Ertach Kernow - Cornish Historic, Cultural & Environmental Blogs

Cornish Historic, Cultural & Environmental articles will be added weekly on an ongoing basis. The links are to articles written for the Voice, Cornish Times and Cornish & Devon Post newspapers, aimed at audiences who are interested in aspects of Cornwall's heritage. The website articles may include expanded information and images that newspaper space did not allow.

Recent past articles are now in a slider allowing a quicker and wider view of some from the past few months - Just click the relevant article to go to the page. For desktop users arrows are at the far left & right to navigate images, click to open. For mobile device users swipe left until you reach the image then tap to open, the title will often appear slightly before the image. All the articles can still be seen via the Thumbnails and Index pages through these blue links, or via Homepage and header index.

July to December 2020

  1. How Truro came to be the capital city of Cornwall - The transfer of power through the ages
  2. Visionary who engineered a great chapter in Cornish history - Joseph Thomas Treffry
  3. Let's step out of lockdown into a history mystery - Cornish heritage sites administered by Cornwall Heritage Trust
  4. Turner's travels over Tamar tell Cornwall's story - J M W Turner's visit to Cornwall and his artwork
  5. Nostalgic Ride to a Land of Legend - Some Cornish tales and legends
  6. The Place names that help unlock our past history - The importance of place names in Cornwall's past
  7. Historic homes reveal dramatic family histories - Houses with Cornish family histories - Lanhydrock, Trerice, Cotehele
  8. Backtracking to our railway past - Cornwall and its railway beginnings
  9. Bude - Growth of a thriving resort town - Bude, its canal and its growth
  10. Cornwall’s great global Diaspora - Emigration leads to Cornish descendents throughout the world
  11. Villages guard clues to our heritage - Bodmin Moor's villages
  12. Storytellers will help keep alive Cornish identity - Gorsedh Kernow 2020
  13. Net profits for our old coastal communities - Fishing in Cornwall an overview
  14. Summercourt Fair well worth a nostalgic visit - The origins of Summercourt fair
  15. Enduring legacy of Cornwall's great benefactor - John Passmore Edwards
  16. How Tragedy at sea devastated lives left behind - Great storm of October 1880
  17. The father of local English history - John Leland his Cornish itinerary Launceston-Bodmin-Truro
  18. Lostwithiel - Rich layer of town's history - Lostwithiel historic capital of Cornwall
  19. In touch with our Celtic Festivals - Lowender Peran
  20. Landscape and legend entwined - Dozmary Pool
  21. Huge contribution to our culture - Cornish Archaeological Legend - Lt Col F C Hirst
  22. The marvel that's beneath our feet- The Great County Adit
  23. Revealing the Face of Tudor Cornwall - John Norden
  24. Inside Britain's Oldest Home - Penfound Manor
  25. Medieval Marvels Light up our Lives - Medieval Cornish church stained glass windows
  26. Cornwall at Christmas - Christmas past from the newspapers
  27. Wreck of the Anson - A wreck that changed attitudes and the law

