Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a
historic county and
ceremonial county in
South West England
South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities ...
. It is recognised as one of the
Celtic nations
The Celtic nations are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived. The term ''nation'' is used in its original sense to mean a people who shar ...
, and is the homeland of the
Cornish people
The Cornish people or Cornish ( kw, Kernowyon, ang, Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons ...
. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
, to the south by the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
, and to the east by the county of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, with the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
T ...
forming the border between them. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the
South West Peninsula
The South West Peninsula is the area of England between the Bristol Channel to the north and the English Channel to the south. It is part of the South West region of England, and includes the counties of Cornwall, Devon, and (depending on its pre ...
of the island of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
. The southwesternmost point is
Land's End
Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
and the southernmost
Lizard Point. Cornwall has a population of and an area of .
The county has been administered
since 2009 by the
unitary
Unitary may refer to:
Mathematics
* Unitary divisor
* Unitary element
* Unitary group
* Unitary matrix
* Unitary morphism
* Unitary operator
* Unitary transformation
* Unitary representation
* Unitarity (physics)
* ''E''-unitary inverse semigrou ...
authority,
Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...
. The ceremonial county of Cornwall also includes the
Isles of Scilly, which are
administered separately. The
administrative centre of Cornwall is
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
, its only
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
.
Cornwall was formerly a
Brythonic kingdom
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
and subsequently a
royal duchy
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, t ...
. It is the cultural and ethnic origin of the
Cornish diaspora
The Cornish diaspora ( kw, keskar kernewek) consists of Cornish people and their descendants who emigrated from Cornwall, United Kingdom. The diaspora is found within the United Kingdom, and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Austral ...
. The Cornish
nationalist movement contests the present
constitutional status of Cornwall
The constitutional status of Cornwall has been a matter of debate and dispute. In modern times, Cornwall is an administrative county of England.
In ethnic and cultural terms, until around 1700, Cornwall and its inhabitants were regarded as a ...
and seeks greater
autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative
Cornish Assembly
A Cornish Assembly ( kw, Senedh Kernow) is a proposed devolved law-making assembly for Cornwall along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and the Northern Ireland Assembly in the United Kingdom.
The campaign fo ...
with powers similar to those in
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In 2014, Cornish people were granted minority status under the European
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe aimed at protecting the rights of minorities. It came into effect in 1998 and by 2009 it had been ratified by 39 member ...
,
giving them recognition as a distinct ethnic group.
Recent discoveries of
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
remains in Cornwall indicate a greater Roman presence there than once thought.
After the
collapse of the Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
, Cornwall (along with
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, parts of
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
and
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, and the
Scilly Isles
The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...
) was a part of the Brittonic kingdom of
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, ...
, ruled by chieftains of the
Cornovii
The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was in Caithness in northernmost Scotland, and there was probably one in Cornwall. The name has ...
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
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
''. The Cornovii division of the
Dumnonii
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Ir ...
tribe were separated from their fellow Brythons of Wales after the
Battle of Deorham
The Battle of Deorham (or Dyrham) is claimed as a decisive military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons of the West Country in 577. The battle, which was a major victory for Wessex's forces led by Ceawlin and his son, Cuthwine, ...
in AD 577, and often came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
. The regions of Dumnonia outside of Cornwall (and
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
) had been annexed by the English by AD 838.
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
The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
T ...
.
[Stenton, F. M. (1947) ''Anglo-Saxon England''. Oxford: Clarendon Press; p. 337] From the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
, language and culture were shared by Brythons trading across both sides of the Channel, resulting in the corresponding
high medieval Breton kingdoms of
Domnonée
Domnonée is the modern French form of Domnonia or Dumnonia (Latin for "Devon"; br, Domnonea), a historic kingdom in northern Armorica (Brittany) founded by British immigrants from Dumnonia (Sub-Roman Devon) fleeing the Saxon invasions of Britai ...
and
Cornouaille
Cornouaille (; br, Kernev, Kerne) is a historical region on the west coast of Brittany in West France. The name is cognate with Cornwall in neighbouring Great Britain. This can be explained by the settlement of Cornouaille by migrant princ ...
and the
Celtic Christianity common to both areas.
Tin mining
Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm.
History
Tin extraction and use can ...
was important in the Cornish economy from the High Middle Ages, and expanded greatly in the 19th century when rich copper mines were also in production. In the mid-19th century, tin and copper mines entered a period of decline and china clay extraction became more important. Mining had virtually ended by the 1990s.
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
and agriculture were the other important sectors of the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
, but railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century after the decline of the mining and fishing industries. Since the late 2010s there have been hopes of a resurgence of mining in Cornwall after the discovery of 'globally significant' deposits of lithium to help power the electric car revolution.
Cornwall is noted for its geology and coastal scenery. A large part of the
Cornubian batholith
The Cornubian batholith is a large mass of granite rock, formed about 280 million years ago, which lies beneath much of Devon and Cornwall, the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. The main exposed masses of granite are seen at Dartmoor, Bo ...
is within Cornwall. The
north coast has many cliffs where exposed geological formations are studied. 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, and its very mild
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
. Extensive stretches of Cornwall's coastline, and
Bodmin Moor, are protected as
an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Name
The modern
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
name Cornwall is a
compound
Compound may refer to:
Architecture and built environments
* Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall
** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...
of two ancient
demonyms
A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...
coming from two different language groups:
*Corn- originates from the
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...
"*karnos" ("
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
" or "
headland") is
cognate with the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
word "
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
" (both deriving from the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
*ker-). An Iron Age tribe that occupied the Cornish peninsula, the ''
Cornovii
The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was in Caithness in northernmost Scotland, and there was probably one in Cornwall. The name has ...
'' ("peninsula people") may have also existed.
*-wall derives from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
"", meaning "foreigner" (i.e. a
Welsh person).
In the
Cornish language, Cornwall is Kernow which stems from the same
Proto-Celtic
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...
root.
History
Prehistory, Roman and post-Roman periods
Humans reoccupied
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
after the
last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the
Palaeolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...
and
Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
and then by
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
people.
According to
John T. Koch
John T. Koch is an American academic, historian and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory and the early Middle Ages. He is the editor of the five-volume ''Celtic Culture. A Historical Encyclopedia'' (2006, ABC Clio). He ...
and others,
Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age formed part of a maritime trading-networked culture which researchers have dubbed the
Atlantic Bronze Age
The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period in Prehistoric Europe of approximately 1300–700 BC that includes different cultures in Britain, France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
Trade
The Atlantic Bronze Age ...
and which extended over the areas of present-day Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, and Portugal.
During the
British Iron Age, Cornwall, like all of Britain (modern England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man), was inhabited by a
Celtic people known as the
Britons
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
. The
Common Brittonic spoken at the time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including
Cornish,
Welsh,
Breton,
Cumbric
Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
and
Pictish
Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...
.
The first written account of Cornwall comes from the 1st-century BC Sicilian Greek historian
Diodorus Siculus, supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer
Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain:
The identity of these merchants is unknown. It has been theorised that they were
Phoenicia
Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns, but there is no evidence for this. Professor Timothy Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that the Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organised by local merchants, by sea and then over land through France, passing through areas well outside Phoenician control." Isotopic evidence suggests that tin ingots found off the coast of
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, came from Cornwall. Tin, required for the production of bronze, was a relatively rare and precious commodity in the Bronze Age – hence the interest shown in Devon and Cornwall's tin resources. (For further discussion of tin mining see
the section on the economy below.)
In the first four centuries CE, during the time of
Roman dominance in Britain, Cornwall was rather remote from the main centres of Romanisation – the nearest being
Isca Dumnoniorum
Isca Dumnoniorum, also known simply as Isca, was originally a Roman legionary fortress for the Second Augustan Legion (established ) in the Roman province of Britannia at the site of present-day Exeter in Devon.
The town grew up around this ...
, modern day
Exeter. However, the Roman road-system extended into Cornwall with four significant Roman sites based on forts: Tregear near
Nanstallon was discovered in the early 1970s, two others were found at
Restormel Castle
Restormel Castle ( kw, Kastel Rostorrmel) lies by the River Fowey near Lostwithiel in Cornwall, England, UK. It is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall, the others being Launceston, Tintagel and Trematon. The castle is notable for ...
, Lostwithiel in 2007, and a third fort near
Calstock was also discovered early in 2007. In addition, a Roman-style villa was found at
Magor Farm, Illogan in 1935. However, after 410 CE, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the
Cornovii
The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was in Caithness in northernmost Scotland, and there was probably one in Cornwall. The name has ...
tribe as part of the Brittonic kingdom of
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, ...
(which also included present-day Devonshire and the Scilly Isles), including the territory of one
Marcus Cunomorus, with at least one significant power base at
Tintagel
Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surroundin ...
in the early 6th century.
"King"
Mark of Cornwall
Mark of Cornwall ( la, Marcus, kw, Margh, cy, March, br, Marc'h) was a sixth-century King of Kernow (Cornwall), possibly identical with King Conomor. He is best known for his appearance in Arthurian legend as the uncle of Tristan and the husb ...
is a semi-historical figure known from Welsh literature, from the
Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
, and, in particular, from the later Norman-Breton medieval romance of
Tristan and Yseult, where he appears as a close relative of
King Arthur, himself usually considered to be born of the Cornish people in folklore traditions derived from
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography ...
's 12th-century ''
Historia Regum Britanniae
''Historia regum Britanniae'' (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called ''De gestis Britonum'' (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. I ...
''.
