Little Yellow House
Ten Key Moments In Cornish History
Here for the Historically minded, and those with a personnal interest in all things Cornish are ten defining moments in Cornish History, that I extracted from Ian Soulsby's 'A History Of Cornwall'.
1. St Buryan and St Just in 1336.
'When Bishop grandisson visited St Buryan in 1336, he found it necessary to appoint the vicar of St Just as his interpreter since many of the inhabitants spoke only Cornish.
2.1350.Life In St Buryan (a nearby village)
'When Edward IV appointed a commision to reform the important collegiate church at St Buryan, it was found that the dean and prebendaries lived elsewhere, the curates led a life of drunkeness and fornification, and the churches fabric was decaying at a faster rate than the morality of the inmates'.
3. Methodism in 18th Century Cornwall.
John Wesley was struck on the head while preaching in St Ives in 1745 and in the following year one of his prominent followers, James Wheatly was attacked by a West Cornwall mob (now known as the St Just Rugby Club) and only saved from his death by the intervention of the Mayor who was forced to read the Riot Act.
4. A Nineteenth Century Londoners view of the Cornish.
'One Penzance buisnessman complained that whenever he visited London he met with the preconcieved view that in Cornwall the underground inhabitants (Piskeys) are the most numerous... the above ground gentlemen are called smugglers... and those who are not stone eaters are cannibals!'
5. Average life Expectancy in St Just, circa 1850.
25!!!
6. Political Radicalism- Chartism in Cornwall
'When a prominent Chartist visited St Ives in 1839 and asked if there were any chartists about, he was informed that 'they catch no fish here but Pilchards and Mackeral'!
7.The Newlyn Riots 1896
'The people of Newlyn rioted in 1896 as visiting Yorkshire fishermen, or 'Yorkies' refused to observe the sabbath'.
8. 1930s Housing Acts
'Following the slum clearance policy of the 1930s, the men of Newlyn sailed 460 miles to London to prevent the wholesale destruction of the village'.
9. World War Two and Cornwall.
The government decided that in the event of a German invasion Cornwall would 'have probably been abandoned to the enemy'!
10. Our Devonian Neighbours say...
A Plymouth correspondant to the Western Morning News wrote that 'we may have built the Tamar bridge between us, but there is still something pretty odd at the western end of it'.