  January to June 2021

  1. Greatest living Cornishman - Sir Arthur Quiller Couch 'Q'
  2. Preserving our holy ground - Cornish holy wells, recording and preserving them
  3. Fishing Smugglers and Wrecks - Stories of Mullion Cove
  4. Unlocking our past Cornwall's Canal Heritage - Overview of Cornwall canal's, built, not completed, planned and imagined
  5. Taking the High Ground - Bodmin's ancient hillforts - Castle Canyke and Dunmere
  6. Bridges battle for survival – Respryn Bridge - History and present day survival issues
  7. Miners toiled in the wake of St Piran - Mining in Perranporth
  8. Making a song and dance about us - Overview of some of Cornwall's cultural and historic heritage
  9. Lighting up the 'Age of the Saints' - St Petroc, Cornwall's medieval patron saint
  10. Amongst Mines and Miners - The work & achievements of J C Burrow, Camborne Photographer
  11. Rise and fall of our most iconic mine Botallack - Poldark, Royal visits and tunnels under the sea. The story of Botallack
  12. Roads to Fortune - Carrick Roads and the towns and settlements surrounding Cornwall's mighty waterway
  13. In the footsteps of Defoe - 18th century author of Robinson Crusoe tours Cornwall
  14. Britain's most beautiful branch line - St Erth to St Ives railway in the footsteps of Cyril Noall
  15. Brunel opens gateway to Cornwall - Saltash the opening of the Royal Albert Bridge and Cornwall Railway 1859
  16. Exploring the land of legend - Story Collectors & Storytellers
  17. A salute to the great Trevithick - An overview of Richard Trevithick a great Cornishman, his life and achievements
  18. Cornish Routes - Road development, turnpikes and toll-roads
  19. Called to the court of the king - Archaeology and the making of Tintagel as a destination
  20. The Newlyn Riots 125 years on - Religion and price of fish led to rioting in Newlyn
  21. Shining light in the darkness - Penzance's great son, Sir Humphry Davy
  22. Feisty travels with Celia - Early tour around Cornwall c1698 with Celia Fiennes
  23. The sky's the limit - Area of outstanding natural beauty AONB - Bodmin Moor
  24. Keep it Kernewek - Speak Cornish Week events and Cornish language
  25. A name perpetual - The Cornish uprising 1497 and dissatisfaction today
  26. Celtic Culture - International Celtic Congress and contribution from Celtic Congress Cornwall

July to December 2021

  1. On the edge - The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall
  2. Taxing Times, Cornwall's historic hundreds 'Stratton' - Background on the hundreds and first of nine - Stratton.
  3. Tudor Travels - John Leland around the Roseland Peninsula c1542
  4. River Journey's - The River Camel historic aspects
  5. For those in Peril - Saving life on the North Cornish coast before the RNLI lifeboats
  6. Fancy a pint? - Pubs in mid and west Cornwall, visited and written about by Arthur Caddick Cornish poet
  7. Portrait of a Parish - Botus Fleming Cornwall's second smallest parish
  8. Churches endure the ravages of time and man - Cury Church & Gunwalloe Church
  9. An idyllic scene - Visit to St Clements village and burial in Truro
  10. Opening up - Heritage Open Days in Cornwall - including many links
  11. Literary giant had powerful roots in Cornwall - Sir William Golding Cornish ancestry
  12. Full steam ahead - Early guidebooks to Cornwall
  13. Tall tower, deep roots - Probus church, schools and historic houses
  14. Legacies in stone - Early farming & Cornish hedges
  15. The Levant Disaster - The why's and wherefores of the Levant Man Engine disaster of 1919
  16. Crossing the Tamar - Opening of the Tamar Road Bridge 60th anniversary
  17. The Great Storm of 1859 - The 'Royal Charter Storm' death and destruction on land and sea
  18. Gone but not forgotten - Cyrus Redding journalist, writer and traveller
  19. Lyonesse, Lost lands & lessons - Myth & Legend meets 21st century reality
  20. Quethiock, a community destroyed in an afternoon - Sale of the manorial land broke up a community
  21. Read all about it (Cornish newspapers 1800 - 1840) - A range of historical articles
  22. Penhale to Wheal Coates - Including St Agnes AONB
  23. An enjoyable heritage day out - Visiting Minions Moor, Cheesewring, Hurlers, Trethevy Quoit, St Neot & pub lunch
  24. Mousehole - The loveliest village, history and traditions
  25. Cornish Christmas' past - How and why Christmas was celebrated and here in Cornwall
  26. Pictures of the Past - Engravings of Cornish towns and places

