Cornwall: history, surnames and society, from Bernard Deacon
There was no question about Cornwall’s leading economic sector in the mid-1800s. In terms of income, productivity and employment it was metal mining. The early 1860s marked the peak of Cornish mining. Deep copper mining had broken out of its eighteenth-century heartland west of Truro in the 1810s, first to mid-Cornwall in the 1810s and … Continue reading Victorian Cornwall’s leading sector: metal mining
The Redruth RD of the nineteenth century included within its bounds the central mining district. Named such because of its geographical centrality in the emerging eighteenth century industrial region of west Cornwall, the central mining district was also the most prolific producer of tin and copper ore from the early 1700s onwards. Fittingly, after the … Continue reading Camborne-Redruth: Cornwall’s Central Emigration District
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
Sometimes in the past relationships broke down, as we saw in the case of Jenny Moore from Calstock. Sometimes, no doubt, the laconic entries of census enumerators and registrars may hide family quarrels underlying the departure of a family member. Yet, at other times, those same records can hint at a high level of support … Continue reading From Camborne to Cleckheaton – with family support
This was first posted on Christmas Eve, 2020. 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 … Continue reading Christmas in west Cornwall in 1920
Although it’s proved difficult to find a high proportion of the 11 year olds living in Camborne in 1861 and trace their life-courses through to 1891 most can be traced over the shorter period from 1851 to 1871. This enables us to test a feature that demographers have commonly asserted was present in nineteenth century … Continue reading Short-term family migration
In the previous blog I suggested that many Camborne children in the Victorian Lives database that are yet to be traced had probably emigrated. It may seem contradictory therefore to propose in this blog that a higher proportion of Camborne’s children may have stayed in Camborne when compared with other mining parishes in Cornwall, especially … Continue reading Camborne or California?
At least one child in six in Camborne on our database spent some time overseas. This is likely to be an under-estimate. In nineteenth century Cornish mining parishes, at least a quarter of men, possibly as many as a third, would have spent some time overseas. For women that proportion might be around 15 per … Continue reading Camborne’s overseas connections
It’s becoming apparent that, as expected, the proportion of women we have traced through the census and registration data from 1851 to 1891 is consistently lower than that of men. This is the case despite the generally accepted conclusion that men were much more likely to disappear overseas than women. Overall, of the 921 entries … Continue reading An interim glance at the big picture
Here's the second and final installment of the etchings of west Cornwall drawn by Donald Shaw MacLaughlan in 1919. The first is the most difficult to pin down. Those look like engine houses on the distant horizon. Or is it the monument on Carn Brea? Cornish road The next etching was made near Gwinear. Gwinear … Continue reading More views of Cornwall 100 years ago
Cornish studies resources 