Passmore Edwards Free Library and Institute
PASSMORE EDWARDS FREE LIBRARY AND INSTITUTE, LOWER BORE STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1298215
- Date first listed:
- 07-Jan-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Passmore Edwards Free Library and Institute
- Statutory Address:
- PASSMORE EDWARDS FREE LIBRARY AND INSTITUTE, LOWER BORE STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-03-18
- Reference:
- IOE01/11955/07
- Rights:
- © Gill Cardy. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1298215
- Date first listed:
- 07-Jan-1994
- List Entry Name:
- Passmore Edwards Free Library and Institute
- Statutory Address 1:
- PASSMORE EDWARDS FREE LIBRARY AND INSTITUTE, LOWER BORE STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- PASSMORE EDWARDS FREE LIBRARY AND INSTITUTE, LOWER BORE STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Bodmin
- National Grid Reference:
- SX 06750 67055
Details
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
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 368027
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Best, R S, The Life and Good Works of John Passmore Edwards, (1981), 12 45
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jul-2026 at 01:53:23.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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