A spotlight on our
Women in Cornwall
volunteers

Women in Cornwall is The Hypatia Trust’s online archive documenting the lives and achievements of women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The archive is maintained by the expertise and enthusiasm of a small team of volunteer editors.

Abbey (pictured left) and Layla (pictured right) joined Women in Cornwall earlier this year, and they are currently providing research support for The Sanctuary – Mousehole Wild Bird Hospital, a project by Barbara Santi of awen productions CIC, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. The project celebrates the remarkable sisters Dorothy and Phyllis Yglesias, who dedicated their lives to saving wild birds.

Barbara Santi approached The Hypatia Trust to be a partner in the work due to the exciting synergies between the project and our work here at the Trust, in particular our Women in Cornwall archive in which the Yglesias sisters feature. This audio-visual project rediscovers their story, exploring historical and contemporary narratives about wildlife, ornithology, community and conservation.

Layla has found her research, cataloguing and close reading around the Yglesias sisters enriching. For Layla “the word ‘sanctuary’ becomes symbolically more pertinent in a time in which populations, human and non-human, are forced into climate or conflict-driven migration”. Layla grew up in Cornwall, then moved away to study English and Film and later Literature and Visual Culture in Brighton. She travelled and lived in London on and off for a decade before moving back to Cornwall, to Penzance, where she works as an educator. Layla speaks of a strong connection to a photograph of Dorothy Yglesias releasing a shearwater: “[Dorothy] holds the bird aloft, eyes cast up to the sky, her face in a sort of rapture. The picture seems to capture the spirit of what the sisters set out to do, provide sanctuary and then freedom to non-human animals”.

Abbey studied for a BA and then an MA in Photography at Falmouth University, and now lives in Penzance. For The Sanctuary Abbey is scanning and documenting original photographs and archival material from the Yglesias sisters’ lives, along with taking new photographs for the project. “My interests branch between nature and the arts” says Abbey “so this has been incredibly fascinating for me. It’s given me a valuable insight into the sisters and their innovation, empathy, and drive - as well as the less widely known artistic talents of Phyllis Yglesias”. Abbey’s work for Women in Cornwall is research-based, with a specific focus on women in the arts and activism - “I find it rewarding to give a pedestal to these incredible women and to make their stories more accessible. It’s especially exciting to help inform and inspire the local population”, which is a great way to think about the common ground between The Sanctuary and Women in Cornwall.

For more information on the The Sanctuary – Mousehole Wild Bird Hospital visit:
https://awen.org.uk/films-projects/sanctuary-mousehole-wild-bird-hospital

For information on volunteering with our archive team please visit: