Cornwall's Hidden History Blog
Pentillie Castle, built by James Tillie in 1698, is one of the best kept secrets of the Tamar Valley. An elegant home tucked away in deep woodland beside a bend of the river, it is an impossibly idyllic spot. But this grand house, and the wonderful estate that surrounds it, also has one of the […]
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Between Gorran Haven and Mevagissey, not far from the jutting finger of Chapel Point, there is a deep cleft in the jagged line of the coast. This rocky fissure has been known as Bodrugan’s Leap for more than 500 years, ever since Henry Bodrugan jumped for his life from the cliff top. It is a […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The St Austell region of Cornwall, the Clay Country as it’s known, is full of mountains – the giant white spoil heaps left behind by the industry of the area crowd the horizon and tower over the grey villages. In the centre of it all is Hensbarrow Beacon, a natural summit that was once the […]
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In July 1815 the captured Napoleon Bonaparte was waiting to hear his fate on board HMS Bellerophon. After his escape from Elba the previous year and subsequent defeat at Waterloo the British Government was debating what should be done with the ex-emperor. He had arrived at Plymouth Sound on the 26th July but his presence […]
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In the late 16th century a stonemason called Peter Crocker was living in the area around Looe. His work was so fine, so elegant and intricate that the gentry of Elizabethan Cornwall commissioned him again and again to carve their likenesses into their slate tombs. Almost nothing is known about Crocker but because of him […]
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In Polperro at the end of the 18th century, as in so many of Cornwall’s coastal villages, fishing and farming were the mainstays. However, while both industries could be reasonably profitable or at the very least support a family, they were also unreliable and seasonal. Many men chose to supplement their income with a little […]
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The opening of Brunel’s Royal Albert Bridge in May 1859 marked a turning point in Cornwall’s history. No longer cut off from the rest of the country by the wide, watery barrier of the River Tamar, from that moment on travel to the region became quicker and easier than ever before. Within just a few […]
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On 4th July 1569 St Francis Drake married his young sweetheart Mary Newman in St Budeaux Church on the Tamar estuary. While Drake was to become a household name and the greatest seaman of the Elizabethan Age his Cornish wife remains an obscure figure. Something I hope to rectify that a little here. Mary Newman […]
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