The third quarter of the 1800s was a time of profound social change at Linkinhorne, a parish to the east of Bodmin Moor. It was on the edge of the district that experienced a mining boom from the 1830s to the late 1860s. As a result, its population almost tripled during those years as miners … Continue reading Linkinhorne: born out of wedlock
Category: demography
Marriage horizons on Scilly
In Cornwall in the Victorian period people tended to find their marriage partners within a six to ten mile radius, a distance largely unchanged since medieval times. But when most of that six to ten miles is water and the choice heavily skewed towards fish and seals, what did people do? What were the marriage … Continue reading Marriage horizons on Scilly
The call of the Carrick Roads
Falmouth’s deep natural harbour, the growth of the Atlantic trade and the presence of the Post Office’s packet ships had led to boom times in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Ships called in from all over the world, their crew and passengers disembarking in the town. As a result, it’s sometimes claimed that Falmouth … Continue reading The call of the Carrick Roads
‘Away in America’
In the early nineteenth century Crowan was a booming mining parish. Its population rose from just under 2,600 in 1801 to peak at over 4,600 in the mid-1840s. Well over half of the households with a male head were working in or on the mines in 1851. While the slumps of the later 1860s and … Continue reading ‘Away in America’
Victorian Cornwall’s boom parish
To find Cornwall’s boom town in the mid-nineteenth century we have to look east, as far east as we can go and still be in Cornwall, to Calstock on the tidal reaches of the Tamar. In 1851, when the folk in the Victorian Lives database were 11 years old, Calstock was in the middle of … Continue reading Victorian Cornwall’s boom parish
The rise and fall of Wheal Vor
Breage is the first major mining parish on our list. Although its glory days had passed, 60 per cent of the 54 children in the Victorian Lives database living in the parish in 1861 had been born into mining families. In the 1850s Wheal Vor was the major mine in the parish, employing over 1,000 … Continue reading The rise and fall of Wheal Vor
Visiting the Victorians: nineteenth-century Cornish life-cycles
In the 1800s why did some of our ancestors decide to leave for overseas and others go to places in the British Isles? Why did some stay put? How much was movement determined by factors such as occupation, gender, place of birth or upbringing? (For an overall summary of Cornish migration see the article below.) … Continue reading Visiting the Victorians: nineteenth-century Cornish life-cycles
The French connection
Last week we saw that Cornwall was the temporary home for many hundreds of young Bretons in the period from the 1460s to the 1540s. But Brittany was not the only country of origin for those who flocked to Cornwall in this period in search of work and a better life. While well over 95% … Continue reading The French connection
Economic migrants from Brittany in early 16th century Cornwall
The lay subsidies of the early 1500s are lists of taxpayers. In the published versions (1524-25 and 1543-44) we find entries such as John Breton, at Truro in 1525. John was also classed as an ‘alien’. These entries therefore provide us with a valuable insight into the presence of Bretons in the Cornwall of the … Continue reading Economic migrants from Brittany in early 16th century Cornwall
‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s
The 1840s was the first decade for over a century in which population growth in Cornwall, fuelled by the growth of mining, abruptly slowed down. In the 1840s mass emigration began from Cornwall to places overseas. But that overseas movement, stimulated by the economic difficulties of the later 1840s, has masked a parallel contemporary migration … Continue reading ‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s
Cornish studies resources 