Archaeology supports ecclesiastical, literary and legendary evidence for some relative economic stability and close cultural ties between the
sub-Roman Westcountry
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...
, South Wales, Brittany, the Channel Islands, and Ireland through the fifth and sixth centuries.
Conflict with Wessex
The
Battle of Deorham
The Battle of Deorham (or Dyrham) is claimed as a decisive military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons of the West Country in 577. The battle, which was a major victory for Wessex's forces led by Ceawlin and his son, Cuthwine, ...
in 577 saw the separation of
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, ...
(and therefore Cornwall) from Wales, following which the
Dumnonii
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Devon and Cornwall (and some areas of present-day Dorset and Somerset) in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Ir ...
often came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
. The ''
Annales Cambriae
The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...
'' report that in AD 722 the Britons of Cornwall won a battle at
"Hehil". It seems likely that the enemy the Cornish fought was a West Saxon force, as evidenced by the naming of
King Ine of Wessex and his kinsman Nonna in reference to an earlier Battle of Llongborth in 710.
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' stated in 815 (adjusted date) "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." this has been interpreted to mean a raid from the Tamar to Land's End, and the end of Cornish independence. However, the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' states that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at
Gafulforda. The Cornish giving battle here, and the later battle at Hingston Down, casts doubt on any claims of control Wessex had at this stage.
In 838, the Cornish and their Danish allies were defeated by Egbert in the
Battle of Hingston Down
The Battle of Hingston Down took place in 838, probably at Hingston Down in Cornwall between a combined force of Cornish and Vikings on the one side, and West Saxons led by Ecgberht, King of Wessex on the other. The result was a West Saxon ...
at Hengestesdune. In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall,
Dumgarth, is said to have drowned. Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the north eastern part of Cornwall; notably
Alfred the Great who had acquired a few estates.
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as " ...
, writing around 1120, says that King
Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
T ...
.
While elements of William's story, like the burning of
Exeter, have been cast in doubt by recent writers
Athelstan did re-establish a separate
Cornish Bishop and relations between Wessex and the Cornish elite improved from the time of his rule.
Eventually
King Edgar was able to issue charters the width of Cornwall, and frequently sent emissaries or visited personally as seen by his appearances in the
Bodmin Manumissions
The Bodmin manumissions are records included in a manuscript Gospel book, the Bodmin Gospels or St Petroc Gospels, British Library, Add MS 9381. The manuscript is mostly in Latin, but with elements in Old English and the earliest written example ...
.
Breton–Norman period
One interpretation of the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
is that by this time the native Cornish landowning class had been almost completely dispossessed and replaced by English landowners, particularly
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the ...
himself. However, the
Bodmin manumissions
The Bodmin manumissions are records included in a manuscript Gospel book, the Bodmin Gospels or St Petroc Gospels, British Library, Add MS 9381. The manuscript is mostly in Latin, but with elements in Old English and the earliest written example ...
show that two leading Cornish figures nominally had Saxon names, but these were both glossed with native Cornish names. In 1068,
Brian of Brittany
Brian of Brittany ( 1042 – 14 February, perhaps bef. 1086) was a Breton nobleman who fought in the service of William I of England. A powerful magnate in south-western England, he was the first post-Conquest earl of Cornwall.
Brian was born ...
may have been created
Earl of Cornwall
The title of Earl of Cornwall was created several times in the Peerage of England before 1337, when it was superseded by the title Duke of Cornwall, which became attached to heirs-apparent to the throne.
Condor of Cornwall
* Condor of Cornwall, ...
, and naming evidence cited by medievalist
Edith Ditmas suggests that many other post-Conquest landowners in Cornwall were Breton allies of the Normans, the Bretons being descended from Britons who had fled to what is today
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
during the early years of the Anglo-Saxon conquest. She also proposed this period for the early composition of the
Tristan and Iseult
Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...
cycle by poets such as
Béroul
Béroul was a Norman or Breton poet of the 12th century. He wrote ''Tristan'', a Norman language version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult of which a certain number of fragments (approximately 3000 verses) have been preserved; it is the earlies ...
from a pre-existing shared Brittonic oral tradition.
Soon after the
Norman conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...
most of the land was transferred to the new Breton–Norman aristocracy, with the lion's share going to
Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of
King William and the largest landholder in England after the king with his stronghold at
Trematon Castle
Trematon Castle ( kw, Kastel Tremen) is situated near Saltash in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was the ''caput'' of the feudal barony of Trematon. It is similar in style to the later Restormel Castle, with a 12th-century keep. Trematon C ...
near the mouth of the Tamar.
Later medieval administration and society
Subsequently, however, Norman absentee landlords became replaced by a new Cornish-Norman ruling class including scholars such as
Richard Rufus of Cornwall. These families eventually became the new rulers of Cornwall, typically speaking
Norman French, Breton-Cornish,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, and eventually English, with many becoming involved in the operation of the
Stannary Parliament system, the Earldom and eventually the
Duchy of Cornwall. The
Cornish language continued to be spoken and acquired a number of characteristics establishing its identity as a separate language from
Breton.
Stannary parliaments
The
stannary parliaments and stannary courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon (in the Dartmoor area). The stannary courts administered
equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines. The separate and powerful government institutions available to the tin miners reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the English economy during the Middle Ages. Special laws for tin miners pre-date written legal codes in Britain, and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Cornwall and Devon from any jurisdiction other than the stannary courts in all but the most exceptional circumstances.
Piracy and smuggling
Cornish piracy was active during the Elizabethan era on the west coast of Britain.
Cornwall is well known for its
wreckers who preyed on ships passing Cornwall's rocky coastline. During the 17th and 18th centuries Cornwall was a major
smuggling area.
Heraldry
In later times, Cornwall was known to the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
as "West Wales" to distinguish it from "North Wales" (the modern nation of
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
). The name appears in the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' in 891 as ''On Corn walum''. In the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
it was referred to as ''Cornualia'' and in c. 1198 as ''Cornwal''.
Other names for the county include a
latinisation of the name as ''Cornubia'' (first appears in a mid-9th-century deed purporting to be a copy of one dating from c. 705), and as ''Cornugallia'' in 1086.
Physical geography
Cornwall forms the tip of the south-west peninsula of the island of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
, and is therefore exposed to the full force of the
prevailing winds
In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on ...
that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is composed mainly of
resistant rocks that give rise in many places to tall cliffs. Cornwall has a border with only one other county,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, which is formed almost entirely by the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities.
T ...
, and the remainder (to the north) by the
Marsland Valley
Marsland Valley is a nature reserve situated in two large valleys which straddle the northern end of the Devon-Cornwall border. It is a designated nature reserve jointly managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The re ...
.
Coastal areas
The north and south coasts have different characteristics. The north coast on the
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea ; cy, Y Môr Celtaidd ; kw, An Mor Keltek ; br, Ar Mor Keltiek ; french: La mer Celtique is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits includ ...
, part of the Atlantic Ocean, is more exposed and therefore has a wilder nature. The prosaically named ''High Cliff'', between
Boscastle
Boscastle ( kw, Kastel Boterel) is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster (where the 2011 Census population was included) . It is south of Bude and northeast of Tin ...
and
St Gennys
St Gennys ( kw, S. Gwynnas) is a coastal civil parish and small settlement in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The hamlet of St Gennys is about seven miles (11.3 km) southwest of Bude.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 '' ...
, is the highest sheer-drop cliff in Cornwall at . However, there are also many extensive stretches of fine golden sand which form the beaches important to the tourist industry, such as those at
Bude
Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Corn ...
,
Polzeath
Polzeath (; kw, Polsegh, meaning ''dry creek'') is a small seaside resort village in the civil parish of St Minver in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately north west of Wadebridge on the Atlantic coast.Ordnance Survey: Land ...
,
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay ( kw, Porth Tregoryan, meaning ''cove at Coryan's farmstead/village'') is a long bay or beach flanked by cliffs centred two miles NNE of Newquay below the B3276 Newquay to Padstow road near the hamlet of Tregurrian in Cornwall, Uni ...
,
Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
,
Porthtowan
Porthtowan ( kw, Porth Tewyn, meaning ''cove of sand dunes'') is a small village in Cornwall, England which is a popular summer tourist destination. Porthtowan is on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of Redruth, w ...
,
Fistral Beach
Fistral Beach is in Fistral Bay ( kw, Porth an Vystel, meaning ''cove of the foul water'') on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated half-a-mile west of Newquay at .
Fistral Bay is bounded by two promontor ...
,
Newquay
Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...
,
St Agnes,
St Ives, and on the south coast
Gyllyngvase beach in
Falmouth and the large beach at
Praa Sands
Praa Sands ( kw, Poll an Wragh), (formerly Prah Sands) commonly pronounced pray or prah, is a white-sand beach and coastal village in Cornwall, England. It is in the parish of Breage and lies off the A394 road between Helston and Penzance. For ...
further to the south-west. There are two river estuaries on the north coast:
Hayle Estuary and the estuary of the
River Camel
The River Camel ( kw, Dowr Kammel, meaning ''crooked river'') is a river in Cornwall, England. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and with its tributaries its catchment area covers much of North Cornwall. The river flows into the eastern Ce ...
, which provides
Padstow
Padstow (; kw, Lannwedhenek) is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately northwest of Wadebridge, northwest of Bodmin and ...
and
Rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
with a safe harbour. The seaside town of
Newlyn
Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''
Newlyn lies on the shore of Moun ...
is a popular holiday destination, as it is one of the last remaining traditional Cornish fishing ports, with views reaching over Mount's Bay.
