Most mining parishes in Cornwall saw at least a quarter of the generation born in the mid-nineteenth century leave for places overseas. In that regard Wendron was no exception. In 1861 around two thirds of its adult men were employed in the mines of the parish, most of them in pursuit of tin. By the … Continue reading Wendron: two exceptional emigrants
Category: social history
Week St Mary: old crafts and new
The parish of Week St Mary was a typical north Cornish farming parish in the mid-1800s. Yet it had known better days. The village which shared its name with the parish was the site of a medieval castle and market. Although the medieval borough never grew into a modern town, it was the site of … Continue reading Week St Mary: old crafts and new
Warleggan: eccentrics and escapees
At first glance Warleggan looks to be a run of the mill farming parish in east Cornwall running up onto the south west edge of Bodmin Moor. It was spiced up in the mid-1800s by the presence of miners, who accounted for around one in five of the workforce. But the parish is a little … Continue reading Warleggan: eccentrics and escapees
Warbstow: on the brink of pauperism
Warbstow is a relatively remote north Cornwall parish. Quintessential farming country, its rolling hills and valleys were mainly grazed by cows in the later 1800s. The lightly populated farms and hamlets of the parish provided just three children born around 1850 for our database. All three came from labouring families. John Pethick and his wife … Continue reading Warbstow: on the brink of pauperism
Veryan: breaking the rules
Situated on the Roseland peninsula in mid-Cornwall, Veryan in the 1800s was virtually untouched by mining or emigration, unlike the subjects of my two preceding blogs. The majority of its men worked on the farms of this rural parish, although it was relatively more diverse than most farming parishes. Craftsmen accounted for roughly one in … Continue reading Veryan: breaking the rules
Lelant: disturbing the order of things
Why does a parish with a name that begins with an L appear between Tywardreath and Veryan? Did I omit it by mistake last year? No, it’s because Lelant appears in the census as Uny Lelant and is listed as that in my migration database, which I was too lazy to amend. Uny or Euny … Continue reading Lelant: disturbing the order of things
Tywardreath: from Fowey Consols to the Great Western Railway
Tywardreath, between St Austell and Fowey, had seen its population soar after the formation in 1822 of the Fowey Consols copper mine from three older ventures begun in 1817. This mine boomed in the 1830s, attracting workers from a wide area. In the late 1830s and early 1840s the value of Fowey Consol’s output peaked, … Continue reading Tywardreath: from Fowey Consols to the Great Western Railway
Truro: cathedral and clay pipes
Truro’s location had given it a key advantage. The small medieval port was squashed between the two rivers of the Allen and Kenwyn but this was the point where east-west roads could cross the upper reaches of the Fal estuary. Ships could sail as far as the town: in consequence trade grew around its quays. … Continue reading Truro: cathedral and clay pipes
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
Trevalga: unspoilt haven or development opportunity?
Unlike Cornwall’s other tiny tre- parishes, Trevalga is on the north coast, wedged between the small settlements of Boscastle and Tintagel. The farms of this parish had been neatly distributed across the hills and valleys leading inland by Cornwall’s early medieval inhabitants. Meanwhile, its small church and churchtown are hunched down nearer the forbidding cliffs … Continue reading Trevalga: unspoilt haven or development opportunity?
Cornish studies resources 