January to June 2022

  1. Saviours of the Cornish language - Early scholars preserving and translating Cornish
  2. 200 years of the coastguard - The early days excise duties and smugglers
  3. Slain by the satellites of Satan & Royal Navy Shipwrecks 
  4. John Thomas Blight - His work and an overview of his unfortunate life
  5. Spreading wings - Overview of the origins of Liskeard, Looe, Camborne, Redruth and Pool
  6. The men behind Richard Lander's famous Cornish Statue - Lander, Monument, Neville Northey Burnard and Philip Sambell
  7. An Ancient History Ruan Linkinhorne - Parish, and historic families and castle
  8. The Birth of Tin Mining - Exporting tin through the Mediterranean to the Levant 
  9. Songs for Cornwall - Cornwall's unique songs and music
  10. Hillforts and cliff castles - Visit some of these throughout Cornwall
  11. The Great Blizzard of 1891 - Transport, woodland, businesses and people how they were all effected 
  12. Quirks of fate - Mitchell a Cornish Rotten Borough - The rise and fall of a historic village
  13. A Penwith road trip - Visiting various historic sites in Penwith with two young lads
  14. Digging into the past and Richard Earl of Cornwall - Evolving Cornish Archaeological Society / Commemorating 750th anniversary of the death of Richard Earl of Cornwall
  15. Travels around West Wivelshire - Following the travels of Tudor cartographer John Norden
  16. Traditions that mean Home - Celebrating Celtic festival of Beltane
  17. 1872 ago from historic Cornish journals - The Royal Institution of Cornwall and Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society journals
  18. Water water everywhere- Drought in 1976 and Cornish reservoirs and water supply sources
  19. Camelford History - A day visit to Camelford and something of its history
  20. On the edge of memory - Cornish monuments to famous people of their day and forgotten war dead
  21. The Hungry Forties - 19th century famine and hunger in Cornwall, Ireland and Scotland. Cornish food riots.
  22. The Lanhydrock Atlas a Historic Jewel - Lanhydrock Atlas and the house and estate
  23. How we used to work - Comparing work in Cornwall from the first modern census of 1841
  24. The Tudors and loss of Cornish Identity - Religious upheaval leading to near loss of Cornish language and identity
  25. Home sweet home through history - Cornish house construction through time
  26. Travels with Celia Fiennes - Celia's continuing Cornish journey in 1698

July to December 2022

  1. Helston early historic Cornish town - The early days of Helston
  2. The Rule of Law, Administering Cornish Justice - The Assizes: Where Justice was administered 
  3. Cornwall too 'bleake' for windmills - Some of Cornwall rare windmills and their remains today
  4. Blisland a historic and pretty parish - Visiting Blisland and walking round looking at this pretty and interesting parish
  5. Cornwall's wonderful gardens - looking at some of the gardens in Cornwall their history and families who began them
  6. Sabine Baring-Gould and the Cornish Giant - Introduction to Sabine Baring-Gould and Anthony Payne and portrait
  7. Cool and Tranquil - Cornish churches cool and tranquil - St Enoder and St Julitta at Lanteglos-by-Camelford
  8. Growth and Decay - Tresillian and Merther two Cornish villages
  9. William Borlase Cornish Antiquarian - Background on one of Cornwall's most important recorders of Cornish antiquities
  10. Celtic Cousins - Connections to Brittany, shared heritage language roots, saints, monuments and interests
  11. Travels with Defoe - Daniel Defoe, travels from Fowey to Falmouth in the early 18th century
  12. Earls and Dukes of Cornwall - Earls of Cornwall, the creation of the Duchy, later Dukes and transfer of power
  13. Kilkhampton a Story of Hero's Villains and Anarchy - The Grenville Family, castle & church doings
  14. Cornwall, Read all about it - New books, old books, Cornish libraries
  15. Cornwall leading the world - Cornwall not so backward and leading the world
  16. The historic parish of Breage - Historic tin mine, beginning of Cornwall's china clay industry, wealthy families, haunted castle.
  17. The Luxulyan Valley and Industrial Woodlands - a walk through the beautiful valley & Charlestown history
  18. Ancient Celtic celebrations and artefacts - looking at Samhain and some of the beautiful gold objects being exhibited at the RCM
  19. Digging in - The importance of archaeology for Cornwall - Looking at archaeology and the wider benefits to Cornwall
  20. Cornwall's railways; Beeching branch line closures - Branch line loss, survival and afterwards
  21. Portreath weathering the storms - Portreath Harbour as an important Cornish fishing and mineral port
  22. Vanishing social heritage - Some of Cornwall's historic pubs, existing and lost
  23. Sir John Betjeman, a great adopted Cornishman - How and why John Betjeman came to love Cornwall
  24. Marazion more than just a view - An historic trading settlement overlooking Mount's Bay and St Michael's Mount
  25. Researching Family History - Sharing experiences in using DNA and researching family history
  26. Cornish heritage recorded in art - Artists recording places, events and day to day life in art and photography