The south coast, dubbed the "Cornish Riviera", is more sheltered and there are several broad estuaries offering safe anchorages, such as at Falmouth and
Fowey. Beaches on the south coast usually consist of coarser sand and shingle, interspersed with rocky sections of
wave-cut platform
A wave-cut platform, shore platform, coastal bench, or wave-cut cliff is the narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff or along the shoreline of a lake, bay, or sea that was created by erosion. Wave-cut platforms are often most ob ...
. Also on the south coast, the picturesque fishing village of
Polperro
Polperro ( kw, Porthpyra, meaning ''Pyra's cove'') is a large village, civil parish, and fishing harbour within the Polperro Heritage Coastline in south Cornwall, England. Its population is around 1,554.
Polperro, through which runs the River ...
, at the mouth of the Pol River, and the fishing port of
Looe
Looe (; kw, Logh, ) is a coastal town and civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 at the 2011 census.
Looe is west of Plymouth and south of Liskeard, divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe ( kw, links ...
on the
River Looe
The River Looe ( kw, Logh, meaning ''deep water inlet'') is a river in south-east Cornwall, which flows into the English Channel at Looe. It has two main branches, the East Looe River and the West Looe River. The eastern branch has its source n ...
are both popular with tourists.
Inland areas
The interior of the county consists of a roughly east–west spine of infertile and exposed upland, with a series of
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
intrusions, such as
Bodmin Moor, which contains the highest land within Cornwall. From east to west, and with approximately descending altitude, these are Bodmin Moor,
Hensbarrow
Hensbarrow is a natural region in the county of Cornwall, England, UK, that has been recognized as National Character Area 154 by Natural England.
Hensbarrow is an upland region covering an area of just under 12,000 hectares immediately north o ...
north of
St Austell,
Carnmenellis to the south of
Camborne, and the
Penwith
Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...
or
Land's End
Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
peninsula. These intrusions are the central part of the granite outcrops that form the exposed parts of the
Cornubian batholith
The Cornubian batholith is a large mass of granite rock, formed about 280 million years ago, which lies beneath much of Devon and Cornwall, the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. The main exposed masses of granite are seen at Dartmoor, Bo ...
of south-west Britain, which also includes
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...
to the east in Devon and the
Isles of Scilly to the west, the latter now being partially submerged.
The intrusion of the granite into the surrounding
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
rocks gave rise to extensive
metamorphism
Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of ch ...
and
mineralisation, and this led to Cornwall being one of the most important mining areas in Europe until the early 20th century. It is thought
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
was mined here as early as the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, and copper, lead,
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
and silver have all been
mined in Cornwall. Alteration of the granite also gave rise to extensive deposits of
China Clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
, especially in the area to the north of St Austell, and the extraction of this remains an important industry.
The uplands are surrounded by more fertile, mainly
pastoral farmland. Near the south coast, deep wooded valleys provide sheltered conditions for flora that like shade and a moist, mild climate. These areas lie mainly on
Devonian sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
and
slate. The north east of Cornwall lies on
Carboniferous rocks known as the
Culm Measures
The Culm Measures are a thick sequence of geological strata originating during the Carboniferous Period that occur in south-west England, principally in Devon and Cornwall, now known as the Culm Supergroup. Its estimated thickness varies between 36 ...
. In places these have been subjected to severe folding, as can be seen on the north coast near
Crackington Haven and in several other locations.
Lizard Peninsula
The
geology of the Lizard peninsula is unusual, in that it is mainland Britain's only example of an
ophiolite
An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks.
The Greek word ὄφις, ''ophis'' (''snake'') is found ...
, a section of oceanic crust now found on land. Much of the peninsula consists of the dark green and red
Precambrian serpentinite
Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''se ...
, which forms spectacular cliffs, notably at
Kynance Cove, and carved and polished serpentine ornaments are sold in local gift shops. This
ultramafic rock
Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...
also forms a very infertile soil which covers the flat and marshy heaths of the interior of the peninsula. This is home to rare plants, such as the
Cornish Heath
''Erica vagans'', the Cornish heath or wandering heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to Ireland, Cornwall, western France and Spain. It is a vigorous, spreading, evergreen heather reaching tall and wide, with ...
, which has been adopted as the
county flower
In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...
.
Hills and high points
Settlements and transport
Cornwall's only city, and the home of the
council headquarters, is
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
. Nearby
Falmouth is notable as a port.
St Just in Penwith
St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses th ...
is the westernmost town in England, though the same claim has been made for
Penzance, which is larger.
St Ives and
Padstow
Padstow (; kw, Lannwedhenek) is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately northwest of Wadebridge, northwest of Bodmin and ...
are today small vessel ports with a major tourism and leisure sector in their economies.
Newquay
Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...
on the north coast is another major urban settlement which is known for its beaches and is a popular surfing destination, as is
Bude
Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Corn ...
further north, but Newquay is now also becoming important for its aviation-related industries.
Camborne is the county's largest town and more populous than the capital Truro. Together with the neighbouring town of
Redruth, it forms the largest urban area in Cornwall, and both towns were significant as centres of the global tin mining industry in the 19th century; nearby copper mines were also very productive during that period.
St Austell is also larger than Truro and was the centre of the
china clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
industry in Cornwall. Until four
new parishes were created for the St Austell area on 1 April 2009 St Austell was the largest settlement in Cornwall.
Cornwall borders the county of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
at the River Tamar. Major roads between Cornwall and the rest of Great Britain are the
A38 which crosses the Tamar at
Plymouth via the
Tamar Bridge
The Tamar Bridge is a suspension bridge over the River Tamar between Saltash, Cornwall and Plymouth, Devon in southwest England. It is long, running adjacent to the Royal Albert Bridge, and part of the A38, a main road between the two counti ...
and the town of
Saltash
Saltash (Cornish: Essa) is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Corn ...
, the
A39 road
The A39 is an A road in south west England. It runs south-west from Bath in Somerset through Wells, Glastonbury, Street and Bridgwater. It then follows the north coast of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall through Williton, Minehead, Porlock, Lynmo ...
(Atlantic Highway) from
Barnstaple, passing through
North Cornwall
North Cornwall ( kw, An Tiredh Uhel) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is also the name of a former local government district, which was administered from Bodmin and Wadebridge . Other towns in the area are Launceston, Bude, P ...
to end in Falmouth, and the
A30 which connects Cornwall to the
M5 motorway
The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...
at
Exeter, crosses the border south of
Launceston, crosses Bodmin Moor and connects Bodmin, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle and Penzance.
Torpoint Ferry
The Torpoint Ferry is a car and pedestrian chain ferry connecting the A374 which crosses the Hamoaze, a stretch of water at the mouth of the River Tamar, between Devonport in Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall. The service was established in 17 ...
links Plymouth with
Torpoint
Torpoint ( kw, Penntorr) is a civil parish and town on the Rame Peninsula in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated opposite the city of Plymouth across the Hamoaze which is the tidal estuary of the River Tamar.
Torpoint ha ...
on the opposite side of the
Hamoaze
The Hamoaze (; ) is an estuarine stretch of the tidal River Tamar, between its confluence with the River Lynher and Plymouth Sound, England.
The name first appears as ''ryver of Hamose'' in 1588 and it originally most likely applied just to a ...
. A rail bridge, the
Royal Albert Bridge
The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two lenticular iron trusses above the water, with conventional plate-girder app ...
built by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...
(1859), provides the other main land transport link. The city of Plymouth, a large urban centre in south west Devon, is an important location for services such as hospitals, department stores, road and rail transport, and cultural venues, particularly for people living in east Cornwall.
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
and
Swansea, across the Bristol Channel, have at some times in the past been connected to Cornwall by ferry, but these do not operate now.
The
Isles of Scilly are served by ferry (from Penzance) and by aeroplane, having its own airport:
St Mary's Airport. There are regular flights between St Mary's and
Land's End Airport, near St Just, and
Newquay Airport
Cornwall Airport Newquay is the main commercial airport for Cornwall, United Kingdom, located at Mawgan in Pydar, northeast of the town of Newquay on Cornwall's north coast. Its runway was operated by RAF St Mawgan before 2008, and is now o ...
; during the summer season, a service is also provided between St Mary's and
Exeter Airport
Exeter Airport , formerly ''Exeter International Airport'', is an international airport located at Clyst Honiton in East Devon, close to the city of Exeter and within the county of Devon, South West England. Exeter has a CAA Public Use Aero ...
, in Devon.
Ecology
Flora and fauna
Cornwall has varied habitats including terrestrial and marine ecosystems. One noted species in decline locally is the
Reindeer lichen
''Cladonia rangiferina'', also known as reindeer cup lichen, reindeer lichen (cf. Sw. ''renlav'') or grey reindeer lichen, is a light-colored fruticose, cup lichen species in the family Cladoniaceae. It grows in both hot and cold climates in w ...
, which species has been made a priority for protection under the national UK
Biodiversity Action Plan.
Botanists divide Cornwall and Scilly into two vice-counties: West (1) and East (2). The standard flora is by
F. H. Davey ''Flora of Cornwall'' (1909). Davey was assisted by
A. O. Hume and he thanks Hume, his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of that Flora, publication of which was financed by him.
Climate
Cornwall has a
temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...
