Cornwall
Cornwall is a county in South West England in the United Kingdom. The county is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar which forms most of the border between them. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula of the island of Great Britain; the furthest southwestern point of Great Britain is Land's End. Cornwall has a population of 563,600 and covers an area of 3,563 km2; the county has been administered since 2009 by Cornwall Council. The ceremonial county of Cornwall includes the Isles of Scilly, which are administered separately; the administrative centre of Cornwall, its only city, is Truro. Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and the cultural and ethnic origin of the Cornish diaspora, it retains a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history, is recognised as one of the Celtic nations. It was a Brythonic kingdom and subsequently a royal duchy; the Cornish nationalist movement contests the present constitutional status of Cornwall and seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly with powers similar to those in Wales and Scotland.
In 2014, Cornish people were granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, giving them recognition as a distinct ethnic group. First inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods, Cornwall continued to be occupied by Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples, by Brythons with strong ethnic, linguistic and cultural links to Wales and Brittany the latter of, settled by Britons from the region. Mining in Cornwall and Devon in the south-west of England began in the early Bronze Age. Few Roman remains have been found in Cornwall, there is little evidence that the Romans settled or had much military presence there. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Cornwall was a part of the Brittonic kingdom of Dumnonia, ruled by chieftains of the Cornovii who may have included figures regarded as semi-historical or legendary, such as King Mark of Cornwall and King Arthur, evidenced by folklore traditions derived from the Historia Regum Britanniae.
The Cornovii division of the Dumnonii tribe were separated from their fellow Brythons of Wales after the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD, came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of Wessex. The regions of Dumnonia outside of Cornwall had been annexed by the English by 838 AD. King Athelstan in 936 AD set the boundary between the English and Cornish at the high water mark of the eastern bank of the River Tamar. From the early Middle Ages and culture were shared by Brythons trading across both sides of the Channel, resulting in the corresponding high medieval Breton kingdoms of Domnonée and Cornouaille and the Celtic Christianity common to both areas. Tin mining was important in the Cornish economy. In the mid-19th century, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline. Subsequently, china clay extraction became more important, metal mining had ended by the 1990s. Traditionally and agriculture were the other important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century.
Cornwall is noted for coastal scenery. A large part of the Cornubian batholith is within Cornwall; the north coast has many cliffs. The area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, its mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwall's coastline, Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; the modern English name Cornwall is a compound of two ancient demonyms coming from two different language groups: Corn- originates from the Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word "kernou" is cognate with the English word "horn". -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, meaning "foreigner" or "Roman". In the Cornish language, Cornwall is known as Kernow which stems from a similar linguistic background; the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Mesolithic periods.
It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and Bronze Age people. According to John T. Koch and others, Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age, in modern-day Ireland, Wales, France and Portugal. During the British Iron Age, like all of Britain, was inhabited by a Celtic people known as the Britons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Brittany; the Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues, including Cornish, Breton and Pictish. The first account of Cornwall comes from the 1st-century BC Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer P
Cornish Seal Sanctuary
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary is a sanctuary for injured seal pups, is owned by The SEA LIFE Trust. The centre is on the banks of the Helford River in Cornwall, England, UK, next to the village of Gweek; the origins of the seal sanctuary go back to 1958 when the founder, Ken Jones, discovered a baby seal washed up on the beach near his home at St Agnes. This was the first of many rescues. By 1975, the work had outgrown the single pool at St Agnes and a new site was found at Gweek; the Gweek site grew, today has five pools and a specially designed hospital. On average the centre has between sixty and seventy seals pups in their care, in 2018 over eighty have been rescued from the wild. Main reasons for a pups rescue can be because they are separated from their mothers and are unable to feed, or they can be entangled in marine litter; the aim is to release them back into the wild having given them the best chance of survival. The rescue starts with a call about an abandoned pup. If the rescue team decide that the pup is in danger, it is taken to the sanctuary.
