Married life can sometimes be difficult, in Victorian times as nowadays. In March 1869 Jenny Moore and Edward Bergner were married at St Philip’s Church, Dalston in London. Jenny was Cornish, born in 1850 at Gunnislake, next to the River Tamar, the daughter of a general merchant. But, on his death in the 1860s, his … Continue reading Sex and marriage in Victorian Britain
Category: social history
Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
Another three micro-summaries of reviews ... James Harris digs into expressions of loyalty in Restoration Cornwall and finds they were the result of a well-organised Tory propaganda campaign. In a second article James Harris compares seventeenth century attempts to revive the Cornish language with the situation in south-west Wales and identifies the lack of support … Continue reading Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
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
From Tripcony to Tripp
Browsing back through the older posts on this site it struck me that some of them are well worth a further airing, albeit with some corrections and revisions if necessary. So, for those who may have missed them the first time around, I'll be re-posting some of those that catch my eye. Here's one that … Continue reading From Tripcony to Tripp
Good news and bad
The good news is that the perfect Christmas gift for any proud Cornish man or woman is still available. There is still time to order The Real World of Poldark or The Surnames of Cornwall before Christmas - and at the laughably low price of £9.99 plus postage. The bad news is that, having pegged … Continue reading Good news and bad
Zennor: the end of the road
Back in September 2021 I rashly set out to write a blog on every parish in Cornwall as I worked to complete a database containing information on the life-courses of a sample of over 4,000 Cornish children born around 1850. Finally, with more than a sigh of relief, 243 blogs and over 100,000 words later, … Continue reading Zennor: the end of the road
Withiel: stay at home farmers
One question the Victorian Lives database will help to answer is how the likelihood to emigrate varied by occupation. For instance, a quick check of the current state of the database, probably over 90 per cent complete, shows that of those men who were working in mines in 1871 and had survived to 1891 at … Continue reading Withiel: stay at home farmers
Whitstone: farm labouring and its alternatives in border country
Whitstone is the last of our north Cornish farming parishes. Like its neighbours, in this parish of small villages and hamlets three quarters of the men worked on the farms, with most of the rest employed in a variety of rural crafts, especially smithing and carpentry. Only two of the children born around 1850 and … Continue reading Whitstone: farm labouring and its alternatives in border country
West Looe: the sea, family support and snooker
West Looe sat on the less populous bank of the estuary of the Looe River. The town straggled along the river and up the steep hill leading out into the surrounding countryside. Unlike its bigger brother across the bridge, West Looe had no large community of fishermen and their families in the mid-1800s. There were … Continue reading West Looe: the sea, family support and snooker
Werrington: no money but a naming puzzle
Werrington is a border parish to the north of Launceston. Like most of the surrounding parishes, in the mid-1800s it was a predominantly farming parish, with three quarters of its resident families dependent on the farms for their livelihood. Seven children in our database were living in the parish in 1861, five in farming households, … Continue reading Werrington: no money but a naming puzzle
Cornish studies resources 