Oceanic climate (
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: Cfb), with mild winters and cool summers. Cornwall has the mildest and one of the sunniest climates of the United Kingdom, as a result of its oceanic setting and the influence of the
Gulf Stream. The average annual temperature in Cornwall ranges from on the
Isles of Scilly to in the central uplands. Winters are among the warmest in the country due to the moderating effects of the warm ocean currents, and frost and snow are very rare at the coast and are also rare in the central upland areas. Summers are, however, not as warm as in other parts of southern England. The surrounding sea and its southwesterly position mean that Cornwall's weather can be relatively changeable.
Cornwall is one of the sunniest areas in the UK. It has more than 1,541 hours of sunshine per year, with the highest average of 7.6 hours of sunshine per day in July. The moist, mild air coming from the southwest brings higher amounts of rainfall than in eastern Great Britain, at per year. However, this is not as much as in more northern areas of the west coast. The Isles of Scilly, for example, where there are on average fewer than two days of air frost per year, is the only area in the UK to be in the
Hardiness zone 10. The islands have, on average, less than one day of air temperature exceeding 30 °C per year and are in the AHS Heat Zone 1. Extreme temperatures in Cornwall are particularly rare; however, extreme weather in the form of storms and floods is common.
Culture
Language
Cornish language
Cornish, a member of the
Brythonic branch of the
Celtic language family, is a
revived language that died out as a first language in the late 18th century. It is closely related to the other Brythonic languages,
Breton and
Welsh, and less so to the
Goidelic languages. Cornish has no legal status in the UK.
There has been a revival of the language by academics and optimistic enthusiasts since the mid-19th century that gained momentum from the publication in 1904 of
Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival.
Jenner was born at St Columb Major on 8 August 1848. He was th ...
's ''Handbook of the Cornish Language''. It is a social networking community language rather than a social community group language. Cornwall Council encourages and facilitates language classes within the county, in schools and within the wider community.
In 2002, Cornish was named as a UK regional language in the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, th ...
. As a result, in 2005 its promoters received limited government funding. Several words originating in Cornish are used in the mining terminology of English, such as
costean
Costeaning is the process by which miners seek to discover metallic lodes. It consists in sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein
Veins are ...
,
gossan
Gossan (eiserner hut or eisenhut) is intensely oxidized, weathered or decomposed rock, usually the upper and exposed part of an ore deposit or mineral vein. In the ''classic'' gossan or iron cap all that remains is iron oxides and quartz, often ...
,
gunnies, kibbal,
kieve and
vug
A vug, vugh, or vugg (
) is a small- to medium-sized cavity inside rock. It may be formed through a variety of processes. Most commonly, cracks and fissures opened by tectonic activity (folding and faulting) are partially filled by quartz, ...
.
English dialect
The Cornish language and culture influenced the emergence of particular pronunciations and grammar not used elsewhere in England. The Cornish dialect is spoken to varying degrees; however, someone speaking in broad Cornish may be practically unintelligible to one not accustomed to it. Cornish dialect has generally declined, as in most places it is now little more than a regional accent and grammatical differences have been eroded over time. Marked differences in vocabulary and usage still exist between the eastern and western parts of Cornwall.
Flag
Saint Piran
Saint Piran or Pyran ( kw, Peran; la, Piranus), died c. 480,Patrons - The Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael and Holy Piran'' Oecumenical Patriarchate, Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. Laity Moor, Nr Ponsanooth, Cornwall. TR3 7H ...
's Flag is the national flag and ancient banner of Cornwall,
[Payton (2004), p. 262.] and an emblem of the Cornish people. It is regarded as the county flag by
Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...
. The banner of Saint Piran is a white cross on a black background (in terms of
heraldry 'sable, a cross argent'). According to legend Saint Piran adopted these colours from seeing the white tin in the black coals and ashes during his discovery of tin.
The Cornish flag is an exact reverse of the former
Breton black cross
national flag and is known by the same name "
Kroaz Du".
Arts and media
Since the 19th century, Cornwall, with its unspoilt maritime scenery and strong light, has sustained a vibrant visual art scene of international renown. Artistic activity within Cornwall was initially centred on the art-colony of
Newlyn
Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''
Newlyn lies on the shore of Moun ...
, most active at the turn of the 20th century. This
Newlyn School
The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminis ...
is associated with the names of
Stanhope Forbes,
Elizabeth Forbes,
Norman Garstin and
Lamorna Birch
Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS (7 June 1869 – 7 January 1955) was an English artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the ''soubriquet'' "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from ...
. Modernist writers such as
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
and
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
lived in Cornwall between the wars, and
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life.
Background and training
Nicholson was born on 10 April 1894 in De ...
, the painter, having visited in the 1920s came to live in St Ives with his then wife, the sculptor
Barbara Hepworth, at the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. They were later joined by the Russian emigrant
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...
, and other artists. These included
Peter Lanyon
George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the ag ...
,
Terry Frost
Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...
,
Patrick Heron
Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall.
Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...
,
Bryan Wynter and
Roger Hilton
Roger Hilton CBE (1911–1975) was a pioneer of abstract art in post-Second World War Britain. Often associated with the 'middle generation' of St Ives painters – Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon & Bryan Wynter – he spent muc ...
. St Ives also houses the Leach Pottery, where
Bernard Leach
Bernard Howell Leach (5 January 1887 – 6 May 1979), was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery".
Biography
Early years (Japan)
Leach was born in Hong Kong. His mother Eleanor (née ...
, and his followers championed Japanese inspired studio pottery. Much of this modernist work can be seen in
Tate St Ives
Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture ...
. The Newlyn Society and
Penwith Society of Arts continue to be active, and contemporary visual art is documented in a dedicated online journal.
Local television programmes are provided by
BBC South West &
ITV West Country
ITV West Country is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the South West England franchise area on the ITV network. Previously, between 2009 and 2013, the area was a non-franchise region, branded with the sa ...
. Radio programmes are produced by
BBC Radio Cornwall
BBC Radio Cornwall is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Cornwall.
It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Phoenix Wharf in Truro.
According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 1 ...
in Truro for the entire county,
Heart West
Heart West is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the West and the South West of England from studios in Bristol.
The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four ...
,
Source FM for the Falmouth and Penryn areas,
Coast FM for west Cornwall,
Radio St Austell Bay for the St Austell area,
NCB Radio for north Cornwall &
Pirate FM
Pirate FM is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer and based in Cornwall. The station forms part of the Hits Radio network, although its entire output and playlist is locally produced and takes no network programming. ...
.
Music
Cornwall has a
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
tradition that has survived into the present and is well known for its unusual folk survivals such as
Mummers Play
Mummers' plays are folk plays performed by troupes of amateur actors, traditionally all male, known as mummers or guisers (also by local names such as ''rhymers'', ''pace-eggers'', ''soulers'', ''tipteerers'', ''wrenboys'', and ''galoshins''). ...
s, the
Furry Dance in
Helston
Helston ( kw, Hellys) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map she ...
played by the famous
Helston Town Band, and
Obby Oss in
Padstow
Padstow (; kw, Lannwedhenek) is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately northwest of Wadebridge, northwest of Bodmin and ...
.
Newlyn
Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''
Newlyn lies on the shore of Moun ...
is home to a food and music festival that hosts live music, cooking demonstrations, and displays of locally caught fish.
As in other former mining districts of Britain, male voice choirs and
brass bands, such as ''Brass on the Grass'' concerts during the summer at
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
, are still very popular in Cornwall. Cornwall also has around 40 brass bands, including the six-times National Champions of Great Britain, Camborne Youth Band, and the bands of
Lanner and St Dennis.
Cornish players are regular participants in inter-Celtic festivals, and Cornwall itself has several inter-Celtic festivals such as
Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
's Lowender Peran folk festival.
Contemporary musician
Richard D. James (also known as Aphex Twin) grew up in Cornwall, as did
Luke Vibert
Luke Vibert (born 26 January 1973) is a British electronic musician and producer, also known for his work under several aliases such as Plug and Wagon Christ. Raised in Cornwall, Vibert began releasing projects in the 1990s across varied genre ...
and
Alex Parks
Alexandra Rebecca Parks (born 26 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter. Parks was entered into the BBC Television programme, ''Fame Academy'' by her father. It was a show that she went on to win. Soon after winning ''Fame Academy'', she r ...
, winner of
Fame Academy
''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known under va ...
2003.
Roger Taylor, the drummer from the band
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
was also raised in the county, and currently lives not far from
Falmouth. The American singer-songwriter
Tori Amos
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...
now resides predominantly in North Cornwall not far from Bude with her family. The
lutenist, composer and festival director
Ben Salfield
Benjamin Dieter Salfield (born 11 December 1971) is an English lutenist, guitarist, composer, teacher, promoter and politician.
Early life
Ben Salfield was born in Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire, UK. His father, a German Jewish refugee, ...
lives in
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
.
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of t ...
of
Fleetwood Mac was born in
Redruth.
Literature
Cornwall's rich heritage and dramatic landscape have inspired numerous writers.
Fiction
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (; 21 November 186312 May 1944) was a British writer who published using the pseudonym Q. Although a prolific novelist, he is remembered mainly for the monumental publication '' The Oxford Book of English Verse 1 ...
, author of many novels and works of literary criticism, lived in Fowey: his novels are mainly set in Cornwall.
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was Geo ...
lived at
Menabilly
Menabilly ( kw, Men Ebeli, meaning ''stone of colts'') is a historic estate on the south coast of Cornwall, England, situated within the parish of Tywardreath on the Gribben peninsula about west of Fowey.
