St Austell: the clay effect

In the early 1800s St Austell differed little from the other small market towns typical of east Cornwall. Its fortunes were however about to be transformed by the expansion of copper mines to its east and then clay works in the hills to the north. Nonetheless, the population of the urban district of St Austell … Continue reading St Austell: the clay effect →

St Columb: life before Newquay

Children born in the St Columb Registration District (RD) around 1850 grew up at a time when Newquay was a small fishing and trading village. Newquay’s population was still under 3,000 as late as 1901. It then grew rapidly in the first half of the twentieth century to overshadow the market town of St Columb … Continue reading St Columb: life before Newquay →

Bodmin: from stay at homes to population boom

In 1961, the population of the market town of Bodmin was just over 6,000. The previous half-century had only seen a small increase of less than 1,000 on its 1901 population of 5,300. Nonetheless, it was larger than its east Cornish rivals at Launceston and Liskeard. But this was not enough. Local politicians were seduced … Continue reading Bodmin: from stay at homes to population boom →

Liskeard: Just passing through?

Let’s return to the Cornish Victorian Lives database. Liskeard Registration District (RD) was large in terms of area and, relative to the other eastern RDs, population. Like the Calstock/Callington sub-district that was reviewed in the previous post and unlike the RDs to its north and east, it had been more than touched by mining operations. … Continue reading Liskeard: Just passing through? →

State of the nation: religion

Easter may not be the most appropriate time to mention this. However, we are now living, for the first time in around 1,300 years, in a Cornwall where Christians find themselves in a minority. In the 2021 census Christians in Cornwall were outnumbered (just) by those claiming no religious beliefs. While the proportions are still … Continue reading State of the nation: religion →

Speculations on the swift: celebrating Charles Morton

At this time of the year, bird-watchers will begin to feel a keen sense of anticipation as they await the first sign of migrant birds returning to our skies. Particularly fascinating are the swifts, those black birds with sickle-shaped wings who swoop and swerve above our heads, their distinctive cries alerting us to their presence … Continue reading Speculations on the swift: celebrating Charles Morton →

State of the nation: Population change

Back in 1961 Cornwall and Scilly were home to around 340,000 people. The population then began to rise sharply. By the end of this century on current trends it will be knocking on the door of a million, or 990,000 to be exact. While that’s likely to be the least of our worries if ‘business … Continue reading State of the nation: Population change →

State of the nation: identity

In 2021 79,941 of Cornwall’s residents went to the trouble of writing ‘Cornish’ in their response to the census question on national identity. Another 9,031 wrote ‘Cornish’ while also checking the tick-box for ‘British’. Together these accounted for 15.6% of residents. This was an increase of about 16,000 on the 13.8% who declared a Cornish … Continue reading State of the nation: identity →

St Germans and Calstock: contrasting patterns of migration

The civil servants who drew up boundaries of registration districts in the 1830s were surprisingly modernist. They took scant regard of the boundaries of traditional counties, unchanged for centuries, crossing them whenever they wanted. Launceston Registration District (RD) for example included parishes in west Devon while Calstock was for a time part of the Tavistock … Continue reading St Germans and Calstock: contrasting patterns of migration →

State of the Cornish nation: pay

What’s been happening to wages and salaries in Cornwall recently? The gross weekly pay of full-time workers in Cornwall, although still languishing behind that of Britain as a whole, has been catching up since 2021. Time will tell whether this is a post-covid short-term blip or whether it means the long-awaited ‘high-wage economy’ that policy-makers … Continue reading State of the Cornish nation: pay →