January to June 2023

  1. The rise and decline of Cornish Methodism - Chapels being monitored by The Cornish Buildings Group
  2. Celebration of Cornish Music - An overview of Cornish music and the Cornish National Music Archive
  3. Port Navas strikes our screens - Seen on BBC Drama series Strike the 18th/19th century Cornish quarry port of Porth Navas
  4. Forgotten genius Sir Goldsworthy Gurney? - Lighting, steam cars, musical instruments and all manner of ideas
  5. John Norden travels around the Powder Hundred - Major towns, sites of interest during Cornwall's Tudor Elizabethan Age
  6. Cornwall's Western Quoits - History of Cornwall's Western Quoits
  7. Sir Christopher Hawkins, Boroughmonger - Notorious Cornish landowner, MP and pocket borough owner
  8. Historic Cornish Hotels - From the early to late 19th century, many still standing and part of Cornwall's heritage
  9. National patron saints of Cornwall - Cornwall's triumvirate of national patron saints. St Michael, St Petroc and St Piran
  10. Caradon Hill - boom to bust - The short lived copper boom at Caradon Hill and the inevitable bust that followed.
  11. Polruan Historic Heritage - Its history as a part of the parish of Laneglos by Fowey, early trading and later shipbuilding
  12. Cornwall environment and culture - How Cornwall's environment shaped it's culture and heritage
  13. Church in a Hillfort - How a hillfort on the outskirts of St Dennis  was later occupied by a church
  14. Cornish poets and poetry - Well-known and not so well-known poets inspired by Cornwall and its people
  15. Cornwall's geological legacy - The formation of Cornwall, its rocks and stone created its future story 
  16. The logan stone of Treen - It's rocky history and how it was involved in a British national scandal
  17. Spring travels around Cornwall - Cornwall Heritage Trust sites, visiting Bodmin Moor, St Wyllow Church at Lanteglos by Fowey
  18. Porthleven History - How Porthleven evolved from a fishing village to a tourist town
  19. Kings and Cornish History - How certain historic English kings had an affect on Cornish history and identity
  20. Cornish Emigration to Australia - Convicts, Orphans, Miners all making up the Cornish Diaspora in Australia today
  21. St Germans a village with history and fun - This historic church village has and still enjoys festivals and fun events
  22. The fall and rise of Cornish woodland - Cornish woodlands diminished, gradual rebuild including lately the Forest for Cornwall
  23. Cornish Census and Surveys - What the census and survey records tell us about Cornwall's population
  24. Porthcurno. Centre of the worlds communications - World communication from Porthcurno linking Britain to its empire.
  25. Warleggan, once isolated and insular - The story of a village, once one of the most isolated in Cornwall and its eccentric vicar
  26. Cornish historic road bridges - Background to Cornish roads. two of Cornwall's historic bridges Treverbyn and Wadebridge.

