Thomas Laity was born into a large mining family in the village of Praze in Crowan. His father William was a miner, as was his oldest brother while two grown-up sisters worked as bal maidens. There is some suggestion that his parents had migrated during the depressed years of the late 1840s, as his sister … Continue reading Praze people
‘Away in America’
In the early nineteenth century Crowan was a booming mining parish. Its population rose from just under 2,600 in 1801 to peak at over 4,600 in the mid-1840s. Well over half of the households with a male head were working in or on the mines in 1851. While the slumps of the later 1860s and … Continue reading ‘Away in America’
The long arm of the law
Some of those in our Victorian Lives database had parents with backgrounds that were more out of the ordinary than others. Alfred Preston was one. We meet Alfred’s mother, before Alfred had been born, in Bodmin Jail in November 1848. Mary Ann Preston, then aged 22, and her brother Thomas, a 19 year-old sawyer, were … Continue reading The long arm of the law
A clerk from Creed
Creed is another in a run of smaller parishes in mid-Cornwall that remind us that Cornwall in the mid-1800s was not all mining. Creed was a rural parish of 55 households in 1851 next to the small borough of Grampound with two thirds of those households dependent on farming or farm labouring for their livelihoods. … Continue reading A clerk from Creed
From Crantock sailor to Camborne grocer?
Elizabeth Jane Jolley was the first child of John and Elizabeth, a young married couple living at Trevallack in St Columb Minor in 1851. By 1861 John and Elizabeth together with Elizabeth Jane and three other children, were living at Trewolla in Crantock, to the west of Newquay. Short moves were frequent, as the presence … Continue reading From Crantock sailor to Camborne grocer?
An Irish connection
Cornelly was one of Cornwall’s smallest nineteenth century parishes. Tucked away between Truro and St Austell on the edge of the Roseland peninsula, its population peaked at 170 in 1831, fell abruptly in the following decade and had almost halved by the end of the century. Viewed as too small to be viable, It was … Continue reading An Irish connection
Harriet Rodda and the wild west
Harriet Rodda grew up at Colley Cliff, overlooking the Tamar River in the parish of Calstock. Her father was a miner, originally from the west, who had moved east to mid-Cornwall in the tin mining slump of the late 1840s. Harriet was herself employed as a tin dresser at a nearby mine by the time … Continue reading Harriet Rodda and the wild west
Quiet Colan
Colan is a small parish wedged between Newquay to the west and St Columb to the east. Now in the path of Newquay as it sprawls eastwards, gobbling up the countryside as it goes, Colan in the mid-1800s was a quiet, out of the way place. It contributes just two children to the Victorian Lives … Continue reading Quiet Colan
Contrasts at Constantine
Nineteenth century Constantine was a parish of contrasts. North of the village granite quarries pockmarked the southern edges of the Carnmenellis upland and gave employment to many. To the south, rich farmland fell away to the woods and creeks of the Helford estuary. Workers at Bosahan Quarry in the parish Ann Williams was the daughter … Continue reading Contrasts at Constantine
Christmas day in the workhouse and a corn mill in Cardinham
Four month old George Cornish was one of the inmates of Bodmin workhouse in 1851. He was probably the illegitimate child of Mary Ann Cornish, also in the workhouse and described as a farm servant. George’s birthplace was given as St Columb, suggesting he had been born outside the workhouse but that Mary had had … Continue reading Christmas day in the workhouse and a corn mill in Cardinham
Cornish studies resources 