Children of all ages and their friends are invited to join in the celebrations and discover the people who lived in the Falmouth area in the past at a special Family Fun Day to be held at The Poly on Saturday between 11am and 4pm.

Activities will include art and crafts, Victorian dressing up, music making and much more. In the morning, visitors will be able to handle objects from the Maritime Museum and young history detectives from the 10th Falmouth Guides will be on hand all day to tell people what they discovered about Victorian shopkeepers.

The winners of the Fun in Falmouth children’s art competition will be announced by Falmouth's mayor, Grenville Chappel at 1.30pm. There are some great prizes up for grabs thanks to the support of Fal River Cornwall, Scruffy Mutt Theatre, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, English Heritage and The Poly, plus special History Week medals created by 3D Kernow.

The judges have selected 20 finalists from the almost 200 entries from seven local primary schools. These works of art can be viewed in the Spring Gallery at The Poly between10am and 6pm during History Week.

The shortlisted artists are: Older age group: Ellie Currie, Sam Evans and Lilia Smith, all eight, and Riley Harris, seven, from Marlborough School; Mimi Fellows, eight, of Flushing School; Kayden Jeffery of year four at Penryn Primary Academy; Gracie Mogridge, ten, of Mylor School; Merryn O’Conaill, 11, of King Charles School; Archie Richardson, seven, of Flushing School; Callum Timmins, ten, Falmouth Primary Academy

Younger age group: James Connolly and Theo Hart of year two, and Lucas Gourley and Malakai Naivalumaira, year one, all of Penryn Primary Academy; Cora Garratt, six of Falmouth Primary Academy; Ethan Hassall and Lily Talbot, four, and Emma Husson, five, of Constantine School; and Ana Matthews, four, and Sebastian Trenerry, both of Flushing School.

The fun day will be the grand finale of a week long programme of activities and events for people to discover the history of Falmouth and celebrate Cornish culture hosted by Falmouth History Archive, a community archive based at The Poly. Highlights include a Falmouth Then and Now talk by local historian Michael Bradley, a film screening of Jamaica Inn, a Cornish culture celebration evening of entertainment and a series of free workshops.

Volunteer project co-ordinator, Amanda Rundle said: “We had a brilliant start to the week with over 350 visitors to our Archive Day, with lots more to come for people of all ages. The standard of entries for the art competition was very high and the judges had a tough time selecting the winners. There are some talented young artists out there and we are proud to have the opportunity to display their work during this special history week. We are really looking forward to meeting the artists and other young visitors at the Family Fun Day.”

All activities and events are free or low cost thanks to funding from the National Lottery and everyone is welcome. For further information see The Poly website or the Falmouth History Archive Facebook page.