“By Ros, Car, Lan, Tre, Pol and Pen shall ye know Cornishmen”. (Survey of Cornwall, Richard Carew, 1602) The white walls and plain, utilitarian lines, (none the worse for that), tell a tale. In a previous incarnation the Mining Museum was a Wesleyan Chapel, built by/for the non-conformist engineers and skilled miners imported from Cornwall to run the Allihies/Berehaven mines. Legend even has it that it was a Cornish Dragoon lieutenant, out on patrol in the wild and rugged hills thereabouts who...
I refer you back to the teasing trailer elsewhere on this blog called “If there is a hole dug anywhere on earth, you’re sure to find a Cornishman at the Bottom”. At Allihies, the...
The second day of our Irish Odyssey, 11 April, along the Wild Atlantic Way started at Skibbereen. George’s expression in these photos could represent “Before” and “After” though they were taken seconds apart. In...
Caroline said “What about the Isle of Man? I’ve always fancied going there.” We were planning a few days away, somewhere not too arduous, for around the time of my 86th birthday in June...
On 9 April 2025, three of us, George, Kevin and me, were in Ireland; George is a native Irishman, Kevin, a passport holder, and me, a Brit, without a red corpuscle of Irish blood,...
This is a version of my short article in South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group’s Newsletter 67, Spring 2025 with an added, UNEXPECTED SEQUEL. My title was filched from “Trelawny’s Cornwall”, by the BBC Radio...
First, as the March 2025 BAFHS journal amply illustrates with its article on Ridgeway Park Cemetery, it is easy for family historians and conservationists to overlap, which is why a couple of paragraphs in...
Having watched the tail end (oops!) of Crufts the other night, (9th March 2025) I remembered one of our beloved dogs of days of yore, Kepler by name, who came second in a sausage...
The fledgling United States of America declared war on Great Britain in June 1812. This war seems to be all but forgotten in this country despite our burning of the White House and possibly...
In mid-December 2024 I learned the sad news of the death of my friend Richard Hendy. Our friendship alas goes back less than two years, a very short time in his long life. We...
I have been researching the social history of the West Country for 45 years. During this time I have collated information on a wide range of people living and working in the West Country including miners, ethnic minorities, petty criminals, sailors, tommies, benefactors, brassmakers and many more. The thing that I find amazing is that ordinary people always lived extraordinary lives. I hope you like my blog that brings together my lifetime of research.
