Central or southern? Cornwall’s contested railway route

These days we tend to take the route of the current railway mainline in Cornwall from Penzance to Plymouth for granted. But from 1844 to 1846 a heated debate raged about which direction the railway in Cornwall should take. There were already two passenger railways in Cornwall. A short line from Bodmin to Wadebridge had … Continue reading Central or southern? Cornwall’s contested railway route →

Henry Jenner

On this day in 1848 Henry Jenner was born at St Columb. Jenner played a key role in the Cornish ‘revival’ that began in the 1870s and has long been regarded as the patriarch of Cornish revivalism. However, he wasn’t brought up in Cornwall, having been taken with his family to Essex and then Kent … Continue reading Henry Jenner →

Contrasting Cornish surnames from places

Boswarthack or Boswarthick is a surname that I haven’t yet covered in either book or blog. It comes from a place in Constantine parish spelt Boswodek in 1330 and Bosvathek in 1519. This apparently meant a settlement by a water-course or stream. In the 1500s the distribution of the name Bosvathek (also spelt occasionally Boswathek) … Continue reading Contrasting Cornish surnames from places →

Poldark’s Cornwall

Work on an insider’s guide to Poldark’s Cornwall is proceeding apace. A month has passed and I now have first drafts of four chapters. These are The Mine, The Cottage, The Road and The Chapel. In the meantime - a taster from The Mine. ‘pick out the hard ore by the glimmering of a small … Continue reading Poldark’s Cornwall →

The pasty in the 1800s

Two reports illustrate the changing state of the pasty between 1850 and the 1890s. In 1850 the newspaper the Morning Chronicle ran a series of articles on the condition of the poor. One of these concerned Cornwall. The report tells us that the pilchard, one of the staple dietary items in west Cornwall ‘seldom constitutes … Continue reading The pasty in the 1800s →

Maps for the surnames Goad and Gribble

Here are a couple of maps for two surnames that first appeared at a relatively late date. Goad is probably a variant spelling of Coad. It was first recorded in 1638 at Menheniot but didn't start appearing in the registers in any number until the 1670s when it suddenly turned up in multiple locations. Gribell … Continue reading Maps for the surnames Goad and Gribble →

The Cornish chough

The chough is a mysterious bird, in the sense that some of the information on it isn’t that reliable. The Daily Telegraph last week reported that there were now 12 breeding pairs of choughs in Cornwall, brought back by what it called ‘Operation Chough’. The chough, it went on, had been absent in Cornwall since … Continue reading The Cornish chough →

Bert Solomon: sporting hero

Sport is slowly coming back to life. There are even tentative plans to allow limited numbers of spectators to attend events. However, one sport still missing is rugby. As a winter game we wouldn’t normally be thinking of rugby at this time of the year. But as it's Saturday and while we’re waiting to hear … Continue reading Bert Solomon: sporting hero →

Maps for the surnames Johns and Prowse

You can find maps of these in 1861 for comparison here. John was the commonest first name for men in 16th century Cornwall. Remember, if you want information on a surname that hasn’t appeared in my book or been a subject of a previous blog do let me know.