Most modern employment classifications treat mining and quarrying as a single economic sector. So how many more workers did clay extraction and quarrying add to the mining and quarrying sector in 1861? The answer is not that many when compared with the dominant mining for copper, tin, lead and other minerals. While metal mines accounted … Continue reading Digging for riches: not just miners but quarriers
Tag: Tintagel
Dumnonia: Region? Kingdom? Or at times both?
In the new edition of Cornwall’s First Golden Age the most extensive changes occur when discussing the earliest period – the fifth and sixth centuries. The original chapter 2, with some material from later chapters and new content, has been restructured into three separate chapters focusing in turn on Tintagel, Dumnonia and the issue of … Continue reading Dumnonia: Region? Kingdom? Or at times both?
Cornwall’s First Golden Age – new edition out now
A new edition of Cornwall's First Golden Age - the critical synthesis of the history of Cornwall in its period of independence and initial colonisation from the 400s to the 1100s - is now available, back by overwhelming public demand (or at least a handful of requests). Revised, considerably restructured and updated to include the … Continue reading Cornwall’s First Golden Age – new edition out now
Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
Another three micro-summaries of reviews ... James Harris digs into expressions of loyalty in Restoration Cornwall and finds they were the result of a well-organised Tory propaganda campaign. In a second article James Harris compares seventeenth century attempts to revive the Cornish language with the situation in south-west Wales and identifies the lack of support … Continue reading Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
Tintagel: not what you expect
Tintagel, on the north coast of Cornwall, was a no-nonsense, workmanlike sort of place in the mid-1800s. Its children, sons and daughters of slate quarriers, farmers and their labourers, lived hard lives wresting their livelihood from the land and braving the frequent westerly gales that swept in off the Atlantic. The Tintagel children in our … Continue reading Tintagel: not what you expect
Legend, history and selfies at Tintagel
In its marketing strategy for Tintagel English Heritage decided to emphasise its legendary aspects and links to the Arthurian myth. The only problem with this was that there were actually no physical objects at the site on which they could anchor the legends. So they installed some in the shape of the statue of the … Continue reading Legend, history and selfies at Tintagel
Trematon Castle
The Normans arrived in Cornwall in 1070, around four years after seeing off the English at Hastings. Once here, they threw up a handful of their trademark castles, probably at first wooden structures on top of a raised piece of ground – a motte – overlooking an enclosed courtyard – or bailey. The first two … Continue reading Trematon Castle
The myth of Dumnonia
Although disagreeing on many other aspects, both kernowsceptic and kernocentric historians unite in accepting a kingdom of Dumnonia as a clear and obvious fact. Dumnonia appears as a fully functioning kingdom, replete with kings and courts and operating for some centuries after the ending of Roman rule around 410. Its existence is endlessly and uncritically … Continue reading The myth of Dumnonia
Cornish studies resources 