Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 33

Botusfleming: cherry village

It’s time to pay a brief visit to Botusfleming, one of Cornwall’s lesser-known parishes. The name does not imply a medieval Flemish connection: before the 1300s the parish was called Botflumyet or Botflumet, a Cornish placename. Although the meaning of Flumet is unclear, it’s most likely to be a personal name, so the parish was … Continue reading Botusfleming: cherry village →

A roundabout route from Bodmin to Leeds

In the previous blog we saw how one couple left Bodmin for Manchester. Such moves – from market towns to the big cities of the industrial north of England – were not unusual, as the case of Eber Webster shows. Eber had an unusual first name, but that was a boon for this research project … Continue reading A roundabout route from Bodmin to Leeds →

Go north young woman: from Bodmin to Manchester

Bodmin is the first place in our list of parishes to have a substantial number of craftsmen or shopkeepers. We might expect their offspring to move further than did farm labourers or farmers. On the other hand, people from market towns would have been less likely to go overseas than those from the mining communities. … Continue reading Go north young woman: from Bodmin to Manchester →

Victorian Bodmin: migration hub

Bodmin in the 1850s still had a claim to be regarded as Cornwall’s leading town. It was home to Cornwall’s Jail, its lunatic asylum and still hosted the assizes, albeit shared with Launceston. But as the economic centre of gravity shifted westwards, Bodmin was gradually supplanted by Truro. This process began with the building of … Continue reading Victorian Bodmin: migration hub →

Lords and labourers at Boconnoc

Boconnoc in the 1800s was an exceptional parish. It was ‘closed’, meaning that all or almost all was owned by one landlord. This was unusual in Cornwall, where it was much less common than in rural southern England. Originally a part of the Earldom of Cornwall in the 1200s, Boconnoc had passed through the hands … Continue reading Lords and labourers at Boconnoc →

Quiet times at Blisland

In Victorian times Blisland, on the western slopes of Bodmin Moor, resembled its neighbour Altarnun – lightly peopled, rural, an upland parish of hamlets and farms. Even more so than Altarnun, the people in the Blisland database did not stray too far. Not one of the six traced to 1891 had left Cornwall. In fact, … Continue reading Quiet times at Blisland →

The maritime connection

Antony was a small, remote rural parish in the far south eastern corner of Cornwall before the 1780s. But in that decade the town of Torpoint began to spring up on land owned by the Carews, the local landowners based at Antony House. Begun as a speculative venture to house workers needed for the naval … Continue reading The maritime connection →

Heading for the bright lights

In the 1800s in the British Isles there was a general drift from the countryside to the towns. We can see this process at work even in remote parishes such as Altarnun in east Cornwall. Altarnun has the distinction of being Cornwall’s largest parish. It includes farms, hamlets and villages scattered below the northern and … Continue reading Heading for the bright lights →

Hard times at Advent

The name Advent has nothing to do with the period before Christmas, the parish in north Cornwall being named after St Adweny. By the 1500s it was known as Adwen or Adven and then Advent. One of Cornwall’s smaller parishes in terms of population, although not extent, Advent was a place of scattered farms and … Continue reading Hard times at Advent →

Visiting the Victorians: nineteenth-century Cornish life-cycles

In the 1800s why did some of our ancestors decide to leave for overseas and others go to places in the British Isles? Why did some stay put? How much was movement determined by factors such as occupation, gender, place of birth or upbringing? (For an overall summary of Cornish migration see the article below.) … Continue reading Visiting the Victorians: nineteenth-century Cornish life-cycles →