From around 1100 to the 1330s Cornwall’s population tripled, from under 30,000 to a peak of around 100,000. After a few decades of stability, the Black Death in the middle of the 1300s turned population growth into fall. In fact numbers in Cornwall steadily declined to a low of around 60,000 by the beginning of … Continue reading Where was Cornish spoken in the middle ages?
Category: demography
Ten more surnames
The ten surnames below ranked 31st to 40th in the list of the most common surnames in Cornwall in 1861, just before the peak of emigration (and a century before mass immigration began). We're now beginning to meet more variation in the type of surname we're encountering, with the first occupational names and nicknames making … Continue reading Ten more surnames
Cornwall’s top surnames: the list continues
We’ve seen a list of the 20 or so commonest surnames in the nineteenth century. But what about the others? Over the next few months when I have time I’ll post the top 200 names (combining spelling variants as far as possible) in batches of ten, with their supposed type and the number of households … Continue reading Cornwall’s top surnames: the list continues
Penzance: end of the line
A wet day in Market Jew Street, Penzance, 1890 We have reached the final registration district (RD) in this tour of Cornwall’s nineteenth century districts and their migration patterns. Penzance was Cornwall’s most westerly RD but had a somewhat more diverse economic structure in the 1800s than its immediate neighbours. Although there were miners, particularly … Continue reading Penzance: end of the line
Truro: Cornwall’s ‘county’ town
Truro is now Cornwall’s premier town, leading the way in the transformation of Cornwall into a ‘home county’ by the sea. Its residents might prefer to call it a city though, courtesy of the cathedral built there in the 1880s after an Anglican diocese was restored to Cornwall. A population of just under 19,000 in … Continue reading Truro: Cornwall’s ‘county’ town
St Austell: the clay effect
In the early 1800s St Austell differed little from the other small market towns typical of east Cornwall. Its fortunes were however about to be transformed by the expansion of copper mines to its east and then clay works in the hills to the north. Nonetheless, the population of the urban district of St Austell … Continue reading St Austell: the clay effect
St Columb: life before Newquay
Children born in the St Columb Registration District (RD) around 1850 grew up at a time when Newquay was a small fishing and trading village. Newquay’s population was still under 3,000 as late as 1901. It then grew rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century to overshadow the market town of St Columb … Continue reading St Columb: life before Newquay
Bodmin: from stay at homes to population boom
In 1961, the population of the market town of Bodmin was just over 6,000. The previous half-century had only seen a small increase of less than 1,000 on its 1901 population of 5,300. Nonetheless, it was larger than its east Cornish rivals at Launceston and Liskeard. But this was not enough. Local politicians were seduced … Continue reading Bodmin: from stay at homes to population boom
Liskeard: Just passing through?
Let’s return to the Cornish Victorian Lives database. Liskeard Registration District (RD) was large in terms of area and, relative to the other eastern RDs, population. Like the Calstock/Callington sub-district that was reviewed in the previous post and unlike the RDs to its north and east, it had been more than touched by mining operations. … Continue reading Liskeard: Just passing through?
State of the nation: Population change
Back in 1961 Cornwall and Scilly were home to around 340,000 people. The population then began to rise sharply. By the end of this century on current trends it will be knocking on the door of a million, or 990,000 to be exact. While that’s likely to be the least of our worries if ‘business … Continue reading State of the nation: Population change
Cornish studies resources 