Mining Can Be Fun By Allen Buckley in 1995
A problem “up-country” settlers have with the Cornish is knowing when to take them seriously. No race on earth is as dedicated to the “wind-up” as is the Cornish Celt, and more Englishmen and other “furriners” have gone back across the Tamar convinced of the truth of some amazing or unlikely story, than it takes […]
Bob Fitzsimmons by Andrew Croucher – The bigger they come, the harder they fail…”
It was a match that had been five long years in the making. Four thousand lucky boxing fans managed to descend on Carson City, Nevada to be there in the flesh, but the world too had a seat at ringside. Thanks to the cameras of the Kinetoscope Company, Bob Fitzsimmons was set to square up […]
Tin Streaming: An Ancient Industry by Allen Buckley in 1995
It is hard to appreciate in 1995 just how wide-spread and important to the Cornish economy tin streaming used to be. Hardly a valley in the stanniferous districts of west, central and east Cornwall, has been completely untouched by the activities of generations of Cornish tinners. These tinners used the stream and river water to […]
The Stormbringers by Craig Weatherhill in 1996
We are sorry to say that Craig has died during July 2020, after a long illness. He was a ferocious protector of Cornwall and a thoroughly decent man also a very fine scholar and publisher of Cornish History. R.I.P Craig.The headland of Tol Pedn Penwith (a wonderful name sadly discarded in recent years for the […]
Cornish Mining – The Arsenic Industry In Cornwall by Allen Buckley
To most people the Cornish mining industry is about tin and copper, with perhaps a certain amount of lead, silver and zinc thrown in. Although this may represent a large part of the truth, other material ores have also been of great importance to the industry, and one of them, arsenic, can truly be said […]
Killifreth Mine by Allen Buckley
The mining region of West Cornwall is noted for its impressive engine houses, although none of these great buildings is more famous for its elegance than that at Hawkes Shaft, Killifreth. Hawkes engine house was erected in 1893 to house an 80-inch pumping engine, and when the mine re-opened, in 1912, the building had to […]
The Name Of Our Capital by The Late, Richard Gendall
Truro…? How do you say it, and what does it mean? Old memories are dying out: does anyone from the west still tell of the froze labber? That’s the sound of the current off the western shore of Penwith, and simply means “the labouring of the current”, Cornish froxe and lavure. The word we want […]
Playing at Work The Cornish Way by David Moyse in 1995
David Moyse was a very well known and respected man in Hayle and had a wonderful outfitters in the main street. It was the first place I bought a Barbour waxed jacket. I enjoyed my work and liked the people, but there was something missing. I yearned to get back to my roots Cornwall. I […]
Remembering The Dear Old Cornish Privvy by Joy Stevenson in 1996
I see that English Heritage is giving grants of £100 to some who wish to restore their old privvy in the back garden to its former glory. Maybe it is time we all came out of the closet and rebuilt the privvies at the bottom of our gardens. Who knows? They could become like the […]
D.H. Lawrence and Cornwall by Tom Salmon in 1995
The tortuous, tormented, ambivalent life of D.H. Lawrence – best known for Lady Chatterley’s Lover, nowhere near his best book but by far the most notorious – had a while in Cornwall: and it was a time in which he suffered greatly, and during which he wrote some of the nicest and nastiest things about […]
Penzance Battery or Batteries by Robin Knight
The fact that a gun battery was at one time situated on the Battery Rocks adjacent to the iconic Jubilee Pool is well known, but few I suspect know that there was another Penzance Battery. One that was built about 1855, east of the town on the cliffs near Chyandour, overlooking Mounts Bay. Battery Rocks […]
Some Cornish Poetry
Cornish Trawlers by Mark Snell Why do the Cornish beamers Spend so much time at sea? Hardly setting foot in port these days To see their families. I’ll ell ee for why my ansome `Tis the ministry to blame They tell em where to cast the nets In wind and storm and rain. What do […]
My Most Unforgettable Character – A Memory of South Crofty Mine c1995
The first time I met Walter he was in a terrible rage, his eyes gleaming redly in the light of my cap lamp like some fully paid up member of Satan’s workforce. This impression was heightened by the fact that we were 340 fathoms down in the gloom and stifling granite of a Cornish tin […]
South Australia’s Little Cornwall
With the discovery of copper and the arrival of Cornish miners, the three towns in the Copper Triangle of South Australia – Kadina, Wallaroo and especially Moonta – have an affinity today, as in the past, with the baking of the traditional Cornish pasty; a reminder of the heritage that belongs to this area of […]