Cornish History

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The earliest evidence for human activity after the end of the last Ice Age (about 10,000 years ago) comes in the form of worked flints left by small groups of hunter gatherers. These Mesolithic people moved around the landscape: much of their food came from the sea but they also hunted for meat and skins, and collected nuts and berries from the forests which covered much of west Cornwall at this time. It is likely that they used fire and stone tools to create open spaces to attract deer which could then be hunted more easily. During the Neolithic period and Early Bronze Age (roughly 6000 to 3500 years ago), the earliest farmers cleared large areas of forest to create grazing for their herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats, leaving largely open landscapes of grass and heath. The first stone monuments were built during this period, including the chambered structures we know as ‘quoits’, followed later by standing stones, stone circles, barrows and cairns. The meanings of these sites for the people who built them are now lost but we can see that they formed complex ceremonial landscapes. It is clear from the sighting of these monuments that their builders gave importance to views to, from and between them, and to features of the natural landscape such as hills and rocky outcrops. This is a clue to the openness of the landscapes in which they were built.

Farming the land

From the Middle Bronze Age (about 1500 BC) there was a change: permanent settlements began to be established and large areas of better land were enclosed as fields. The population now depended to a much greater extent on the grain and other crops they grew. Livestock continued to be important and large areas in the uplands and between settlements were used as rough grazing. The practice of sending cattle from lowland farms to the moors during the summer months began at this time and continued until at least the later medieval period. This pattern of mixed farming, with cultivation and enclosed pasture in fields around settlements and extensive grazing on the downs and moors, continued with relatively little change in its basic elements into the nineteenth century: Middle Bronze Age farmers brought forward in time would have understood the methods of their Victorian successors.

The origins of the modern Cornish countryside

Many of the historic farm settlements we see today, particularly those with names including the Cornish elements tre- and bod-, were established between the seventh and tenth centuries AD. The typical form of these settlements was a small hamlet of several farm households. They farmed the same land as their prehistoric predecessors but the earlier field systems were altered or replaced by new layouts adapted to new methods of ploughing and land sharing. Each family cultivated a number of strips in the fields but also had rights in areas of ‘common’. These healthy commons were used for grazing dry cows, young beef cattle, sheep and goats, and supplied furze (gorse) and turf (peat) for cooking and heating. Bracken was harvested for animal bedding and surface stone taken for building and working into items such as gateposts. Occasionally, areas of the commons were put under temporary cultivation. The resources these commons provided were a vital part of the rural economy.

From about the seventeenth century parts of the downs and moors began to be enclosed as ‘crofts’, usually square or rectangular plots with banks of earth or stone around them. Crofts were not held in common but rather by individual households, enabling them to manage their fuel supply more carefully or graze animals separately from those of other farms. The creation of crofts continued during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but this period also saw large areas of former commons enclosed and improved to create new farms and smallholdings. This was a response to population growth and increasing demand for food, not least from the rapidly increasing industrial workforce. Major landowners encouraged the process because they then received rents for land which had previously given them no direct income. Much of west Cornwall’s industrial activity took place on the downs and moors: stream working for tin, mining for copper and tin and working surface or quarried stone. From the medieval period to the early twentieth century, many households in the St Just region were involved in both farming and industry.

The end of an era

The rise of steam shipping and particularly the completion of the railway link across the Tamar in 1859 opened up new markets to west Cornwall’s farmers and encouraged agricultural specialisation, particularly early vegetables and dairying. Grazing on rough ground declined: dairy cattle need richer pasture and have to be kept near the farm. Railways also brought cheap coal and the commons were used less and less as a source of fuel. A pattern of use which had continued largely unchanged over a period of at least 3,500 years went into steep decline. Mining and other industry also faded. As a result, the downs and moors which had been the focus for human activity for so long became near-deserted. Without grazing or fuel gathering many areas have become densely overgrown, especially since World War II.

Going forward

What we see on rough ground today, therefore, is not a ‘natural’ landscape but rather the results of a century or more of neglect.

The wildlife and scenic value of these landscapes has been reduced and archaeological features are hidden and can be damaged by the growth of bracken and scrub. To maintain and enhance its unique historic, wildlife and scenic value, heath land needs to be actively managed: in particular, scrub and bracken need to be controlled. These can be cut by hand or machinery over small areas and small controlled fires can also be used. The best solution for long-term care, however, is to restore the low-intensity livestock grazing which for so long was the major use of these areas.

Our Celtic Past

The Cornish are the second smallest of the six Celtic nationalities -- the Irish, Manx and Scots (Goidelic Celts), the Welsh, Bretons and Cornish (Brythonic Celts). The Cornish were the first Celtic nation to lose their language.  The last people with a native knowledge of the language died out in the nineteenth century.

These Celtic nationalities are all that is left of an ancient civilisation, which left its mark from Asia Minor to Ireland. The Celts were the first Trans-Alpine people to emerge into recorded history, originating, according to ancient chroniclers, from the region round the Lower Danube. They invaded and settled in Italy at the beginning of the third century BC and sacked Rome in 387-386 BC. The Romans remained under Celtic domination until 349 BC when they rose against their conquerors and by 355 BC the Celtic conquest had been turned back.  However, the Celts remained in Italy as settlers down to imperial times.  Evidence of their settlement is shown in such place names in northern Italy as Trevi, Treviso, Treviglio, the River Trebia, etc.  A comparison with some Cornish place names is interesting.