July to December 2023

  1. King Arthur, Cornwall's Arthurian legacy - The origins of the King Arthur legend in Cornwall
  2. St Veep a once busy quiet parish - Riverside village of Lerryn and nearby haunting ruins of 1920's Tivoli Park
  3. Antique books share stories - Lost buildings, historic dance, ancient ruins. Looking at Penzance, Rescorla and Roche.
  4. Tamar Valley medieval jewel - Cotehele Estate with its house, gardens, woodland and quay. A terrific place to visit. 
  5. Enjoying the Fowey Estuary - Biodiverse environment meets historic buildings and sites of interest and wonderful views. 
  6. Climate aids Cornish farming - Cornwall's mild winters and warm damp climate with global warming aids new crops and products
  7. Gwennap a rich mining history - A tour around Gwennap parish its villages, and some of its many sites of interest.
  8. Unsentimental journey to the Lizard - Mrs Craik and her 'ducklings' first leg of their visit to Cornwall to the Lizard.
  9. St Mawgan in Pydar historic and modern villages - Two very different villages in this historic parish
  10. Trevelyan a dark history - A look at this old Cornish family and the dark side of their history including  during the Irish famine
  11. Cardinham a parish full of history - Hillfort, medieval castle remains, historic church to crosses and inscribed stones.
  12. Cornwall its environment and heritage - An overview of Cornwall statutory protected areas, AONB's, SSSI's and local offerings
  13. Cornish fishing, the early years - Looking at fishing in Cornwall and Cornish coastal communities during the medieval period
  14. The Poly, encouraging innovation in Cornwall - Origins of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic in the early and mid-19th century.
  15. Cornish folktales and stories saved - Cornish folklore, myths and legends saved by Robert Hunt, William Bottrell and others
  16. Morwenstow - Cornwall's most northly parish - Hawker country, beautiful and interesting coastline and interior villages
  17. Bypassed but not forgotten - Often referred to as Cornwall's forgotten corner this is an interesting and beautiful part of Cornwall.
  18. Passed Cornish Storms - A look at some past 19th century storms that had an effect on Cornwall and some communities
  19. Medieval Education in Cornwall - Mostly based around religious houses the Reformation changed much to Cornish education
  20. Padstow Haven and the infamous Doom Bar - Padstow a port from medieval times has been plagued by the infamous Dunbar
  21. Cornish heritage at risk - A look at the 2023 Historic England entries for Cornwall and some of those places mentioned
  22. Coverack to Porthoustock a deadly coastline - Small fishing villages, beautiful scenery, dangerous coastline, death on the rocks
  23. Some eminent Truronian buildings - Grand buildings from the seventeen to twentieth centuries grace Truro's streets.
  24. Debating Cornish People - Students debate Cornish people they believe deserve greater recognition, perhaps beyond Cornwall.
  25. For the love of Cornwall - Reviewing 'A Cornish Chorus' uplifting poems, prose and descriptions published in 1948 (Download)
  26. Reviewing Ertach Kernow 2023 - A look at the wide range of Cornish historic, cultural and environmental topics covered in 2023

January to June 2024

  1. Continuing early travels in Cornwall - Considering early travellers and writers to Cornwall from the 15th century
  2. Visiting Land's End - The development of Land's End from some of its earliest visitors and as a tourist destination
  3. Tragedy at Wheal Owles - Human tragedy and death in Cornish mining this looks at at Wheal Owles and the 1893 disaster
  4. Beautiful Historic Calstock - An overview of this lovely largely rural parish on the Tamar from its earliest days
  5. Glynn Valley engineering feats - The still beautiful Glynn Valley, a look at some man made changes throughout the ages 
  6. The Roscarrock's of Roscarrock - A historic farmstead giving its name to a longstanding Cornish family
  7. Origins of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall - The men who began it and the society's aims and development
  8. Celia Fiennes goodbye to Cornwall - The final part of Celia's journey around Cornwall in 1698
  9. Perranzabuloe, St Piran’s three churches - Some 1400 years of St Piran church history in Perranzabuloe, oratory to parish church
  10. Limekilns a Cornish industrial legacy - A numerous remnant of 18th & 19th century Cornish industrial heritage
  11. Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall - Rev John Whitaker included much historic information in his book published in 1804

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Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall

A column is available on the Ertach Kernow pages now covered in the Cornish Voice newspaper editions, Cornish Times, and Cornish & Devon Post for Cornish heritage groups or organisations to share newsworthy information. Please contact associationcornishheritage@gmail.com to discuss and arrange this free opportunity to share your news in newspaper editions throughout Cornwall, our website and our wider social media platforms.