This parish, to the north of Bodmin moor, was possibly the Cornish parish most dominated by farming in the Victorian era. In 1861, fully 85 per cent of its adult men were farmers, farmers’ sons or farm labourers and virtually all of the adult women were married to farmers or their labourers or were servants … Continue reading Treneglos: women wave the farm goodbye
Tag: May
Mawgan in Pydar: Lanherne, London and leaving the shores
Lanherne House The secluded and wooded Vale of Lanherne running inland from Mawgan Porth is peaceful these days. But it was a political flashpoint in the late sixteenth century, regarded as the hotbed of Cornish Catholicism. This was the base of the Arundell family which attempted, ultimately without success, to keep the flag of Catholicism … Continue reading Mawgan in Pydar: Lanherne, London and leaving the shores
Lanhydrock: a closed parish
Lanhydrock, along with Boconnoc, St Michael Penkevil and a handful of others, was one of Cornwall’s select number of closed parishes. Closed parishes were more common in parts of southern England, places where a single landowner owned all of the land and dominated local society. Or at least, that’s the theory. Account of the fire … Continue reading Lanhydrock: a closed parish
Shipwrights
Given its maritime connections, it’s not surprising that, in the 1800s Falmouth and its neighbouring villages was a shipbuilding location. Yet before the 1850s, in the days of sail, most shipbuilding operations in the Fal estuary were relatively small scale. In Falmouth itself they were located mainly in the area between the present-day Maritime Museum … Continue reading Shipwrights
Port Isaac: of medical men and myths
Doc Martin: working hard to reproduce stereotypes of Cornwall and sell second homes Ask people what they know about the village of Port Isaac on Cornwall’s north coast in Endellion parish and they’re likely to respond with ‘Doc Martin’. This apparently endless series about a lugubrious doctor in a ‘sleepy’ Cornish fishing village is a … Continue reading Port Isaac: of medical men and myths
Cornish studies resources 