Category: poverty

The Old Poor Law in Gwennap

In the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, politicians made the workhouse the centrepiece of the New Poor Law, a more ‘efficient’ and cheaper way to relieve the poor in England, Wales and Cornwall. Workhouses were intended to discipline the poor by forcing idlers to work and shirkers to become strivers. But in practice, they … Continue reading The Old Poor Law in Gwennap →

Population growth and gentrification, marine tourism and a 15th century social climber

Here's the final set of brief summaries providing links to recent reviews of academic literature on Cornwall. You're now (almost) up to speed. In an important article on contemporary Cornwall Joanie Willett shows how population growth and gentrification have failed to solve Cornwall's endemic socio-economic difficulties while exacerbating a growing housing crisis and fragmenting local … Continue reading Population growth and gentrification, marine tourism and a 15th century social climber →

Wrestling, life-struggle Cornwall and Daphne du Maurier

Have patience. Just one to go. The penultimate in my series of very short summaries of academic work on Cornwall linked to somewhat longer reviews. Mike Tripp recounts the nineteenth century rise and fall of Cornish wrestling, brought down mainly by emigration, depopulation and the practice of 'faggoting', or match-fixing. Ella Westland argues that in … Continue reading Wrestling, life-struggle Cornwall and Daphne du Maurier →

Cornish language, the care community and witches

In case you missed a series of (mostly) short reviews of a selection of recent academic literature that I put on this site in the latter part of 2023 here's a one-sentence summary of each to save you having to read them. To make it digestible I'll limit it to three and drip in the … Continue reading Cornish language, the care community and witches →

Christmas in west Cornwall in 1920

This was first posted on Christmas Eve, 2020. What was Christmas like around a hundred years ago? Let’s look at the Cornishman newspaper in 1920 for a few clues. Overall, it was generally quiet. At Penzance it was reported as ‘celebrated somewhat quietly’ while over at Helston it also ‘passed off very quietly’. We might … Continue reading Christmas in west Cornwall in 1920 →

Calamity at Coppathorne

On a cold morning in early November 1820 in the small hamlet of Coppathorne in Poundstock parish in north Cornwall, my great-great-great grandfather Thomas Rodd might have been found getting ready to go out to his job labouring at a nearby farm. Thomas had been born to the east in the border parish of North … Continue reading Calamity at Coppathorne →

Trewen: some prospered; some didn’t

Trewen is another of those easily missed small farming parishes west of Launceston. However, not all of its inhabitants in the 1850s were farmers or farm labourers. William and Ann Staddon had moved from east Devon to South Petherwin to the east of Trewen in the late 1840s. They were described in 1851 as schoolmaster … Continue reading Trewen: some prospered; some didn’t →