Tag: Liskeard

Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 2

By March 1801 the price of food in the market towns of Devon had reached an unbearable level. Residents began to adopt the by now familiar tactics of the food riot – imposing a maximum price at the markets and touring local farms with the aim of ‘encouraging’ farmers to send more grain to market. … Continue reading Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 2 →

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? →

Liskeard’s London connection

In the 1800s thousands of people from Cornwall’s mining communities left to make their way to coal and iron mining districts in the north of England and south Wales. But there was also a strong migration flow to London. Craftsmen and shopworkers were particularly likely to make the move to London, attracted by the greater … Continue reading Liskeard’s London connection →

Liskeard: Victorian Cornwall’s boom town

In the 1830s copper ore reserves were discovered on Caradon Hill on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor near Liskeard. Soon after, in 1843, rich lead deposits were noted to the south east at Menheniot and to the south of the town. In consequence Liskeard became Cornwall’s boom town in the 1840s as several mines … Continue reading Liskeard: Victorian Cornwall’s boom town →

Irish immigrants at Liskeard

Cornwall was not a major destination for people leaving Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine and the traumatic 1840s. In 1861 there were 1,475 people born in Ireland and living in Cornwall (or just 0.4 per cent of the population). Moreover, several of these were Irish-born military personnel. Most of the other Irish … Continue reading Irish immigrants at Liskeard →

‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s

The 1840s was the first decade for over a century in which population growth in Cornwall, fuelled by the growth of mining, abruptly slowed down. In the 1840s mass emigration began from Cornwall to places overseas. But that overseas movement, stimulated by the economic difficulties of the later 1840s, has masked a parallel contemporary migration … Continue reading ‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s →

Liskeard’s great church bells controversy

In the mid-1860s a new vicar – the Reverend F.S.Cook – took up residence at Liskeard in east Cornwall. He was disturbed to find that it was a custom in the town to ring the church bells to announce any interesting event, such as local election victories or successful law suits. The vicar did not … Continue reading Liskeard’s great church bells controversy →

The state of Cornish towns in 1600: Part 1

Richard Carew’s Survey of Cornwall gives an insight into the state of Cornish towns at the end of the 1500s, when he was compiling his book. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it gives an insight into Carew’s opinion of Cornish towns at this time. Beginning in the east, Carew wrote that … Continue reading The state of Cornish towns in 1600: Part 1 →

Mock mayors in Cornwall

Parish feasts in the 1700s were often accompanied by the choosing of mock mayors. These were parodies of real mayor-choosing events, an inversion of the real thing accompanied by copious drinking. The custom was not restricted to those boroughs that had real mayors but took place even in rural parishes without mayors. For example, at … Continue reading Mock mayors in Cornwall →