Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 11

Trevalga: unspoilt haven or development opportunity?

Unlike Cornwall’s other tiny tre– parishes, Trevalga is on the north coast, wedged between the small settlements of Boscastle and Tintagel. The farms of this parish had been neatly distributed across the hills and valleys leading inland by Cornwall’s early medieval inhabitants. Meanwhile, its small church and churchtown are hunched down nearer the forbidding cliffs … Continue reading Trevalga: unspoilt haven or development opportunity? →

Treneglos: women wave the farm goodbye

This parish, to the north of Bodmin moor, was possibly the Cornish parish most dominated by farming in the Victorian era. In 1861, fully 85 per cent of its adult men were farmers, farmers’ sons or farm labourers and virtually all of the adult women were married to farmers or their labourers or were servants … Continue reading Treneglos: women wave the farm goodbye →

Tremaine: colonisation

Tremaine begins a run of five micro-parishes – at least in terms of population – all found in north Cornwall. One of them – Tresmeer – doesn’t manage to provide any children at all for our database sample. The placename element tre-, from the original tref, is the most common in Cornwall. It was given … Continue reading Tremaine: colonisation →

Tregony: a clicker and a Jack of all trades

Below the long street lined with houses that was Tregony the boats serenely sailed up the Fal. On reaching the bustling quay near the church below the town, supplies were unloaded to meet the demands of the folk from the surrounding countryside who thronged Tregony’s market. But not in the 1800s. Such a scene would … Continue reading Tregony: a clicker and a Jack of all trades →

Towednack: all gone

Towednack was an unambiguously mining parish in the middle of the 1800s. Three quarters of the men in the cottages scattered over the downs of this parish south and west of St Ives were employed in the local tin mines. However, when Cornish mining began to catch a cold Towednack suffered a severe bout of … Continue reading Towednack: all gone →

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 →

Talland and the matchgirls of London

Talland, on the south coast of Cornwall next to Looe shared the fishing village of Polperro with its neighbour Lansallos.  Polperro provided the larger number of the Talland children in our database, three boys and four girls. Although none of them emigrated, these Polperro children did not all live their lives out in the village … Continue reading Talland and the matchgirls of London →

Stratton: harbour, canal and visitors

There was something different about Stratton. Located in the far north of Cornwall, its exceptionalism was signalled by the fact that its population rose in the second half of the nineteenth century. This was most unusual in a region where the general experience in this period had been substantial depopulation. Stratton was a Janus-faced sort … Continue reading Stratton: harbour, canal and visitors →

Stokeclimsland: an overcrowded family and a lone drifter

Like Stithians, the subject of the previous blog, Stokeclimsland was a mining parish in 1861. It was also roughly the same size in terms of population. Unlike Stithians, Stokeclimsland, north of Callington on the banks of the River Tamar, saw fewer leave for overseas. But that didn’t mean that people stayed put in the parish. … Continue reading Stokeclimsland: an overcrowded family and a lone drifter →

Stithians: Cornwall, Columbus and Cumbria

With Stithians, we arrive at a more industrial parish. Found on the north-eastern edge of the Carnmenellis uplands south of Redruth the parish of Stithians in the nineteenth century included mines in the north and quarries to the south. In 1861 the mines predominated, accounting for around a half of Stithian’s working men and many … Continue reading Stithians: Cornwall, Columbus and Cumbria →