In the 1930s Cornwall County Council officially adopted its coats of arms – the 15 bezants topped by a chough and flanked by a fisherman and a miner, the iconic male occupations of the nineteenth century. Yet, by that time this representation was already far from reality. While the chough was heading for temporary extinction, the number of metal miners in Cornwall had fallen sharply since the early 1870s while fishing was mired in depression in the inter-war period.
At its height in the mid-1800s miners had indeed comprised the largest occupational group, accounting for 30 per cent of men aged 15 to 69 in the 1861 census. But in second place in that year, at 24 per cent, came those working the surface land of Cornwall, farmers, farm labourers, carters, shepherds, ploughmen and the like. Although challenging mining to become the largest employment sector by the 1880s, farmers or their labourers did not make an appearance on the coat of arms.
Although, unlike miners, found in every single Cornish parish, the presence of agriculturists varied considerably across the region. As the map below shows, the most agricultural parishes were located principally in north Cornwall, the least being the towns and the west. To some extent of course, we would expect this also to be a mirror image of the geography of mining, something that can be checked in the next blog.
For a comparison with the contemporary economic structure see here.
Cornish studies resources 