who no doubt had an impact on many people who still live in Launceston today.
If you own and have rights to any Causley photographs or items that may be of interest to our image archive project, we would love to hear from you.
We are seeking permission to scan and take photographs of any of these artefacts so we can use this and expand our archive, not only for enhancing Causley’s history within Launceston, but to inspire future generations to read Causley’s work and give writing a go themselves.
If you have something that may be of interest to our project, please email Ellie, marketing@causleytrust.org with some information about your artefact.