The early Celts were exponents of the Druid religion who taught the doctrine of immortality; that death is only a changing of place and their souls would return to earth again.  Julius Caesar observed that this religious outlook could have accounted for the reckless bravery of the Celts in battle, with their apparent complete lack of any fear of death.

The Druids were great natural scientists who had knowledge of physics and astronomy, applied in the construction of calendars. The earliest known Celtic calendar dates from the first century AD and is far more elaborate that the Julian one and is now in the Palais des Arts in Lyons, and is the oldest document in a Celtic language. This was the civilisation from which the Cornish emerged.

The Celts began to invade Britain in the first millennium BC and at the time of the Roman Conquest, 43 AD Britain was Brythonic, or British speaking. The Romans settled mainly in south-eastern Britain, stopping at Exeter and leaving Cornwall more or less untouched.

In the fifth and sixth centuries in the face of fierce invasion by the Saxons, large groups of Brythonic Celts migrated to Europe, taking with them the name of their country, which is known today as Brittany. Their language at the time of migration was exactly the same as Cornish and Welsh…the remaining British Celts occupied Western Britain, from Cornwall and Dover, their settlements extended from Wales to Cumberland, and into Scotland, where they mixed with Goidelic Celts. Faced with the onslaught of the Saxons, the Celts formed an alliance with the Scots, but after nearly two centuries the Celts were defeated by the English at the Battle of Winwaed Field in 655AD. This was the last time the Celts seriously contended with the English for supremacy in Britain.

The Celts became split into three groups and separated from each other -- the main bodies were driven into the mountainous western peninsula that became Wales.  A country called Cymru was formed in Northern Britain and became part of the Celtic kingdom of Scotland in the eleventh century. The following century the Scots were defeated by the English but they retained the ancient name of Cymru in the Anglicised form of Cambria and Cumberland. Unfortunately, the Celtic language soon ceased to be spoken, though Cumberland is still full of Celtic place names.

In the south-west of Britain the Celts of Devon and Cornwall united into the kingdom of Dumnonia, but its eastern border was weak and the Saxons began to move into Devon. Within a few years Dumnonia had fallen and the Celts were confined in the kingdom of Kernow which the English called Cornwall.

The geographical separation imposed upon the various groups of Brythonic Celts caused differentiations in their languages to emerge. Until the reign of Henry VIII there is no reliable knowledge of the state of the Cornish language; by this time it had become transformed from harsh Old Cornish into a softer sounding tongue, today called Middle Cornish. The fact that the language was reaching its highest development, may be seen from the amount of literature left to us from fifteenth and sixteenth century manuscripts.

By the start of the seventeenth century only a few Cornish speakers were left and they were mostly in the extreme west of Cornwall. Most of eastern Cornwall spoke only English, while the rest of the Duchy was bilingual. The seventeenth century saw a rapid deterioration of the language as an everyday form of speech and by the end of the century, Cornish speakers remained only from Land's End to the Mount and towards St Ives, and Redruth and again from Lizard towards Helston and Falmouth.

It appears that many of my Ascendants were miners from Wendron and later Redruth areas, and it could be assumed by reading the previous paragraphs that they had Celtic ties. I certainly have a sway towards the culture and law of those peoples.

Mining of Cornwall

The life of mining families in Cornwall was however very tough. As with coal mining, in other parts of Britain, boys from mining families started working in the mine from soon after the age of ten. Many health problems were endemic amongst the mining community – including chronic cough, tuberculosis, etc. Life expectancy was short and few miners were able to continue to work beyond the age of about 40.  There was 25 and 30 percent chance of dying between birth and 15 years. Young adults died at a rate of about 15%.  A woman over 21 could then expect to live to only 34 years due to multiple childbirths and the lack of obstetric knowledge. A man, particularly a squire, could expect to attain a ripe old age into his mid-sixties.

Plague, smallpox, scarlet fever and other epidemic killers were also responsible for death in Cornwall. The period between 1570 and 1670 saw frequent reoccurrences of Plague. Mass death brought mass burials and we can expect to see a deterioration in the record keeping at these times. Famine raged between 1594-97 due to wholesale crop failures and probably returned again in 1622 - 23 when the cloth industry failed at the same time as food prices rose.  Fires and accidents took their toll. However, the greatest single threat, particularly for the young, was contaminated food and drinking water. Accidents were common and injury or death an ever present threat, as is apparent to anyone who explores the numerous church burial grounds in the mining areas.

The gradual exhaustion of the copper and tin reserves, coupled with increased costs and the discovery of more easily accessible deposits elsewhere in the world, lead to progressive decline in Cornish mining industry, in the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century. There was a substantial exodus of Cornishmen, many of whom with their family tradition being tied up with mining over many generations, emigrated to other countries where they could use their skills.  Large Cornish communities grew up in such far flung places as the USA, South Africa, Australia and parts of South America. Others changed their trade, but all too often also left Cornwall and emigrated to other countries where the economic environment was better, such as Canada.

It has been said that, in the latter part of the nineteenth century at least (and probably well into the twentieth too), " down any mine, anywhere in the World, one would find a Cornishman".

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