The parish of Grade on the Lizard peninsula is now combined with its equally small neighbours of Ruan Major and Ruan Minor. In Victorian times however, it still glorified in its independence. The 327 souls in the parish in 1861 got their living principally from farming. As many as 48, or two thirds, of the … Continue reading Grade: the cycle of life – in and out of farming
Category: economic history
Feock’s hidden past
Feock is now one of Cornwall’s posher parishes, with more than its fair share of upmarket housing, retirees and Truro commuters. It wasn’t always so. In 1861 a range of more proletarian occupations were represented in the parish. These included the familiar farmers, agricultural labourers, miners, mariners and shipwrights - with none of these groups … Continue reading Feock’s hidden past
Looe’s migrating fishing families
Arriving at East Looe, we meet the first substantial community of fishing families on our long trek through the Cornish parishes of Victorian times. In fact, according to the 1851 census fewer than one in ten of the adult men in East Looe got their living from fishing. Full-time fishermen (there may have been many … Continue reading Looe’s migrating fishing families
‘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 Truro riot of 1796
Food riots, where crowds gathered to demand a supply of staple foodstuffs, reduce their price or prevent their export, became commonplace in Cornwall over the course of the 1700s. One of the most serious occurred at Truro in 1796. After this, one participant - John Hoskin, also known as 'Wild Cat', was hanged. Here's an … Continue reading The Truro riot of 1796
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
Portreath harbour
As the production of copper from the central mining district around Camborne and Redruth soared in the eighteenth century local mine investors and landlords were confronted by transport bottlenecks. It was becoming ever more difficult to import enough coal to feed the growing number of steam engines, or to export the copper ore quickly and … Continue reading Portreath harbour
Worst in Britain? Cornish roads 200 years ago
Maybe it was the penny-pinching of the parishes who were responsible for the upkeep of the roads. Maybe it was a question of Cornwall’s hilly topography. But contemporaries were agreed; Cornwall’s roads were atrocious. In 1754 a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine concluded that: Cornwall, I believe, at present has the worst roads in all … Continue reading Worst in Britain? Cornish roads 200 years ago
Cornish studies resources 