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 have expected that people would have been celebrating … Continue reading Christmas in west Cornwall in 1920 →

Before hereditary surnames there were second names that changed from one generation to the next. Before that, people just had one name. This was the case for most in Cornwall before the mid-1300s. Go back another 200 years to before the arrival of the Normans and we meet the names chosen by Cornish-speaking natives. Into … Continue reading Cornish names before the conquest →

Why exactly would someone in the 13th or 14th centuries be given a nickname from a type of fish? Yet this is one of the possible explanations provided for the origin of Basset, from bass. Possibly more credible is a derivation from Middle English or Old French bass, meaning low, short or humble. The name … Continue reading Three Cornish surnames from nicknames →

Two booklets have appeared recently on the subject of the Cornish language and here I provide a review and summary of them. Rod Lyon’s Colloquial doesn’t mean Corrupt: Observations on contemporary revived Cornish is a searing indictment of the stilted and unconvincing spoken Cornish of many Cornish users. This is something Rod argues is the … Continue reading The Cornish language: polemics and plans →