Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 38

Cornwall’s granite backbone

Cornwall’s central spine is made up of four granite outcrops, from Bodmin Moor in the east through Hensbarrow and Carnmenellis to West Penwith at the Land’s End. It is said that every Cornish person also has a granite core. Easy-going on the surface, we can be obstinate and unmoveable if pushed too far. Cornishmen combined … Continue reading Cornwall’s granite backbone →

‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s

The 1840s was the first decade for over a century in which population growth in Cornwall, fuelled by the growth of mining, abruptly slowed down. In the 1840s mass emigration began from Cornwall to places overseas. But that overseas movement, stimulated by the economic difficulties of the later 1840s, has masked a parallel contemporary migration … Continue reading ‘The dialect of the people grew more provincial’: the east Cornish mining boom of the 1840s →

Godolphin House

The Godolphins were typical of many Cornish landed gentry. The family was an old one, rooted to a spot to the west of Tregonning Hill in the parish of Breage. Fortune had smiled on them in the sense that underneath their land lurked rich tin reserves. As mineral lords they were due a proportion of … Continue reading Godolphin House →

No April fool. The Real World of Poldark

The Real World of Poldark is now published and should be available on amazon at some point over the Easter weekend. There is a paperback version of 201 pages at £9.99 and an e-book version for £4.99. It can be ordered in the UK here and in the States here. The book includes a preface … Continue reading No April fool. The Real World of Poldark →

Who was living at Nampara in the 1800s?

When writing his Poldark books, Winston Graham made use of real placenames. Many will know that the name Demelza came from a place near Bodmin, originally Dyn Maelda, or Maelda’s fort. The Poldarks’ home of Nampara was another real place, a small hamlet near Graham’s home. It was formerly Nansbara, or bread valley. By the … Continue reading Who was living at Nampara in the 1800s? →

Rescuing Poldark from the tourist gaze

It’s fair to say that Winston Graham’s Poldark saga, the story of a minor gentry family from the 1780s to 1820, has sometimes elicited a love-hate response from Cornish insiders. This is despite the fact that the history Graham included in his books provided, on the whole, a fair picture of the life of those … Continue reading Rescuing Poldark from the tourist gaze →

Surname turnover in 17th century Cornwall

Cornish surnames such as Chesterfield, Oxnam or Sturtridge hail originally from places well outside Cornwall. Their presence, sometimes for centuries, indicates that the horizons of people in the past were not confined entirely to their own small patch. Unlike the common misconception, this was a society on the move, although not usually the distances implied …

The Men Scryfa

The moors of West Penwith sloping southwards towards Mounts Bay have more than their fair share of archaeological treasures. This fragile moorland and its prehistoric remains have in the modern period been threatened first by mining, then by industrialized farming methods and finally by the pressures of tourism and, according to some, by unsympathetic environmental … Continue reading The Men Scryfa →

Gwennap Pit

Gwennap Pit, tucked away in the quiet lanes between Redruth and the former mining villages of Carharrack and St Day, is a trim and neatly circular grassy ampitheatre. It wasn’t always so. It took on its present form in 1807, when local Methodists reconstructed it as their own outdoor cathedral. Before then, the site was … Continue reading Gwennap Pit →

Where do Polglazes come from?

Sometimes the modern distribution of a surname gives few clues to the origin of a name. Sometimes it does. Those surnames derived from places seem the most clear-cut. But even then, if there are several examples of places of the same name, which one, or ones, gave rise to the surname? Let’s take one example … Continue reading Where do Polglazes come from? →