Upon arrival, a full medical assessment is carried out, a course of treatment is decided. Many of the pups are malnourished, with infected wounds; when the seal starts to recover and gain weight, it is transferred to a convalescence pool, where it interacts with convalescing and resident seals, learns to compete for its food. After a few months, when the seal has reached a good weight and is back to full health, it is released into the sea, preferably near where it was discovered. Before release each seal is given a flipper tag, also a hat tag which falls off at the first moult; these provide useful information on the survival rate of the rescues. The sanctuary aims to rehabilitate all has an impressive record. Between 1981 and 2013 only four seals have been considered as unlikely to be able to survive in the wild, they have joined the full-time residents at the sanctuary. The long term residents are seals unable to survive in the wild due to health reasons or just because they have been in captivity too long.
Some of the residents share a pool with the rescue pups. They help at feeding times by demonstrating to the pups the best way to compete for their food; some of the other animals in the sanctuary are California sea lion, southern sea lion, Humboldt penguin, Asian short-clawed otter and common seal. List of topics related to Cornwall Official website British Divers MarineLife Rescue website http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/
Camborne
Camborne is a town in Cornwall, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845; the northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth and Deadman's Cove. Camborne was one of the richest tin mining areas in the world and home to the Camborne School of Mines. Kammbronn is Cornish for'crooked hill'; the word'kamm', crooked, is the same in the Breton language, the Welsh and Irish Gaelic word is'kam'.'Hill' in Welsh is'Bryn'. Camborne is in the western part of the largest urban and industrial area in Cornwall with the town of Redruth 3 miles to the east, it has a town council. Camborne-Redruth is on the northern side of the Carn Brea/Carnmenellis granite upland which slopes northwards to the sea; the two towns are linked by the A3047 road, turnpiked in 1839 and the villages along the road were Roskear, Tuckingmill and Illogan. Running north-south are a number of small streams with narrow river valleys which have been deeply-cut following centuries of tin streaming and other industrial processes.
An example is the Red River valley. To the north, the A30 forms a boundary between the urban area and the agricultural land on the other side; the first mention of the medieval Camborne churchtown is in 1181 although in 1931 the ruins of a probable Romano-British villa were found at Magor Farm, near Camborne, excavated that year under the guidance of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. It is the only Roman villa to be found in the whole of Cornwall. There are early Christian sites such as an inscribed altar stone, dated to the 10th or 11th centuries, which attests to the existence of a settlement then. Langdon records. By the late Middle Ages manorial holdings developed in the surrounding area, church-paths linked the churchtown to the outlying hamlets. Cornish medieval mystery plays were held in a playing place and the chuchyard is said to have had a pilgrimage chapel and holy well. John Norden visited in 1584 and described Camborne as ″A churche standinge among the barrayne hills'″. At this time there would have been moors and rough grazing as well as small fields in the surrounding countryside.
By 1708 Camborne had rights to hold markets and three fairs a year which may be an indication of tin mining in the area. Mining is first recorded locally in the 1400s with early exploitation of the small streams cutting through the mineralised area and from shallow mines following lodes. Adit mining was first recorded in the 16th century. A sign of increasing industrial activity and increasing industrial population is the first chapel built in 1806 and the development of a local Methodist community. In 1823 the population was around 2,000 and in 1841 it was 4,377, with 75 smiths recorded and over two-thirds of the working population employed in the mining industry. In the expanding town gasworks were opened in 1834, the Hayle Railway was built and Holmans opened a small foundry in 1839. Camborne is best known as a centre for the former Cornish tin and copper mining industry, having its working heyday during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Camborne was just a village until transformed by the mining boom which began in the late 18th century and saw the Camborne and Redruth district become the richest mining area in the world.
Although a considerable number of ruinous stacks and engine houses remain, they cannot begin to convey the scenes of 150 years ago when scores of mines transfigured the landscape. Dolcoath Mine, the'Queen of Cornish Mines' was, at a depth of 3,500 feet, for many years the deepest mine in the world, not to mention one of the oldest before its closure in 1921; the last working tin mine in Europe, South Crofty, which closed in 1998, is to be found in Camborne. Apart from the mines themselves, Camborne was home to many important related industries, including the once world-renowned foundry of Holman Bros Ltd. Holmans, a family business founded in 1801, was for generations, Camborne's, indeed Cornwall's largest manufacturer of industrial equipment making the famous Sten submachine gun for a stint during the Second World War; the Holman Projector was used by the Royal Navy. At its height Holmans was spread over three sites within Camborne, employing some three and half thousand men. Despite Britain's industrial decline, Compair Holmans Camborne factory closed in 2001.
