Despite the number of domestic servants at work in Truro, only two 11 year old girls from our database who were living in Kenwyn in 1861 and have been traced through to 1891 were working as domestic servants in 1871. Disappointing but not surprising as domestic servants with no family present to help track them … Continue reading Truro: The life of servants, part 2
Category: social history
Truro: The life of servants, part 1
Our next parish - Kenwyn - is a bit of a hybrid. In the nineteenth century half of its people lived in Truro with the usual mix of urban occupations. The other half lived in the countryside to the west and north of the town, where mining was the major concern at mid-century. Kenwyn’s urban … Continue reading Truro: The life of servants, part 1
Kea: when the fish and tin had gone, what did the Cornish boys do?
When South Crofty mine closed in the late 1990s some poignant graffiti appeared on a wall. So what did ‘Cornish boys’ do when the mines were no longer the obvious career route? One option, as we have seen, was to follow the mines overseas. Another was to stay put, or move within the UK, and … Continue reading Kea: when the fish and tin had gone, what did the Cornish boys do?
Jacobstow: Go west young man? Or perhaps south.
From the Isles of Scilly, we jump to the northern end of Cornwall. As befits a farming parish, all three of the Jacobstow children of 1861 who appear in the Victorian Lives database and who have been traced to at least 1891 were living on farms in 1861. Not that a farming life was the … Continue reading Jacobstow: Go west young man? Or perhaps south.
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
Some short lives at Illogan
Not every Cornish miner died young. On the other hand not many lived to their allotted span of three score years and ten. The median age of miners in Illogan parish in 1861 was just 24. This means that half the miners were younger than 24 and the other half older. The Cornish mines workforce … Continue reading Some short lives at Illogan
Portreath: Illogan’s industrial port
The parish of Illogan is in the heart of what was once called Cornwall’s Central Mining District, serving as a useful barrier between the towns of Camborne and Redruth. It is the location of South Crofty, the last working Cornish tin mine, which closed in the early 1990s. On the coast we find Portreath, formerly … Continue reading Portreath: Illogan’s industrial port
Hallelujah! Helston praises the Lord
Religion played an inescapable part in the lives of the Cornish of the Victorian period. By modern standards attendance at church or, more usually, chapel was incredibly high, although contemporaries were appalled that only around a half of adults attended church in 1851 when there was a religious census. A wealth of social events were … Continue reading Hallelujah! Helston praises the Lord
Helland and the pull of Devon
The name Helland is, despite its appearance, thoroughly Cornish, from hen lan, meaning old or ancient holy site. The parish, tucked between Bodmin to the south and Bodmin Moor to the east, was one of Cornwall’s smallest in terms of population. In 1861 there were no miners at all there and four out of five … Continue reading Helland and the pull of Devon
Overcrowding at Gwithian
In the mid-1800s Gwithian, on the eastern shore of St Ives Bay, was a quiet backwater, before dynamite works made it rather noisier for a short time from the 1880s. The expanse of bleak towans bordering the sea was home to wildlife not people, while seals basked undisturbed in the coves near Godrevy Point. It … Continue reading Overcrowding at Gwithian
Cornish studies resources 