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THIS OBJECT IS PART OF THE PROJECT 'A HISTORY OF CORNWALL IN 100 OBJECTS'.

LISKEARD AND DISTRICT MUSEUM. Henry Rice started out as a land surveyor and architect who went on to transform Liskeard. He had a strong social conscience and made frequent sanitary inspections of the densely populated and poverty-stricken courts where the poor lived. His findings were recorded in his Nuisance notebooks, which make fascinating, if sometimes gruesome, reading. As a result the corporation made him Inspector of Nuisances. He also brought piped water and sewers to the town.

Born in Kenwyn parish, Rice was a farmer's son and staunch Methodist who lived the whole of his adult life in Liskeard. Over 100 of his buildings, mostly in the Classical style, survive. Rice had two goes at Foresters' Hall, now the museum. In 1835 he built a lecture room and savings bank, and in 1861 added an Italianate façade that would have appealed to John Ruskin.

Photo: Bernie Pettersen