Most modern employment classifications treat mining and quarrying as a single economic sector. So how many more workers did clay extraction and quarrying add to the mining and quarrying sector in 1861? The answer is not that many when compared with the dominant mining for copper, tin, lead and other minerals. While metal mines accounted … Continue reading Digging for riches: not just miners but quarriers
Tag: granite
Falmouth: port and people
Falmouth was, and is, different, often cited as the atypical Cornish town. More than any other place in Cornwall, Falmouth’s horizons seem to look outwards rather than inwards. It emerged late, a new town of the seventeenth century nestling on the sheltered western side of the Fal estuary and quickly elbowing aside its older medieval … Continue reading Falmouth: port and people
Mabe: the granite parish
They used to say that Cornish people had a core of granite. Amenable on the surface, they could be as hard as that rock, resistant and stubborn, standing their ground when pushed too far. If Cornishness entails the possession of a heart of granite, then Mabe could be said to be the quintessentially Cornish parish. … Continue reading Mabe: the granite parish
Cornwall’s granite backbone
Cornwall’s central spine is made up of four granite outcrops, from Bodmin Moor in the east through Hensbarrow and Carnmenellis to West Penwith at the Land’s End. It is said that every Cornish person also has a granite core. Easy-going on the surface, we can be obstinate and unmoveable if pushed too far. Cornishmen combined … Continue reading Cornwall’s granite backbone
Cornish studies resources 