On the afternoon of Tuesday 5 December 2006, a wall of the Holmans factory was leaning towards the railway line, as a result the line west of Truro was closed for the afternoon and night and disrupting railway services, as it was feared the wall could collapse onto the mainline, part of the derelict factory was demolished that night. A modest quantity of South Crofty tin was purchased by a local enterprise and this dwindling stock is used to make specialist tin jewellery, branded as the South Crofty Collection. Tin mined at South Crofty was used to form the bronze medals awarded in the 2012 London Olympics Because of the prior importance of metal mining to the Cornish economy, the Camborne School of Mines developed as the only specialist hard rock education establishment in the United Kingdom, until the Royal School of Mines was established in 1851. Plans for the school were laid out in 1829, leading to the current school in 1888, it now forms part of the University of Exeter. CSM
Par, Cornwall
Par is a village and fishing port with a harbour on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated in the civil parish of Tywardreath and Par, although West Par and the docks lie in the parish of St Blaise. Par is 3.5 miles east of St Austell. Par has a population of around 1,600, it became developed in the second quarter of the nineteenth century when the harbour was developed, to serve copper mines and other mineral sites in and surrounding the Luxulyan Valley. Par Harbour and the beach at Par Sands are south of the village, the latter includes a large static caravan holiday park. Between these two beaches the South West Coast Path takes an inland diversion through the village. Par lies in a triangle of streets. There is a variety of a post office, a public house and other businesses; the Anglican church of St Mary the Virgin at Biscovey was completed in 1849. It was built from the local reddish coloured Biscovey slates; the parish of Par was formed out of parts of St Blazey and Tywardreath parishes in 1846.
In the churchyard is an inscribed cross shaft removed from the highroad in 1896. This stone is a sepulchral monument to a son of Ullicus erected by Alroron; the church was the first to be designed by the notable architect G. E. Street; the design is an subtle adaptation of the Early English style. The chancel and south aisle are well proportioned and the steeple is placed at the west end of the south aisle; the church is a Grade II* listed building. The Church of the Good Shepherd at Par Green was designed by E. H. Sedding and built of granite with Polyphant stone dressings in 1896, it is in the Early English style. Before 1800 the village was a small group of houses below the cliff overlooking the mouth of the River Par. During the first years of the nineteenth century small scale workings of china stone, china clay and granite were developed. Joseph Austen, born 1782, was an important Fowey businessman, he acquired an interest on many mines and pits, he re-opened the dormant Lanescot copper mine on the hill overlooking Par, developed it further.
With adjacent workings it became the rich and productive Fowey Consols mine. Treffry sought to build a tramway connection to Fowey Harbour from his workings, but was unable to acquire the necessary land, instead he decided to develop a harbour at Par, he purchased the ferry and replaced it with a bridge in 1824, started improvement of the harbour in 1829. To bring the copper ore to Par, Treffry built a canal from Pontsmill to Par by canalising the river; the harbour development led to the expansion of Par, the community was detached from the parish of St Blaise in the mid 19th century. Treffry built a new tramway up the Luxulyan Valley to Molinnis, extended it down from Pontsmill to Par, by-passing the canal; however copper was exported to Swansea for smelting and coal for powering mine engines were imported from there. This was not achieved in his lifetime. In the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century, the importance of copper working had diminished, due to exhaustion and the availability of cheaper supplies of the mineral elsewhere in the world.
At the same time, china clay became more important, industrialisation of the extraction and processing work took place. This mineral became the dominant outward traffic at Par, clay dries were erected in the vicinity, together with further expansion of the harbour; the opening of the Cornwall Railway from Plymouth in 1859 encouraged further expansion of Par north-eastwards towards Tywardreath. The boundaries between the three settlements are now somewhat indistinct. In 1858 15,154 tons of china clay were shipped out of Par. By 1885 86,325 tons were being handled at Par, but by this time Fowey had a railway connection and handled 114,403 tons. In 1987 Par handled 700,000 tons, by 2002 the port served 284 vessels per year which were loaded with 318,455 metric tons of china clay, 107 vessels loaded with 136,970 metric tons of secondary aggregates for the building trade; the harbour developed a range of industrial facilities including a lead smelter with a 248-foot high chimney known as Par Stack.
