Here's the second and final installment of the etchings of west Cornwall drawn by Donald Shaw MacLaughlan in 1919. The first is the most difficult to pin down. Those look like engine houses on the distant horizon. Or is it the monument on Carn Brea? Cornish road The next etching was made near Gwinear. Gwinear … Continue reading More views of Cornwall 100 years ago
Category: social history
The poor law in Poldark’s days
The following is an extract from Chapter 10 (The Prison) of my The Real World of Poldark: Cornwall 1783-1820. If the gastronomic delights of the free soup were not enough and charities insufficient, the poor could always turn to the official poor relief provided by the state since Elizabethan times .... From the late 1600s, … Continue reading The poor law in Poldark’s days
Views of Cornwall in 1919
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan (1876-1938) was an American artist (although born in Prince Edward Island, Canada). As a young man he followed the trail of many other artists from North America and travelled to Europe, basing himself thereafter mainly in France but travelling widely. Among his journeys he visited Cornwall, where he spent some time around … Continue reading Views of Cornwall in 1919
The gentry at home around 1800
Two hundred years ago life was hard for most people in Cornwall. But for a small minority fortunate enough to own land things could be lot more comfortable. Much time was spent visiting each other's houses. Staying at Tehidy, the home of the Bassets, in 1792 James Boswell described the: astounding variety of alcoholic beverages … Continue reading The gentry at home around 1800
The mystery of the missing Irish
Recent blogs on this site have uncovered migrants from across the Channel who were living in Cornwall in the early 1500s. But what about migrants from the opposite direction, from across the Celtic Sea? There were a handful of people called Welshman in the early records, Walter and John Wylsheman at East Looe and another … Continue reading The mystery of the missing Irish
The Cornish at the Battle of Jutland
From the afternoon of 31st May 1916 into the following day British and German battlefleets clashed off Jutland in the North Sea. Over a hundred of the more than 6,000 from the Royal Navy who lost their lives came from Cornwall. It’s been estimated that three per cent of the British fleet at the Battle … Continue reading The Cornish at the Battle of Jutland
Boswell’s 1792 drinking tour of Cornwall
The following is an extract from Chapter 7 ('The plain an gwarry') of my The Real World of Poldark: Cornwall 1783-1820. Drink and the public house were accepted as central to popular culture in the eighteenth century. The involvement of publicans in the national sport of wrestling has already been noted. Many pubs would also … Continue reading Boswell’s 1792 drinking tour of Cornwall
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
The bells! The bells!
A sound that I’ve not heard for some time on my regular Sunday morning bike rides through the back lanes of Cornwall has been that of church bells. Social distancing has meant that the ringers cannot get together in the church towers to ring. Moreover, there’s been no Sunday services until recently, so the point … Continue reading The bells! The bells!
The Falmouth ‘Mutiny’ of 1810
‘serious spirit of insubordination’ On October 24, 1810, customs officers boarded the two Falmouth packets Prince Adolphus and Duke of Marlborough, which were about to leave port for the Mediterranean and Lisbon. They broke open the chests of the seamen, confiscating any ‘private ventures’ that they discovered. Enraged, the two crews refused to put to … Continue reading The Falmouth ‘Mutiny’ of 1810
Cornish studies resources 