The civil servants who drew up boundaries of registration districts in the 1830s were surprisingly modernist. They took scant regard of the boundaries of traditional counties, unchanged for centuries, crossing them whenever they wanted. Launceston Registration District (RD) for example included parishes in west Devon while Calstock was for a time part of the Tavistock … Continue reading St Germans and Calstock: contrasting patterns of migration
Tag: St Germans
St Germans: London links by servants and main lines
The parish of St Germans was dominated by Port Eliot, the stately home the Eliots had built on the remains of buildings attached to the medieval priory they had bought when it was closed in the 1500s. The impressive church next door had served as Cornwall’s first cathedral in the tenth and eleventh centuries and … Continue reading St Germans: London links by servants and main lines
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?
The medieval monasteries of Cornwall
It’s Easter Sunday. It seems appropriate therefore to write about something religious. The original Cornish monasteries were part of the Celtic church, but by the Norman period these were just memories, if that. Then, from 1100 to the mid-1200s, a great wave of monastic foundations burst across the British Isles. Cornwall received its share of … Continue reading The medieval monasteries of Cornwall
Cornish studies resources 