It has been the seat of the Rashle ...
near Fowey and many of her novels had Cornish settings: ''
The Loving Spirit'', ''
Jamaica Inn
The Jamaica Inn is a traditional inn on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall in the UK, which was built as a coaching inn in 1750, and has a historical association with smuggling. Located just off the A30, near the middle of the moor close to the hamlet ...
'', ''
Rebecca'', ''
Frenchman's Creek'', ''
The King's General
''The King's General'' is a novel, published in 1946, by English author and playwright Daphne du Maurier.
Background
It was the first novel du Maurier wrote while living at Menabilly, the setting for an earlier novel '' Rebecca'', where it is ...
'' (partially), ''
My Cousin Rachel'', ''
The House on the Strand'' and ''
Rule Britannia
"Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the 1740 poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in the same year. It is most strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but is also used by the ...
''. She is also noted for writing ''Vanishing Cornwall''. Cornwall provided the inspiration for ''
The Birds'', one of her terrifying series of short stories, made famous as a film by
Alfred Hitchcock.
Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
's ''
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
"The Adventure of the Devil's Foot" from 1910 is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of eight stories in the cycle collected as ''His Last Bow''.
Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Devil's Fo ...
'' featuring
Sherlock Holmes is set in Cornwall.
Winston Graham
Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, born Winston Grime (30 June 1908 – 10 July 2003), was an English novelist best known for the Poldark series of historical novels set in Cornwall, though he also wrote numerous other works, including contemporary ...
's series ''
Poldark
''Poldark'' is a series of historical novels by Winston Graham, published from 1945 to 1953 and continued from 1973 to 2002. The first novel, '' Ross Poldark'', was named for the protagonist of the series. The novel series was adapted twice ...
'',
Kate Tremayne's
Adam Loveday series,
Susan Cooper
Susan Mary Cooper (born 23 May 1935) is an English author of children's books. She is best known for '' The Dark Is Rising'', a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian le ...
's novels ''
Over Sea, Under Stone'' and ''Greenwitch'', and
Mary Wesley's ''
The Camomile Lawn
''The Camomile Lawn'' is a 1984 novel by Mary Wesley beginning with a family holiday in Cornwall in the last summer of peace before the Second World War. When the family is reunited for a funeral nearly fifty years later, it brings home to them ...
'' are all set in Cornwall. Writing under the pseudonym of Alexander Kent,
Douglas Reeman
Douglas Edward Reeman (15 October 1924 – 23 January 2017), who also used the pseudonym Alexander Kent, was a British author who wrote many historical novels about the Royal Navy, mainly set during either World War II or the Napoleonic Wars. He ...
sets parts of his
Richard Bolitho and Adam Bolitho series in the Cornwall of the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, particularly in Falmouth.
Gilbert K. Chesterton placed the action of many of his stories there.
Medieval Cornwall is the setting of the trilogy by
Monica Furlong, ''Wise Child'', ''Juniper'' and ''Colman'', as well as part of Charles Kingsley's ''
Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake (Traditional pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɛ.ward/, modern pronunciation /ˈhɛ.rɪ.wəd/) (1035 – 1072) (also known as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile) was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman and a leader of local resista ...
''.
Hammond Innes
Ralph Hammond Innes (15 July 1913 – 10 June 1998) was a British novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as works for children and travel books.
Biography
Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at Feltonfleet School, Cobham, Surrey ...
's novel, ''The Killer Mine'';
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris.
Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, cont ...
's novel ''The Little Country''; and Chapters 24–25 of
J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...
's ''
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' take place in Cornwall (Shell Cottage, on the beach outside the fictional village of Tinworth).
David Cornwell, who wrote espionage novels under the name
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
, lived and worked in Cornwall.
Nobel Prize-winning novelist
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...
was born in
St Columb Minor
St Columb Minor ( kw, Sen Kolumm Vyghan) (Latin: ''Columba Minor Sancta'') is a village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
''St. Columb'' alone by default refers to the nearby St. Columb Major.The village of St Columb Minor ...
in 1911, and returned to live near Truro from 1985 until his death in 1993.
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
spent a short time living in Cornwall.
Rosamunde Pilcher
Rosamunde Pilcher, OBE (''née'' Scott; 22 September 1924 – 6 February 2019) was a British writer of romance novels, mainstream fiction, and short stories, from 1949 until her retirement in 2000. Her novels sold over 60 million copies world ...
grew up in Cornwall, and several of her books take place there.
St. Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount ( kw, Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning " hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite s ...
in Cornwall (under the fictional name of Mount Polbearne) is the setting of the Little Beach Street Bakery series by
Jenny Colgan
Jenny Colgan (born 14 September 1972, Prestwick, Ayrshire) is a Scottish writer of romantic comedy fiction and science-fiction. She has written for the ''Doctor Who'' line of stories. She writes under her own name and using the pseudonyms Jane ...
, who spent holidays in Cornwall as a child. The book series includes ''Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2014), ''Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2015), ''Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2016), and ''Sunrise by the Sea'' (2021).
In the ''
Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book ''A Bear Called Paddington'' and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond, a ...
'' novels by
Michael Bond
Thomas Michael Bond (13 January 1926 – 27 June 2017) was a British author. He is best known for a series of fictional stories for children, featuring the character of Paddington Bear. More than 35 million Paddington books have been sold ...
the title character is said to have landed at an unspecified port in Cornwall having travelled in a
lifeboat
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
...
aboard a
cargo ship from darkest
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
. From here he travels to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
on a train and eventually arrives at
Paddington Station
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...
.
Poetry
The late
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
Sir John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
was famously fond of Cornwall and it featured prominently in his poetry. He is buried in the churchyard at
St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick.
Charles Causley
Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a British poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, espec ...
, the poet, was born in Launceston and is perhaps the best known of Cornish poets.
Jack Clemo
Reginald John Clemo (11 March 1916 – 25 July 1994) was a British poet and writer who was strongly associated both with his native Cornwall and his strong Christian belief. His work was considered to be visionary and inspired by the rugged Cor ...
and the scholar
A. L. Rowse were also notable Cornishmen known for their poetry; The Rev.
R. S. Hawker of Morwenstow wrote some poetry which was very popular in the Victorian period. The Scottish poet
W. S. Graham lived in West Cornwall from 1944 until his death in 1986.
The poet
Laurence Binyon wrote "For the Fallen" (first published in 1914) while sitting on the cliffs between
Pentire Point and The Rumps and a stone plaque was erected in 2001 to commemorate the fact. The plaque bears the inscription "FOR THE FALLEN / Composed on these cliffs, 1914". The plaque also bears below this the fourth stanza (sometimes referred to as
"The Ode") of the poem:
:They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
:At the going down of the sun and in the morning
:We will remember them
Other literary works
Cornwall produced a substantial number of
passion plays such as the
Ordinalia
The are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are (The Origin of the World, also known as , 2,846 lines), (The Passion of Christ, ...
during the Middle Ages. Many are still extant, and provide valuable information about the Cornish language. See also
Cornish literature
Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...
, a prolific writer who is best known for his debut work ''
The Outsider'' (1956) and for ''
The Mind Parasites
''The Mind Parasites'' is a science fiction horror novel by English author Colin Wilson. It was published by Arkham House in 1967 in an edition of 3,045 copies. It was Wilson's first and only book published by Arkham House.
The book is based ...
'' (1967), lived in
Gorran Haven
Gorran Haven () is a fishing village, in the civil parish of St Goran, on the south coast of Cornwall, England, UK. It is about south of Mevagissey and lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
Overview
The villag ...
, a small village on the southern Cornish coast. The writer
D. M. Thomas
Donald Michael Thomas (born 27 January 1935), is a British poet, translator, novelist, editor, biographer and playwright. His work has been translated into 30 languages.
Working primarily as a poet throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Thomas's 1981 ...
was born in Redruth but lived and worked in Australia and the United States before returning to his native Cornwall. He has written novels, poetry, and other works, including translations from Russian.
Thomas Hardy's drama ''The Queen of Cornwall'' (1923) is a version of the Tristan story; the second act of
Richard Wagner's opera ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...
'' takes place in Cornwall, as do
Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas ''
The Pirates of Penzance
''The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 187 ...
'' and ''
Ruddigore
''Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse'', originally called ''Ruddygore'', is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written tog ...
''.
Clara Vyvyan was the author of various books about many aspects of Cornish life such as ''Our Cornwall''. She once wrote: "The Loneliness of Cornwall is a loneliness unchanged by the presence of men, its freedoms a freedom inexpressible by description or epitaph. Your cannot say Cornwall is this or that. Your cannot describe it in a word or visualise it in a second. You may know the country from east to west and sea to sea, but if you close your eyes and think about it no clear-cut image rises before you. In this quality of changefulness have we possibly surprised the secret of Cornwall's wild spirit—in this intimacy the essence of its charm? Cornwall!".
A level of ''
Tomb Raider: Legend'', a game dealing with Arthurian Legend, takes place in Cornwall at a museum above King Arthur's tomb. The adventure game ''The Lost Crown'' is set in the fictional town of Saxton, which uses the Cornish settlements of Polperro, Talland and Looe as its model.
The fairy tale
Jack the Giant Killer takes place in Cornwall.
''
The Mousehole Cat'', a children's book written by
Antonia Barber and illustrated by
Nicola Bayley, is set in the Cornish village
Mousehole
Mousehole (; kw, Porthenys) is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, England, UK. It is approximately south of Penzance on the shore of Mount's Bay. The village is in the civil parish of Penzance. An islet called St Clement's Isle lies ...
and based on the legend of
Tom Bawcock
Tom Bawcock is a legendary character from the village of Mousehole, Cornwall, England. He appears to have been a local fisherman in the 16th century. According to the legend, one winter had been particularly stormy, meaning that none of the fish ...
and the continuing tradition of
Tom Bawcock's Eve.
