Tag: Hancock

St Blazey’s millinery millionaire

In mid-Cornwall just east of St Austell, two out of every three families in the parish of St Blazey in 1851 were dependent on the mining industry for their daily bread. Unfortunately, the local mines, mainly exploiting copper reserves, were not best placed to weather the crisis that hit Cornwall’s copper mines in 1866. By … Continue reading St Blazey’s millinery millionaire →

Clay labouring families at Roche

Roche in mid-Cornwall is on the northern edge of the clay country. At the time the children in our database were born in 1850/51 the extraction of clay was only just beginning to scar the landscape. The creation of the white mountains of the clay country and the sterilisation of many square miles of countryside … Continue reading Clay labouring families at Roche →

Fowey: pirates and policemen

Another parish, another port. Well before Falmouth was anything more than a profitable dream in the minds of the Killigrews, Fowey, 71 nautical miles up the coast, was Cornwall’s major port. Even in the ‘age of the saints’ in post-Roman times, Fowey was well-placed. It was at the southern end of the route across Cornwall … Continue reading Fowey: pirates and policemen →