This was used as a navigation aid by shipping until it was demolished in 1907. A 450-foot breakwater encloses 35 acres of water, tidal with only 16 feet depth of water and, unlike nearby Fowey, it cannot accommodate large ocean-going ships; the harbour is operated by the French mineral extraction company Imerys. Today china clay is piped to the harbour in slurry form. One berth at Par can load clay slurry into coasting vessels
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,797; the name Falmouth is of English origin. It is claimed that an earlier Celtic name for the place was Peny-cwm-cuic, the same as the anglicised "Pennycomequick" district in Plymouth. Falmouth was where Henry VIII built Pendennis Castle to defend Carrick Roads in 1540; the main town of the district was at Penryn. Sir John Killigrew created the town of Falmouth shortly after 1613. In the late 16th century, under threat from the Spanish Armada, the defences at Pendennis were strengthened by the building of angled ramparts. During the Civil War, Pendennis Castle was the second to last fort to surrender to the Parliamentary Army. After the Civil War, Sir Peter Killigrew received royal patronage when he gave land for the building of the Church of King Charles the Martyr, dedicated to Charles I, "the Martyr"; the seal of Falmouth was blazoned as "An eagle displayed with two heads and on each wing with a tower".
The arms of the borough of Falmouth were "Arg. A double-headed eagle displayed Sa. each wing charged with a tower Or. in base issuant from the water barry wavy a rock Sa. thereon surmounting the tail of the eagle a staff proper flying therefrom a pennant Gu". Being the nearest to the entrance of the English Channel, two Royal Navy squadrons were permanently stationed here. In the 1790s one was under the command of Sir Edward Pellew and the other under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren; each squadron consisted with either 32 or 44 guns. Pellew's flagship was Warren's HMS Révolutionnaire. At the time of the French Revolutionary Wars, battle ships and small vessels were continually arriving with war prizes taken from the French ships and prisoners of war. Near Penryn, at Tregellick and Roscrow, were two large camps for the French prisoners; the Falmouth Packet Service operated out of Falmouth for over 160 years between 1689 and 1851. Its purpose was to carry mail to and from Britain's growing empire.
At the end of the 18th century there were thirty to forty, full rigged, three-masted ships. The crews were hand picked and both officers and men made large fortunes from the private contraband trade they partook, while under the protection of being a Government ship, free from customs and excise searches and therefore payment of duty. Captain John Bullock worked in the Packet Service and built Penmere Manor in 1825. In 1805 news of Britain's victory and Admiral Nelson's death at Trafalgar was landed here from the schooner Pickle and taken to London by stagecoach. On 2 October 1836 HMS Beagle anchored at Falmouth at the end of her noted survey voyage around the world; that evening, Charles Darwin left the ship and took the Mail coach to his family home at The Mount, Shrewsbury. The ship stayed a few days and Captain Robert FitzRoy visited the Fox family at nearby Penjerrick Gardens. Darwin's shipmate Sulivan made his home in the nearby waterside village of Flushing home to many naval officers.
In 1839 Falmouth was the scene of a gold dust robbery when £47,600 worth of gold dust from Brazil was stolen on arrival at the port. The Falmouth Docks were developed from 1858, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution opened Falmouth Lifeboat Station nearby in 1867; the present building dates from 1993 and houses Her Majesty's Coastguard. The RNLI operates two lifeboats from Falmouth: Richard Cox Scott, a 17-metre Severn-class all-weather boat, Eve Park, an Atlantic 75 inshore lifeboat. Near the town centre is Kimberley Park; the land pre-dates 1877, is named after the Earl of Kimberley who leased the park's land to the borough of Falmouth. Today the park has exotic and ornate trees; the Cornwall Railway reached Falmouth on 24 August 1863. The railway brought new prosperity to Falmouth, it allowed the swift transport of the goods disembarked from the ships in the port. The town now has three railway stations. Falmouth Docks railway station is the original terminus and is close to Pendennis Castle and Gyllyngvase beach.