Sports
The main sports played in Cornwall are
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
,
football and
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
. Athletes from
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
have done well in
Olympic and
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
fencing, winning several medals.
Surfing is popular, particularly with tourists, thousands of which take to the water throughout the summer months. Some towns and villages have bowling clubs, and a wide variety of British sports are played throughout Cornwall. Cornwall is also one of the few
places
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road name
** Ofte ...
in England where
shinty is played; the
English Shinty Association is based in
Penryn.
The
Cornwall County Cricket Club
Cornwall County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Cornwall. The team has played in the Minor Counties Championship since 1904 ...
plays as one of the
minor counties of English cricket
The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...
.
Truro, and all of the towns and some villages have
football clubs belonging to the
Cornwall County Football Association
The Cornwall County Football Association, also known as the Cornwall FA, is the governing body of football in Cornwall. Formed in 1889, it is responsible for the administration, control, promotion and development of football at all levels through ...
.
Rugby football
Viewed as an "important identifier of ethnic affiliation",
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
has become a sport strongly tied to notions of Cornishness.
and since the 20th century,
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
has emerged as one of the most popular spectator and team sports in Cornwall (perhaps the most popular), with professional Cornish rugby footballers being described as a "formidable force",
"naturally independent, both in thought and deed, yet paradoxically staunch English patriots whose top players have represented England with pride and passion".
In 1985, sports journalist
Alan Gibson
Norman Alan Stewart Gibson (28 May 1923 – 10 April 1997) was an English journalist, writer and radio broadcaster, best known for his work in connection with cricket, though he also sometimes covered football and rugby union. At various times ...
made a direct connection between love of rugby in Cornwall and the ancient parish games of hurling and wrestling that existed for centuries before rugby officially began.
Among Cornwall's native sports are a distinctive form of Celtic wrestling related to
Breton wrestling, and
Cornish hurling
Hurling ( kw, Hurlian) is an outdoor team game played only in Cornwall, England played with a small silver ball. While the sport shares its name with the Irish game of hurling, the two sports are completely different.
Once played widely in ...
, a kind of mediaeval football played with a silver ball (distinct from
Irish Hurling).
Cornish Wrestling
Cornish wrestling ( kw, Omdowl Kernewek) is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’"Phillipp ...
is Cornwall's oldest sport and as Cornwall's native tradition it has travelled the world to places like
Victoria, Australia
Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in ...
and
Grass Valley, California
Grass Valley is a city in Nevada County, California, United States. Situated at roughly in elevation in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, this northern Gold Country city is by car from Sacramento, from Sacramento ...
following the miners and
gold rushes
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Ze ...
. Cornish hurling now takes place at
St. Columb Major,
St Ives, and less frequently at
Bodmin.
In
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
,
Cornwall R.L.F.C., founded in 2021, will represent the county in the professional league system. The semi-pro club will start in the third tier
RFL League 1
RFL League One (for sponsorship reasons currently known as the Betfred League One) is a professional rugby league competition based in the United Kingdom. Part of the British rugby league pyramid, the competition features clubs from England an ...
. At amateur level, the county is represented by
Cornish Rebels.
Surfing and watersports
Due to its long coastline, various maritime sports are popular in Cornwall, notably sailing and
surfing. International events in both are held in Cornwall. Cornwall hosted the Inter-Celtic
Watersports
Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants.
On the water
* Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races
* Boatin ...
Festival in 2006. Surfing in particular is very popular, as locations such as
Bude
Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Corn ...
and
Newquay
Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...
offer some of the best surf in the UK.
Pilot gig rowing has been popular for many years and the World championships takes place annually on the
Isles of Scilly. On 2 September 2007, 300 surfers at
Polzeath
Polzeath (; kw, Polsegh, meaning ''dry creek'') is a small seaside resort village in the civil parish of St Minver in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately north west of Wadebridge on the Atlantic coast.Ordnance Survey: Land ...
beach set a new world record for the highest number of surfers riding the same wave as part of the Global Surf Challenge and part of a project called Earthwave to raise awareness about
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
.
Fencing
As its population is comparatively small, and largely rural, Cornwall's contribution to British national
sport in the United Kingdom
Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations, ...
has been limited;
[.] the county's greatest successes have come in fencing. In 2014, half of the men's GB team fenced for Truro Fencing Club, and 3 Truro fencers appeared at the 2012 Olympics.
Cuisine
Cornwall has a strong culinary heritage. Surrounded on three sides by the sea amid fertile fishing grounds, Cornwall naturally has fresh seafood readily available;
Newlyn
Newlyn ( kw, Lulyn: Lu 'fleet', Lynn/Lydn 'pool') is a seaside town and fishing port (the largest fishing port in England) in south-west Cornwall, UK.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''
Newlyn lies on the shore of Moun ...
is the largest fishing port in the UK by value of fish landed, and is known for its wide range of restaurants. Television chef
Rick Stein
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
has long operated a fish restaurant in
Padstow
Padstow (; kw, Lannwedhenek) is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately northwest of Wadebridge, northwest of Bodmin and ...
for this reason, and
Jamie Oliver
James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants.
Oliver reac ...
chose to open his second restaurant,
Fifteen, in
Watergate Bay
Watergate Bay ( kw, Porth Tregoryan, meaning ''cove at Coryan's farmstead/village'') is a long bay or beach flanked by cliffs centred two miles NNE of Newquay below the B3276 Newquay to Padstow road near the hamlet of Tregurrian in Cornwall, Uni ...
near
Newquay
Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...
.
''MasterChef'' host and founder of Smiths of Smithfield,
John Torode
John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's ''This Morning ...
, in 2007 purchased Seiners in
Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
. One famous local fish dish is
Stargazy pie
Stargazy pie (sometimes called starrey gazey pie, stargazey pie and other variants) is a Cornish dish made of baked pilchards (sardines), along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust. Although there are a few variations using othe ...
, a fish-based pie in which the heads of the fish stick through the piecrust, as though "star-gazing". The pie is cooked as part of traditional celebrations for
Tom Bawcock's Eve, but is not generally eaten at any other time.
Cornwall is perhaps best known though for its
pasties
Pasties (singular pasty or pastie) are patches that cover a person's nipples and areolae, typically self-adhesive or affixed with adhesive. They originated as part of burlesque shows, providing a commercial form of bare-breasted entertainment. T ...
, a savoury dish made with pastry. Today's pasties usually contain a filling of beef steak, onion, potato and
swede with salt and white pepper, but historically pasties had a variety of different fillings. "Turmut, 'tates and mate" (i.e. "Turnip, potatoes and meat", turnip being the Cornish and Scottish term for swede, itself an abbreviation of 'Swedish Turnip', the British term for
rutabaga
Rutabaga (; North American English) or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of ''Brassica napus'' (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scots), and turnip (Scott ...
) describes a filling once very common. For instance, the licky pasty contained mostly leeks, and the herb pasty contained watercress, parsley, and shallots. Pasties are often locally referred to as ''oggies''. Historically, pasties were also often made with sweet fillings such as jam, apple and blackberry, plums or cherries.
The wet climate and relatively poor soil of Cornwall make it unsuitable for growing many arable crops. However, it is ideal for growing the rich grass required for dairying, leading to the production of Cornwall's other famous export,
clotted cream
Clotted cream ( kw, dehen molys, sometimes called scalded, clouted, Devonshire or Cornish cream) is a thick cream made by heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this t ...
. This forms the basis for many local specialities including Cornish
fudge
Fudge is a type of confection that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk, heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency. In texture, this crystalline can ...
and Cornish
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...
. Cornish clotted cream has
Protected Geographical Status
Three European Union schemes of geographical indications and traditional specialties, known as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), promote and protect nam ...
under EU law, and cannot be made anywhere else. Its principal manufacturer is
A. E. Rodda & Son of Scorrier.
Local cakes and desserts include
Saffron cake,
Cornish heavy (''hevva'') cake,
Cornish fairings biscuits, figgy 'obbin,
Cream tea
A cream tea (also known as a Devon cream tea, Devonshire tea, or Cornish cream tea) is an afternoon tea consisting of tea, scones, clotted cream (or, less authentically, whipped cream), jam, and sometimes butter. Cream teas are sold in tea ro ...
and whortleberry pie.
There are also many types of beers brewed in Cornwall—those produced by
Sharp's Brewery
Sharp's Brewery is a British brewery founded in 1994 in St Minver Lowlands, Rock, Cornwall, by Bill Sharp. Since 2011, the brewery has been owned by Molson Coors. It is best known for its flagship ale Doom Bar, named after the notoriously pe ...
,
Skinner's Brewery, Keltek Brewery and
St Austell Brewery
St Austell Brewery is a brewery founded in 1851 by Walter Hicks in St Austell, Cornwall, England.
History
Originally named ''Walter Hicks & Co: brewers and wine merchants'', the brewery company was renamed St Austell Brewery and significa ...
are the best known—including
stouts,
ales and other beer types. There is some small scale production of wine,
mead and
cider.
Politics and administration
Cornish national identity
Cornwall is recognised by Cornish and Celtic political groups as one of six Celtic nations, alongside
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
, Ireland, the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
, Scotland and Wales.
