Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 44

The Cornish nightingale

The common nightingale is rarely heard in Cornwall. What’s left of its shrinking habitat (numbers have fallen by more than a half in the UK since 1995) is mainly found in south-east England. The singing is done by the male bird but in Cornwall the nickname ‘the Cornish nightingale’ was given to a woman. Fanny … Continue reading The Cornish nightingale →

A Cornish colony in Mexico

In 1826 the West Briton carried a report from Redruth: a miner recently back from overseas had  ‘astonished the natives by appearing in the streets in the dress usually worn by the Mexican miners.’ The migration links between Cornwall and Mexico in the 1800s have been less often covered than the much more numerous flows … Continue reading A Cornish colony in Mexico →

Bean fields, bread and Barbara? Some rarer Cornish surnames

Who were the Bodrugans?

One surname you won’t meet in today’s Cornwall is Bodrugan. The name has its origin in a place overlooking St Austell Bay near Mavagissey. It means Rygan’s farmstead and was acquired by the family that had emerged as the owners of the local manor by the 1200s. By the 1320s Otto Bodrugan was one of … Continue reading Who were the Bodrugans? →

The good old days in quiet Cornwall

Sepia-toned photos of quiet nineteenth century Cornish towns and villages make us conjure up imagined memories of those peaceful days of our great-grandparents. But records of the police courts at two Cornish towns serve to qualify this nostalgic glow somewhat. The towns were St Austell in mid-Cornwall and Helston in the west. The time was … Continue reading The good old days in quiet Cornwall →

Some east Cornish surnames

These three surnames were mainly found in east Cornwall in the 1500s. They had already ramified and probably been hereditary for about 200 years, or six generations by then. To see what the 1861 map of these surnames looks like click here.

Housing in rural Cornwall in medieval times

The other day I was asked what houses would have looked like in early medieval Cornwall. At the time I couldn’t put my hands on a good source but have since rediscovered some notes on an article that appeared in Cornish Archaeology back in 1971 on the deserted village of Tresmorn at St Gennys parish … Continue reading Housing in rural Cornwall in medieval times →

Where’s Arthur when we need him?

Let’s continue the Arthurian theme from the last blog, which included a map of the early distribution of the surname Arthur. The warrior-king Arthur, who left his imprint in the landscape from Brittany to Scotland, was given a restored role by the Cornish revivalists of the early 1900s. It seems an appropriate time of the … Continue reading Where’s Arthur when we need him? →

Celtic hero and Camborne invention: 2 Cornish surnames

The surname Arthur obviously stemmed from the first name. It was found in various parishes up and down Cornwall in the 1500s. As the name of the great Celtic mythical warrior it’s interesting that it was no more likely to be found in the Cornish-speaking than the English-speaking districts at that time. Aver presumably derived …

Ambushed in a Cornish village

Four Lanes is a village on the higher land south of Redruth, straddling the road to Helston. As people rush through it on their way to school, work or shops they probably give little thought to the place, a rather nondescript and uninspiring ribbon development. Their main preoccupation will be to find their elusive brake … Continue reading Ambushed in a Cornish village →