Falmouth Town railway station was opened on 7 December 1970 and is convenient for the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, the waterfront, town centre. Penmere railway station opened on 1 July 1925 towards the north of Falmouth and within easy walking distance of the top of The Moor. All three stations are served by regular trains from Truro on the Maritime Line. Penmere Station was renovated in the late 1990s, using materials. During World War II, 31 people were killed in Falmouth by German bombing. An anti-submarine net was laid from Pendennis to St Mawes, to prevent enemy U-boats entering the harbour, it was the launching point for the noted commando raid on Saint-Nazaire in 1942. Between 1943 and 1944, Falmouth was a base for American troops preparing for the D-Day invasions. There are commemoration plaques at Turnaware Point, Falmouth Watersports marina and Trebah gardens. Arwenack, the estate which occupied the site before the development of the town of Falmouth, long the seat of the Killigrew family.
Falmouth Town is a civil parish within Cornwall, formed in 1974 from the historic Falmouth Borough Council. Falmouth received its Order of Charter in 1661; as of 2017, it is governed by sixteen councillors. Each of them serves a four-year term; the major
Porth Navas
Porth Navas is a small village in Cornwall, England, UK. The village was called "Cove" until the 19th century development as a granite port and is at the head of a short creek running off the main limb which runs north from the Helford River, it is between Mawnan Constantine within the civil parish of Constantine. From medieval times until the 19th century the creek functioned as an access to the sea for neighbouring farms, whose boundaries all extended to the water at this point. With the local abundance of good quality granite, it was developed as a port to export the building material in the 19th century; the name Port Navas came into general use at this time. A track was built along the North bank of the creek with a retaining wall, a quay with cranes was constructed for wharfs alongside; this opened for trade in 1830, was supplemented by a second quay further down the creek, offering deeper water. In its heyday, it bustled as a commercial port. Significant London projects included granite for Tower Bridge.
Cheaper granite from Norway, coupled with the emergence of concrete led to its decline. Coasting vessels continued to transport chalk until the 1930s. Other industries included oyster farming, which has taken place since 1829, it is now a residential and leisure area, with moorings for small craft, pontoons at a club sited on the upper quay. The creek dries at low tide. A Methodist Chapel has been converted into a private house. There is a village hall, reinstated to its community role, has regular activities. Porth Navas's popularity depends on its beauty as part of the Helford River, the present return of the lower quay for commercial use in connection with the oyster fishery has aroused controversy. Porth Navas lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park; the Story of Port Navas and Peggy Shepperd, Landfall Press 1994 Port Navas Village Website
Gweek
Gweek is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east of Helston; the civil parish was created from part of the parish of Constantine by boundary revision in 1986. The name Gweek is first recorded as Gwyk in 1358 and is derived from the Cornish word gwig, meaning "forest village", cognate with the Welsh gwig and Old Breton guic. Gweek village has a pub, the Black Swan, a combined shop and post office; the village is home to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. Gweek lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park. Gweek is at the head of navigation of the Helford River, it has thrived in the Tudor period, with its own Customs House. In the 13th century, the townspeople of Helston bought the rights to the port of Gweek at the head of the Helford River. During the mining boom, a tin-smelting blowing house operated at the quayside. In Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1848, the village was described as: GWEEK, a small port, in the hundred of Kerrier, W. division of Cornwall, 3½ miles from Helston.
The pilchard-fishery is carried on extensively, 200 boats being employed in taking the fish, which are cured in the various creeks and coves within the limits of the port. In addition to the fishery, the chief trade consists in the exportation of copper-ore, corn and oysters, the importation of timber and limestone. In an August 1880 edition of The Cornishman newspaper, Gweek was described as a prominent seaport. Gweek has a silver band which performs locally and provides music at some Anglican services in the Gweek Mission Church; the band organises a yearly "band week". This starts with a concert of three local brass bands in a field overlooking the Helford River. Afterwards, there is a pig roast with stalls and entertainment and at the end of the week a clay pigeon shoot; the Cornwall Fiddle Orchestra was formed in 2007 by fiddle player Hudson Swan. He was a member of Scottish band, The Tannahill Weavers but now lives in Cornwall and works as a violin teacher for the Cornwall Music Service.
The orchestra rehearses weekly at Helston School. The three-cornered Tolvan Holed Stone is an unusual megalith, it is about 800 metres north of Gweek behind Tolvan Cross Farm. Gweek is featured in The Meaning of Liff, a book by John Lloyd. A passage in Charles Kingsley's novel Hereward the Wake features its neighbouring woods. Kingsley received some of his education at nearby Helston Grammar School; the Village Website of Gweek