(The
Isle of Man Government
The Isle of Man Government ( gv, Reiltys Ellan Vannin) is the government of the Isle of Man. The formal head of the Isle of Man Government is the Lieutenant Governor, the personal representative of Charles III. The executive head is the Chief M ...
and the
Welsh Government
, image =
, caption =
, date_established =
, country = Wales
, address =
, leader_title = First Minister ()
, appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...
also recognise
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
and
Galicia.
) Cornwall is represented, as one of the Celtic nations, at the ''
Festival Interceltique de Lorient
__NOTOC__
The (French), Emvod Ar Gelted An Oriant (Breton) or Inter-Celtic Festival of Lorient in English, is an annual Celtic festival, located in the city of Lorient, Brittany, France. It was founded in 1971 by .
This annual festival takes ...
'', an annual celebration of Celtic culture held in Brittany.
Cornwall Council consider Cornwall's unique cultural heritage and distinctiveness to be one of the area's major assets. They see Cornwall's language, landscape, Celtic identity, political history, patterns of settlement, maritime tradition, industrial heritage, and non-conformist tradition, to be among the features making up its "distinctive" culture. However, it is uncertain exactly how many of the people living in Cornwall consider themselves to be Cornish; results from different surveys (including the national census) have varied. In the
2001 census, 7 per cent of people in Cornwall identified themselves as Cornish, rather than British or English. However, activists have argued that this underestimated the true number as there was no explicit "Cornish" option included in the official census form. Subsequent surveys have suggested that as many as 44 per cent identify as Cornish. Many people in Cornwall say that this issue would be resolved if a Cornish option became available on the census. The question and content recommendations for the
2011 census provided an explanation of the process of selecting an ethnic identity which is relevant to the understanding of the often quoted figure of 37,000 who claimed Cornish identity. The
2021 census found that 17% of people in Cornwall identified as being Cornish (89,000), with 14% of people in Cornwall identifying as Cornish-only (80,000).
Again there was no tick-box provided, and "Cornish" had to be written-in as "Other".
On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people have been granted minority status under the
European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe aimed at protecting the rights of minorities. It came into effect in 1998 and by 2009 it had been ratified by 39 member ...
.
Local politics
With the exception of the
Isles of Scilly, Cornwall is governed by a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
,
Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...
, based in
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
. The Crown Court is based at the Courts of Justice in Truro. Magistrates' Courts are found in Truro (but at a different location to the Crown Court) and at Bodmin.
The Isles of Scilly form part of the
ceremonial county of Cornwall, and have, at times, been served by the same county administration. Since 1890 they have been administered by their own
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
, the Council of the Isles of Scilly. They are grouped with Cornwall for other administrative purposes, such as the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
and
Devon and Cornwall Police
Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly) in England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of .
...
.
Before reorganisation on 1 April 2009, council functions throughout the rest of Cornwall were organised in two tiers, with
Cornwall County Council
Cornwall County Council ( kw, Konteth Konsel Kernow) was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in south west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 2009.
History
Cornwall County Counc ...
and district councils for its six districts,
Caradon,
Carrick,
Kerrier,
North Cornwall
North Cornwall ( kw, An Tiredh Uhel) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is also the name of a former local government district, which was administered from Bodmin and Wadebridge . Other towns in the area are Launceston, Bude, P ...
,
Penwith
Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...
, and
Restormel. While projected to streamline services, cut red tape and save around £17 million a year, the reorganisation was met with wide opposition, with a poll in 2008 showing 89% disapproval from Cornish residents.
The
first elections for the unitary authority were held on 4 June 2009. The council has 123 seats; the largest party (in 2017) is the Conservatives, with 46 seats. The Liberal Democrats are the second-largest party, with 37 seats, with the Independents the third-largest grouping with 30.
Before the creation of the unitary council, the former county council had 82 seats, the majority of which were held by the Liberal Democrats, elected at the
2005 county council elections. The six former districts had a total of 249 council seats, and the groups with greatest numbers of councillors were Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independents.
Parliament and national politics
Following a review by the
Boundary Commission for England
The boundary commissions in the United Kingdom are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions:
* Boundary Commission for ...
taking effect at the
2010 general election, Cornwall is divided into
six
6 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
6 or six may also refer to:
* AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era
* 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era
* The month of June
Science
* Carbon, the element with atomic number 6
* 6 Hebe, an asteroid
People ...
county constituencies
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...
to elect MPs to the
House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
Before the 2010 boundary changes Cornwall had five constituencies, all of which were won by
Liberal Democrats at the
2005 general election. In the
2010 general election Liberal Democrat candidates won three constituencies and Conservative candidates won three other constituencies. At the
2015 general election all six Cornish seats were won by Conservative candidates; all these Conservative MPs retained their seats at the
2017 general election, and the Conservatives won all six constituencies again at the
2019 general election.
Until 1832, Cornwall had 44 MPs—more than any other county—reflecting the importance of tin to the Crown. Most of the increase in numbers of MPs came between 1529 and 1584 after which there was no change until 1832.
Devolution movement
Cornish nationalists have organised into two political parties:
Mebyon Kernow
Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall (, MK; Cornish for ''Sons of Cornwall'') is a Cornish nationalist, centre-left political party in Cornwall, in southwestern Britain. It currently has five elected councillors on Cornwall Council, and s ...
, formed in 1951, and the
Cornish Nationalist Party. In addition to the political parties, there are various interest groups such as the
Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament
The Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament ( Cornish: ''Seneth Stenegow Kernow''), is a pressure group which claimed to be a revival of the historic Cornish Stannary Parliament last held in 1753. It was established in 1974 and campaigned, up unti ...
and the
Celtic League
The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...
. The Cornish Constitutional Convention was formed in 2000 as a cross-party organisation including representatives from the private, public and voluntary sectors to campaign for the creation of a
Cornish Assembly
A Cornish Assembly ( kw, Senedh Kernow) is a proposed devolved law-making assembly for Cornwall along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and the Northern Ireland Assembly in the United Kingdom.
The campaign fo ...
,
along the lines of the
National Assembly for Wales
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Go ...
,
Northern Ireland Assembly and the
Scottish Parliament. Between 5 March 2000 and December 2001, the campaign collected the signatures of 41,650 Cornish residents endorsing the call for a devolved assembly, along with 8,896 signatories from outside Cornwall. The resulting petition was presented to the Prime Minister,
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
.
Emergency services
*
Devon and Cornwall Police
Devon and Cornwall Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial counties of Devon and Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly) in England. The force serves approximately 1.8 million people over an area of .
...
*
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
*
South Western Ambulance Service
The South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) is the organisation responsible for providing ambulance services for the National Health Service (NHS) across South West England. It serves the council areas of Bath and North East ...
*
Cornwall Air Ambulance
The Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust is a charity that provides a dedicated helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The service also has two critical care cars that operate when the helicopter is unable ...
*
HM Coastguard
His Majesty's Coastguard (HMCG) is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue (SAR) within the ...
*
Cornwall Search & Rescue Team
*
British Transport Police
, nativename =
, abbreviation = BTP
, patch =
, patchcaption =
, logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg
, logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police
, badge =
, badgecaption =
, f ...
Economy
Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of the United Kingdom in terms of per capita GDP and average household incomes. At the same time, parts of the county, especially on the coast, have high house prices, driven up by demand from relatively wealthy retired people and second-home owners.
The
GVA per head was 65% of the UK average for 2004. The GDP per head for Cornwall and the
Isles of Scilly was 79.2% of the EU-27 average for 2004, the UK per head average was 123.0%. In 2011, the latest available figures, Cornwall's (including the Isles of Scilly) measure of wealth was 64% of the European average per capita.
Historically
mining of tin (and later also of copper) was important in the Cornish economy. The first reference to this appears to be by Pytheas: ''see above''.
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...
was the last classical writer to mention the
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
trade, which appears to have declined during the Roman occupation. The tin trade revived in the Middle Ages and its importance to the Kings of England resulted in certain privileges being granted to the tinners; the
Cornish rebellion of 1497 is attributed to grievances of the tin miners. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin trade again fell into decline. Other
primary sector
The primary sector of the economy includes any Industry (economics), industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining.
The primary sector tends to make up a larger portio ...
industries that have declined since the 1960s include
china clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
production, fishing and farming.
Today, the Cornish economy depends heavily on its tourist industry, which makes up around a quarter of the economy. The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level show that there is great variation in poverty and prosperity in Cornwall with some areas among the poorest in England and others among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32,482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation (2006) ranged from 819th (part of Penzance East) to 30,899th (part of Saltash Burraton in Caradon), where the lower number represents the greater deprivation.
Cornwall is one of two UK areas designated as 'less developed regions' which qualify for Cohesion Policy grants from the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. It was granted
Objective 1
The regional policy of the European Union (EU), also referred as Cohesion Policy, is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of regions in the European Union and also to avoid regional disparities. More than one third ...
status by the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
for 2000 to 2006, followed by further rounds of funding known as 'Convergence Funding' from 2007 to 2013 and 'Growth Programme' for 2014 to 2020.
Tourism
Cornwall has a tourism-based seasonal economy which is estimated to contribute up to 24% of Cornwall's gross domestic product. In 2011 tourism brought £1.85 billion into the Cornish economy. Cornwall's unique culture, spectacular landscape and mild climate make it a popular tourist destination, despite being somewhat distant from the United Kingdom's main centres of population. Surrounded on three sides by the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
and
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea ; cy, Y Môr Celtaidd ; kw, An Mor Keltek ; br, Ar Mor Keltiek ; french: La mer Celtique is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits includ ...
