What were the most common surnames in Cornwall in 1861? But first, why 1861? At this time – and indeed until the 1890s – in-migration into Cornwall from England was minimal, Cornwall having a higher proportion of locally born residents than any English county. Mass migration had set in during the late 1840s but the … Continue reading Cornwall’s top 20 surnames: the countdown begins
Tag: Phillips
St Sampson: saints on the move
On the west bank of the Fowey River, the small parish of St Sampson with Golant lies at the southern end of the ‘Saints’ Way’ trail from Padstow to Fowey. In the sixth and seventh centuries this was the supposed route whereby scores of holy men and women crossed Cornwall from Wales on their way … Continue reading St Sampson: saints on the move
Lanlivery: attempts at catering and hints of the coming century
Former tin streaming works on Redmoor, now a nature reserve (Mark Camp / Redmoor nature reserve / CC BY-SA 2.0) Lanlivery in mid-Cornwall was a parish of contrasts. Its boundaries encompassed the granite Helman Tor capped by its neolithic enclosure and the elusive Redmoor, often preceded by the adjective ‘mysterious’. But it also contained wooded valleys leading down to … Continue reading Lanlivery: attempts at catering and hints of the coming century
Lanivet: from farming to the office
Lanivet is a parish strategically placed in the heart of Cornwall just west of Bodmin. In 1861 mining, mostly for tin but sometimes for iron, occupied some of the men, as did tin streaming. But the 37 men (just over 10 per cent of the parish’s workforce) engaged in mining were well outnumbered by the … Continue reading Lanivet: from farming to the office
Gwennap: long-distance relationships
The previous blog raises the question of how many of the children of Cornwall’s mining districts in 1861 lived in households with no male head, their fathers either away working or dead at a young age. Of the 107 Gwennap children in the database who were living with parents or other relatives, over a third, … Continue reading Gwennap: long-distance relationships
Socialism in Edwardian Cornwall
It’s not generally well-known that Truro and Camborne were relatively early centres of socialist activism. In May 1904 W.A.Phillips, standing ‘boldly as a representative of the workers and a Social Democrat’ was elected to Truro Town Council in a by-election in Truro East. This was the first council seat won by a socialist west of … Continue reading Socialism in Edwardian Cornwall
Cornish studies resources 