The Cornwall Heritage Award winners for 2025 announced
The annual awards which celebrates venues across Cornwall that help preserve culture and heritage have named their winners!
The winners of this year’s Cornwall Heritage Awards have been announced – including the 2025 Object of the Year.
In the 2025 Object of the Year category, six historic treasures were put forward by museums, galleries and historic organisations across Cornwall.
A total of 1,600 people voted for their favourite, the today the winner has has been announced; an ingenious cork life-jacket that was designed 200 years ago following a tragedy off the Cornish coast.
The life-saving equipment, developed by Henry Trengrouse, was nominated by the Museum of Cornish Life in Helston.
The award also received other nominations, such as:
• A 27-foot-long bus called Poppy
• A glistening ornament crafted from Cornish tin
• A painting capturing Cornwall's maritime spirit which inspired Daphne Du Maurier's first novel
• An ingenious reel that helped prevent drownings across Devon and Cornwall
• A shepherd’s lantern belonging to Cornish poet Reverand R.S. Hawker, author of The Song of the Western Men which became the lyrics for the great Cornish anthem Trelawny
An awards ceremony was held in Liskeard on Monday, March 17, during which various awards were given to museums and heritage organisations that help preserve and promote Cornwall’s unique identity and celebrate its past.
The full winners for this year are:
Collaboration (smaller venues): Mevagissey and District Museum, RNLI Bicentenary Celebration
Collaboration (larger venues): Kresen Kernow, Our History, Our Future – exhibition and contemporary collecting
Innovation (smaller venues): Rame Conservation Trust, Creative Enterprise Hub
Innovation (larger venues): Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, Mineral Gallery Renovation
Best Project on a Budget: St Ives Museum, Celebrating, The Centenary of St. Ives Museum
Heritage Heroes: Cornwall Heritage Trust, Young Rangers; Climate Action Youth Group
Leader of the Year: The Castle Heritage Centre, Bude, Mark Berridge
One to Watch: PK Porthcurno Museum of Global Communications, Jack Foster
Exhibition of the Year (smaller venues): Liskeard & District Museum, Threads: capturing memories woven in fabric
Exhibition of the Year (larger venues): Penlee House Gallery, Flora: 150 Years of Environmental Change, curated by Kurt Jackson