Bygones

Ken Cuming's railway hobby outgrew the house: in 1986 he bought a 27-ton steam locomotive from Falmouth Docks — Patricia, still the anchor of the whole display — and in May 1987 opened Bygones in a converted St Marychurch cinema. Three generations of Cumings have run it since, across three floors: a life-size recreated Victorian street with a forge and a sweetshop, fifteen shop displays, nine period rooms, a model railway, and trench and home-front exhibits from the wars — more than two thousand genuine artefacts spanning the Victorians to the 1960s. Open daily except Christmas Day, with a Friday discount for West Country residents.