, Cornwall has many miles of beaches and cliffs; the
South West Coast Path follows a complete circuit of both coasts. Other tourist attractions include moorland, country gardens, museums, historic and prehistoric sites, and wooded valleys. Five million tourists visit Cornwall each year, mostly drawn from within the UK. Visitors to Cornwall are served by the airport at
Newquay
Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...
, whilst private jets, charters and helicopters are also served by
Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
airfield; nightsleeper and daily rail services run between Cornwall, London and other regions of the UK.
Newquay and
Porthtowan
Porthtowan ( kw, Porth Tewyn, meaning ''cove of sand dunes'') is a small village in Cornwall, England which is a popular summer tourist destination. Porthtowan is on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of Redruth, w ...
are popular destinations for surfers. In recent years, the
Eden Project
The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS ...
near
St Austell has been a major financial success, drawing one in eight of Cornwall's visitors in 2004.
In the summer of 2018, due to the recognition of its beaches and weather through social media and the marketing of travel companies, Cornwall received about 20 per cent more visitors than the usual 4.5 million figure. The sudden rise and demand of tourism in Cornwall caused multiple traffic and safety issues in coastal areas.
In October 2021, Cornwall was longlisted for the
UK City of Culture
UK City of Culture is a designation given to a city (or a local area from 2025) in the United Kingdom for a period of one calendar year, during which the successful bidder hosts cultural festivities through culture-led regeneration for the ye ...
2025, but failed to make the March 2022 shortlist.
Fishing
Other industries include
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
, although this has been significantly re-structured by EU fishing policies ( the Southwest Handline Fishermen's Association has started to revive the fishing industry).
Agriculture
Agriculture, once an important part of the Cornish economy, has declined significantly relative to other industries. However, there is still a strong dairy industry, with products such as Cornish
clotted cream
Clotted cream ( kw, dehen molys, sometimes called scalded, clouted, Devonshire or Cornish cream) is a thick cream made by heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this t ...
.
Mining
Mining of tin and copper was also an industry, but today the derelict mine workings survive only as a
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
. However, the
Camborne School of Mines
The Camborne School of Mines ( kw, Scoll Balow Cambron), commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment. ...
, which was relocated to
Penryn in 2004, is still a world centre of excellence in the field of mining and applied geology and the grant of World Heritage status has attracted funding for conservation and heritage tourism.
China clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
extraction has also been an important industry in the St Austell area, but this sector has been in decline, and this, coupled with increased mechanisation, has led to a decrease in employment in this sector, although the industry still employs around 2,133 people in Cornwall, and generates over £80 million to the local economy.
In March 2016, a Canadian company, Strongbow Exploration, had acquired, from administration, a 100% interest in the
South Crofty
South Crofty is a metalliferous tin and copper mine located in the village of Pool, Cornwall, United Kingdom. An ancient mine, it has seen production for over 400 years, and extends almost two and a half miles across and down and has mine ...
tin mine and the associated mineral rights in Cornwall with the aim of reopening the mine and bringing it back to full production. Work is currently ongoing to build a water filtration plant in order to dewater the mine.
Internet
Cornwall is the landing point for twenty-two of the world's fastest high-speed undersea and transatlantic fibre optic cables, making Cornwall an important hub within Europe's Internet infrastructure. The
Superfast Cornwall project completed in 2015, and saw 95% of Cornish houses and businesses connected to a fibre-based broadband network, with over 90% of properties able to connect with speeds above 24 Mbit/s.
Aerospace
The county's newest industry is aviation:
Newquay Airport
Cornwall Airport Newquay is the main commercial airport for Cornwall, United Kingdom, located at Mawgan in Pydar, northeast of the town of Newquay on Cornwall's north coast. Its runway was operated by RAF St Mawgan before 2008, and is now o ...
is the home of a growing business park with Enterprise Zone status, known as Aerohub. There are also plans to establish Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay, in partnership with Goonhilly satellite tracking station near Helston in south Cornwall.
Demographics
Cornwall's population was 537,400 in the
2011 census, with a population density of 144 people per square kilometre, ranking it 40th and 41st, respectively, among the 47 counties of England. Cornwall's population was 95.7%
White British
White British is an ethnicity classification used for the native white population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population ...
and has a relatively high rate of population growth. At 11.2% in the 1980s and 5.3% in the 1990s, it had the fifth-highest population growth rate of the counties of England. The natural change has been a small population decline, and the population increase is due to inward migration into Cornwall. According to the 1991 census, the population was 469,800.
Cornwall has a relatively high retired population, with 22.9% of pensionable age, compared with 20.3% for the United Kingdom as a whole.
[Office for National Statistics, 1996]
% of Population of Pension Age (1996)
. This may be due partly to Cornwall's rural and coastal geography increasing its popularity as a retirement location, and partly to outward migration of younger residents to more economically diverse areas.
Education
Over 10,000 students attend Cornwall's two universities,
Falmouth University
Falmouth University ( kw, Pennskol Aberfal) is a specialist public university for the creative industries based in Falmouth and Penryn, Cornwall, England. Founded as Falmouth School of Art in 1902, it was later known as Falmouth College of Ar ...
and the
University of Exeter
, mottoeng = "We Follow the Light"
, established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter)
, type = Public
, ...
(including
Camborne School of Mines
The Camborne School of Mines ( kw, Scoll Balow Cambron), commonly abbreviated to CSM, was founded in 1888. Its research and teaching is related to the understanding and management of the Earth's natural processes, resources and the environment. ...
). Falmouth University is a specialist
public university
A public university or public college is a university or college that is in state ownership, owned by the state or receives significant government spending, public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private unive ...
for the creative industries and arts, while the University Of Exeter has two campuses in Cornwall,
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
and
Penryn, the latter shared with Falmouth. Penryn campus is home to educational departments such as the rapidly growing Centre for Ecology and
Conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
(CEC), the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), and the
Institute of Cornish Studies
The Institute of Cornish Studies (, ICS) is a research institute in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, affiliated with the University of Exeter. Formerly at Pool, near Redruth, then in Truro, it is now on the Penryn Campus near Penryn, ...
.
Cornwall has a comprehensive education system, with 31 state and eight independent secondary schools. There are three further education colleges:
Truro and Penwith College
Truro and Penwith College is a Tertiary College and Further Education College in Cornwall, United Kingdom. History
Truro College was founded in 1993 as a new college in Gloweth near Threemilestone, Truro, Cornwall, to replace the Truro Sixt ...
,
Cornwall College
The Cornwall College Group (TCCG; kw, Kolji Kernow) is a further education college situated on eight sites throughout Cornwall and Devon, England, United Kingdom, with its head office in St Austell.
Campuses
There are eight campuses withi ...
and
Callywith College
Callywith College is a further education college in Bodmin, Cornwall. The first all-new college in the UK for 20 years, it was created with the assistance of Truro and Penwith College to serve students aged 16–19 from mid, north and east Cornwal ...
which opened in September 2017. The Isles of Scilly only has one school, while the former Restormel district has the highest school population, and school year sizes are around 200, with none above 270. Before the introduction of comprehensive schools there were a number of grammar schools and secondary modern schools, e.g. the schools that later became
Sir James Smith's School
Sir James Smith's School is a coeducational secondary school located in the town of Camelford, North Cornwall, England. The headteacher is Kristien Carrington.
History
Founded as a grammar school in 1679, at a property overlooking the town, th ...
and
Wadebridge School
Wadebridge School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in the town of Wadebridge, Cornwall, England. It has 1,235 pupils. The headteacher is Tina Yardley.
Facilities include gymnasium, tennis courts, football/rugby ...
. There are also primary schools in many villages and towns: e.g.
St Mabyn Church of England Primary School
St Mabyn C of E Primary School is a Church of England Primary School with Academy (English school), academy status located in the village of St Mabyn between Bodmin and Wadebridge in Cornwall, England, UK. The school educates boys and girls betw ...
.
See also
*
Christianity in Cornwall
*
Index of Cornwall-related articles
Presented below is an alphabetical index of articles related to Cornwall:
0-9
* 2005 United Kingdom general election result in Cornwall
A
* A.F.C. St Austell
* A30 road
* A374 road
* A38 road
* A39 road
* Act of Uniformity 1549
* Ag ...
*
Outline of Cornwall
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cornwall:
Cornwall – ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and west by ...
– overview of the wide range of topics covered by this subject
*
Tamar Valley AONB
Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Tamar Valley AONB is a legally designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Devon and Cornwall in England.
History
There has been mining in the area for hundreds of years, in 1844 a copper ...
*
Duchy of Cornwall
Notes
References
Sources
*
* A second edition was published in 2001 by the House of Stratus, Thirsk: the original text new illustrations and an afterword by Halliday's son
*
Further reading
*
*
* (illustrated edition Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1981, , photographs by Christian Browning)
* (Available online o
Google Books.
* (Available online o
Digital Book Index
* (Available online o
Google Books.
*
*
*
*
*
* (eleven chapters by various hands, including three previously published essays)
External links
Cornwall Council*
The History of Parliament: the House of Commons – Cornwall, County, 1386 to 1831*
Images of daily life in late 19th century CornwallImages of Cornwallat the
English Heritage Archive
The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway.
It is a public archive of architectural and arch ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornwall
Celtic nations
English unitary authorities created in 2009
Local government districts of South West England
NUTS 2 statistical regions of the United Kingdom
Peninsulas of England
Unitary authority districts of England
Counties in South West England
Counties of England established in antiquity
Former kingdoms