Description

BODMIN

SX0667 LOWER BORE STREET
629-1/2/85 (South side)
Passmore Edwards Free Library and
Institute

GV II

Institute and library. 1895. By Silvanus Trevail. For
benefactor Passmore Edwards.
MATERIALS: coursed squared local rubble with rock-faced
granite plinth, otherwise freestone dressings including
doorway and mullioned windows; mid-floor and 1st-floor sill
strings and gable copings; dry slate roofs with shaped gables,
crested clay ridge tiles.
PLAN: irregular rectangular plan. Gothic style with Dutch
Renaissance features.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys plus attic; symmetrical 1:1:1-bay road
front. Central recessed entrance bay flanked by 2 cross wings
with shaped gables. 2-light window with balcony balustrade on
machicolations over round-arched doorway with vertical-glazed
fanlight and panelled doors; flanking bays with paired
chamfered attic lights with scrolled heads, over 3-light
1st-floor transomed windows with segmental-arched pediments;
ground-floor windows with 4 lights over 2 lights.
INTERIOR: original features include round arches to crossing
vestibule, moulded ceiling cornices and open-well staircase
with open string and turned balusters.
HISTORY: Bodmin is one of 11 libraries and institutes donated
by John Passmore Edwards to his county of birth. The seed-germ
of this great man's philanthropy was possibly created by a
traumatic experience he had at Bodmin, when, "as a young
office boy in Truro he walked to Bodmin and back, twenty miles
each way, to witness the public hanging of two murderers".
Later in life he devoted much energy to denouncing capital
punishment and fighting for its abolition. Silvanus Trevail
(1851-1903) designed 6 buildings for John Passmore Edwards in
Cornwall. He was a prolific architect who, apart from other
buildings, designed 36 schools in Cornwall and eventually
became President of the RIBA in 1901.
(Best R S: The Life and Good Works of John Passmore Edwards:
Redruth: 1981-: 12, 45).

Listing NGR: SX0675067055

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26585733

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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