ORGANISERS of a heritage event are appealing for further insights into a town’s past.

During September, buildings in Liskeard will be revealing their secrets to the public as part of the national Heritage Open Days.

This year, ‘Liskeard Unlocked’ will celebrate the history of women who worked and ran businesses locally.

Female figures who feature strongly in the town’s past include Alice Matthews, who was a printer and newspaper publisher on Market Street from the 1850s to 1883. She was succeeded by Helen Morcom, who ran the business until 1922.

Other businesswomen who helped shape Liskeard’s commercial activity were Mary Stantan, who ran Stantan’s draper’s shop in Fore Street from the 1860s to 1891, and the Barrett sisters, who lived on Pike Street in 1861. Mary and Emma Barrett were straw bonnet and hat makers.

Susan Deacon and her husband Joseph were managers of the Temperance Hotel on Baytree Hill from 1894 to 1919. And Eliza ‘Madame’ Garland had a photography studio on Fore Street in 1919.

‘We have some information about each of these women but we are looking for more - photos, documents or memories - so we can bring their stories to life,’ said Liskeard Museum volunteer Brian Oldham.

‘We’re also looking more generally for information about straw bonnet making and gansey knitting locally. Do you have an ancestor who did either of these? Do you have any memories, photos, tools or old straw bonnets or ganseys?

‘’Finally, we’re looking for 19th century printing equipment we could photograph or borrow.’

Anyone who could help should contact Brian Oldham by email to [email protected].