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 […]
Cornish Wayside Crosses by Michael Dundrow
Alongside many an ancient trackway Linking farm and hamlet, village and town Through all the length and breadth of Cornwall You can find them still those quaint old crosses Emotive in the rough simplicity Of their carving from the moorland stone, Eloquent of the simple piety In which the course of human life was run. […]
A Cousin Jack in the Wild West by Michael Tangye
There are hardly any of the indigenous Cornish, residing in the mining areas of Cornwall, who have not been raised with stories of forebears who emigrated during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Most homes possess faded photographs of groups of well dressed, smiling Cornishmen in Batte, Montana, or a solitary, more serious pose in a […]
A Bit Av Chat Skiing With Maid Lowenna by Joy Stevenson
The skiing season is upon us and plane loads of Brits, along with the Duke of Cornwall, head for the slopes. It is a time of year which brings back memories of my first skiing holiday in 1965. The holiday was a delight, the mountain air, the beauty of the (then) non-commercialised Austrian villages with […]
A Stroll Through Lanson With Rob Tremain St Mary Magdalene Church
The unique feature of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston, is that it is completely encased in sculptured granite. As we saw last time it was through the tragic death of the son and heir of Sir Henry Trecarrell that the church came to be built in the years 1511 to 1524. Rob Tremain […]
The last battle for Cornwall by Patrick E. Coleman
It was summer in 838, and the band of Cornish warriors and their unlikely allies, a group of arauding Danes whose ships were drawn up in the valleys to the south of their position, waited on the top of Hingston Down. Meanwhile, Egbert, King of the West Saxons, having raised a levy of local fighting […]
A Bit of Chat With Maid Lowenna Can she Dance Tha Flora by Joy Stevenson
Twuz cauld und raw und dimmitty Tha night Jaw `Awke cum round. We wuz scriffun round tha awld slab Twuddun night fun `orse nor `ound. “Cummus in,” sez Feythurr, “Youm freathed out boy fun sure Put kettle on tha slab Ma Un put wood in tha door.” Jaw golloped up iz cup av tay Then […]
Going to Pont by Mrs. G. Richards
There were many ways of going to Pont in the old days and each one brought its own adventures and delights. Perhaps the best way of all was by boat; pack the picnic baskets, fill the flasks, pick up rugs, model boats, buckets and spades and then, down to the quay. The boat, a large […]
The Clifftop Cross Lamorna by Michael Tangye
On the cliff-path westward from Lamorna, St. Buryan, stands a solitary granite cross inscribed D.W.W. MAR 13 1873. No book tells the story behind this single memorial. David Watson was a delicate young man, 23 years of age, who lived with his parents at Canterbury where the family was highly respected. An undergraduate of Jesus […]
‘A Quaker Saint of Cornwall’ by Barry West
Barry West is a Cornish Researcher Based in Cornwall Loveday Hambly of Tregongeeves between St Mewan and Polgooth appears in a book called ‘A Quaker Saint of Cornwall’ written in 1927. What is the connection between Tregongeeves and sheep? Is there one ? Let’s see what you can find ! Very little is known of […]
The Royal Cornwall Show history before 1994
Back in the dim and distant past of the late 18th century, Cornwall was quite remote from the heavily populated areas, but it was far from being behind the times. Agricultural societies were springing up all over the country, led by for-ward thinking landowners and those keen to see an improvement in farming methods. Many […]
St Kea’s Boat by David Loveridge
A large block of granite, hollow on one side, lying on the banks of the River Fal for centuries was said to have been St. Kea’s boat, used by him for sailing from Ireland to Cornwall. If people went to sea in a vessel unsuited to service, it was said they might as well have […]
The Wreck of the S.S. Schiller, 1875, and its Aftermath by Michael Tangye
1960. I sat in the kitchen of the farmhouse at Pelistry, on St. Mary’s, and chatted to ninety- year-old Mrs. Tregear about the Scilly she knew as a child. It became immediately obvious that, like many of her generation, the traumatic experience of the wreck of the Schiller, in 1875, lingered vividly in her memory. […]