The Wreck of RMS Mülheim – 20 years on!

In the early hours of the 25th March 2003 the cargo ship RMS Mülheim was making its way from Cork in Ireland to Germany when a freak accident occurred with disastrous consequences. This unusual event caused the ship hit the cliffs at Gamper Bay, between Lands End and Sennen Cove, at about 5am. In the […]

Read More

Albert Reuss – Escape to Cornwall from Nazi Occupied Austria

The artist Albert Reuss was one of many Jewish refugees who fled Nazi occupied Europe and the terrible violence of the Holocaust to the safety of the United Kingdom. However it was a chance meeting with a Cornish Quaker that not only brought about that escape but also meant that Albert and his wife were […]

Read More

The Secrets of Swanpool

swanpool

For many visitors and local people alike the little lake known as Swanpool just outside of Falmouth is a favourite place for a stroll. For generations it has been a popular spot to bring the little ones to feed the ducks and to stretch your legs before heading to the beach. However, this coastal lagoon […]

Read More

Pistols at Dawn – Duelling in Cornwall

For hundreds of years damaged reputations were avenged and arguments were settled with a duel. Whether with sword or pistol challenging your enemy to a one on one contest was thought by many to be an honourable way to assuage your hurt feelings and answer a perceived slight. After coming across a couple of almost […]

Read More

The Rumps & the Veneti refugees who settled in Cornwall

The Iron Age Cornish (if we can affectionately call them that) were far more outward looking then we would perhaps assume. Their world, around 2000 years ago, was not confined to the granite peninsula that they called home. The profitable tin trade ensured that they made contact with civilisations from across the Irish Sea, into […]

Read More

Hugh Peter – The Cornishman who killed a King?

It would of course be unfair to blame just one man for the death of King Charles I but the Cornishman Hugh Peter may well have played a significant role in the monarch’s downfall. He was certainly guilty of stirring up malicious, regicidal feelings towards the king, encouraging Parliament to inflict the ultimate punishment on […]

Read More

Tangier Island, Virginia – a forgotten community founded by Cornish fishermen

Tangier Island

Tangier Island is a wild, marshy landmass in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia on the east coast of America. The tiny population of around 500 people survives mainly on fishing, harvesting crabs and oysters and, in recent years, tourism. It is a remote, isolated community, cut off from the mainland for centuries. The islanders have developed their […]

Read More

The Monument to the Battle of Stratton

The English Civil War was a conflict that divided a nation, tore families and communities apart and resulted in the death of an estimated 200,000 people making it the bloodiest war ever fought on British soil. On the 16th May 1643 about half a mile from the town of Stratton one of the most important […]

Read More

The Ghost of Godolphin House – The Life & Death of Margaret Godolphin

It’s a familiar story . . . an isolated and ancient country house where a ghostly figure is said to haunt the corridors and glide through the moonlit gardens. This particular version takes place at Godolphin, one of Cornwall’s best-known manor houses and involves the Godolphin family who once lived there and were amongst the […]

Read More

Captain James Williams – a Daring Smuggler of St Ives.

Today the small fishing port of St Ives is best known for its beaches, its vibrant art scene and its ice cream but in the 18th and 19th centuries it was something of a smuggler’s paradise. And as was so often the case in Cornwall it seems the whole community was in on the enterprise […]

Read More