Morvah is easily overlooked. It’s one of Cornwall’s smallest parishes, hidden deep in West Penwith and comfortably tucked between St Just and Zennor. In the 1861 census Morvah unusually recorded only one labourer among its working age men. This was more a result of the very small holdings that needed little help beyond the immediate … Continue reading Morvah: the parish with no labourers
Category: social history
Minster: coast, customers and Canada
Minster includes the northern side of the village of Boscastle within its boundaries. Now a tourist honey-pot, Boscastle was a quiet and remote village in 1861. Although the parish of Minster had 500 inhabitants in that year it only gives us three cases for the Victorian Lives database. The harbour at Boscastle in the 1890s … Continue reading Minster: coast, customers and Canada
Michaelstow: stay around or seek new ground? Contrasting lives from a farming community
Michaelstow is one of those often-overlooked farming parishes of north Cornwall, in this case situated just south of the small town of Camelford. In the 1800s its people got their living mainly from the farms of the parish, with little to interrupt the annual round of ploughing, sowing and harvesting as one year segued drowsily … Continue reading Michaelstow: stay around or seek new ground? Contrasting lives from a farming community
Mevagissey: from Cornish fishing village to the city that never sleeps
Victorian Mevagissey has been described as a place ‘dependent on the sea’, with the majority of its men employed as fishermen, boatbuilders and mariners. If we include the whole parish rather than just the coastal settlement this is a slight exaggeration. In fact, almost a half of the parish's adult men in 1861 found work … Continue reading Mevagissey: from Cornish fishing village to the city that never sleeps
All change for Merther’s craftsmen
Merther was a small farming parish of fewer than 400 people in 1861; it’s just east of Truro and includes part of the village of Tresillian. However, none of the three Merther children of 1861 who made it into the Victorian Lives database came from a farming background. Instead, all three - two boys and … Continue reading All change for Merther’s craftsmen
Menheniot: gateway to the world
Menheniot, to the south-east of Liskeard in east Cornwall, was a boom and bust parish of the mid-Victorian period. The population soared by almost 60 per cent in the 1840s before peaking in the early 1860s. It then fell by over a half in the next 30 years. People were attracted to the parish by … Continue reading Menheniot: gateway to the world
Mawnan’s emigrants – triggering cultural transformation
Mawnan is now famed for the gardens that flourish on the south-facing slopes running down to the Helford estuary, places such as Glendurgan, Trebah and Carwinion. These were founded in the 1800s, often by various members of the Fox family from nearby Falmouth who built their country houses in this verdant parish blessed by mild … Continue reading Mawnan’s emigrants – triggering cultural transformation
Mawgan in Pydar: Lanherne, London and leaving the shores
Lanherne House The secluded and wooded Vale of Lanherne running inland from Mawgan Porth is peaceful these days. But it was a political flashpoint in the late sixteenth century, regarded as the hotbed of Cornish Catholicism. This was the base of the Arundell family which attempted, ultimately without success, to keep the flag of Catholicism … Continue reading Mawgan in Pydar: Lanherne, London and leaving the shores
Mawgan in Meneage and some transoceanic Cornish
Mining parishes may have supplied the bulk of Cornish emigrants but a farming parish such as Mawgan on the gateway to the Lizard peninsula also had its share of emigrants. Moreover, movers from a non-mining background were often more likely to make the move as part of a family group and more likely to perceive … Continue reading Mawgan in Meneage and some transoceanic Cornish
Launcells: crossing the border
One of the small bridges across the Tamar near Launcells now proudly bearing its Kernow sign Rivers can act as boundaries between culture areas. Or they can also bring people from either side of the river together. Launcells was a farming parish on the upper reaches of the River Tamar bordering Devon. The Tamar was … Continue reading Launcells: crossing the border
Cornish studies resources 