Just over one in 20 men and women in the Cornwall of the 1860s was recorded in the census as a shopkeeper, merchant or trader of some sort. These ranged from the humble itinerant hawkers peddling their trinkets from parish to parish, through innkeepers, grocers, drapers and other shopkeepers to merchants buying and selling a … Continue reading The butcher and the baker but not the candlestick maker
Tag: Penryn
Cornish craftsmen in the 1860s
Nowadays fewer than one in five of the labour force are engaged in actually making things, in the sense of taking some raw materials and turning them into something else. The rest of us, if we are what economists call ‘active’, are instead selling stuff to each other, meeting demand for healthcare, education or hedonism, … Continue reading Cornish craftsmen in the 1860s
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
St Gluvias: return migration at Penryn
As we saw in the previous blog in the case of Eliza Bennett, short stays overseas were by no means unknown in Victorian Cornwall. Temporary sojourns in North America seem to have been particularly prevalent in the Penryn district. Often these involved stonemasons and quarrymen, presumably taking advantage of higher wages in American quarries when … Continue reading St Gluvias: return migration at Penryn
St Gluvias: marital strife at Penryn
Eliza Elizabeth Jane Bennett grew up in the back streets of Penryn. She got married at 18 in the town’s Wesleyan Methodist chapel to Richard Datson, a journeyman stonemason. A child was soon born but died within days. Richard had emigrated to Richmond, Virginia before 1871, to be shortly followed by Eliza, who bore him … Continue reading St Gluvias: marital strife at Penryn
Camborne versus Redruth: Regrettable scenes
One of the iconic dates in the Cornish sporting calendar is the annual rugby match between Camborne and Redruth, held on Boxing Day. Sometimes, the two teams also met on Easter Monday to renew their competition. On occasion however, this resulted in more than friendly local rivalry between two neighbouring towns. Take this fixture from … Continue reading Camborne versus Redruth: Regrettable scenes
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
The state of Cornish towns in 1600: Part 2
As Richard Carew turned his attention westwards, his accounts of Cornish towns became noticeably briefer, probably reflecting his lack of acquaintance with places increasingly distant from his home at Antony, close to the Tamar. St Columb was merely ‘a mean market town’, while St Austell was still too insignificant to get a mention. Despite being … Continue reading The state of Cornish towns in 1600: Part 2
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
Why did Cornwall have 44 MPs?
Those were the days. Now Cornwall only has a feeble voice in the UK Parliament, represented by just six MPs. But before 1821 Cornwall enjoyed a representation more fitting its status, sending 44 MPs. With around 1.5% of the population it had 7-8% of parliamentary representatives. Why? In the 1500s Cornwall was not that exceptional. … Continue reading Why did Cornwall have 44 MPs?
Cornish studies resources 