Cornish but not Cornwall

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These posts are Cornish related, about the Cornish outside of Cornwall.




Map the Miner, also known as Map Kernow or the Son of Cornwall, is a 7-metre (23 ft) statue commemorating the Cornish mining history of the town of Kapunda in South Australia. Built by Ben van Zetten, the statue stands to at the southern entrance to the town, and is regarded as one of Australia's Big Things. The statue was destroyed by fire in 2006, but it was rebuilt and rededicated 12 months later.

 

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Today the most famous area of Cornish culture, called 'Australia's Little Cornwall', is the area in South Australia known as the Copper Triangle. This mining area in the northern Yorke Peninsula, including the principal towns of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo, was a significant source of prosperity for colonial South Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In its heyday Moonta was South Australia's second largest town after Adelaide and was predominately settled by Cornish miners and their families. Today Moonta is most famous for its traditional Cornish pasties and its Cornish style mine engine houses. Many descendants of these Cornish families still live in the Copper Triangle and are intensely proud of their Cornish heritage. Many of the original miners' cottages made from wattle and daub still stand and are still lived in by local residents, and many streets and houses have Cornish names. In Moonta today, the Kernewek Lowender (Cornish for "Cornish happiness") is the largest Cornish festival in the world and attracts more than 40,000 visitors each event.

 

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Now we come to the Copper Coast of Australia, otherwise known as the Little Cornwall because of the amount of Cornish miners that worked here.

Its estimated that between 1861 and 1901 that around 250,000 people migrated abroad from Cornwall with many never seeing their families left in Cornwall again. Miners made up a large amount because of the closing of many mines in Cornwall which leads to the popular saying "a mine is a hole anywhere in the world with at least one Cornishman at the bottom of it".

The Cornish economy profited from the miners’ work abroad. Some men sent back “home pay”, which helped to keep their families out of the workhouse. As well as their mining skills, the Cornish emigrants carried their culture and way of life with them when they travelled. They formed tight-knit communities, and maintained some contact with the people and/or the customs of their homeland. Wrestling competitions took place in the new settlements, Cornish Methodist chapels were constructed. Pasties and saffron cakes became known to many natives of Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States. In areas where there are no mines, this may be due to Cornish seamen among the crews of Royal Navy vessels. In some locations the playing of brass bands and the singing of Cornish carols, shows an example of Cornish culture's influence.

Rugby Union was played overseas by the Cornish miners, this helped develop the game in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Teams from these nations have returned the compliment, and have played in Cornwall (New Zealand 1905, 1924, Australia 1908, South Africa 1906, 1912 and the Māori in 1926). Today we call the descendants of these Cornish people the Cornish Diaspora.

 

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Just another reminder of the dangers of a mine, boiler explosions weren't rare.

Destruction caused by boiler explosion at Beddomes' 17 March 1884 when the stoker, Frederick William Atkinson, 28 was killed. His body was found about 100 yards distant. The boiler landed at the back door of a miner's cottage belonging to "Massa" Brown without causing any damage except to a fowl-house 1884.

 

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blimey u do know ur stuff I enjoy reading

Yeah I find it interesting, shame this stuff isn't taught at school, other countries seem to appreciate our history more than this country. Most Cornish history is locked up in archives and not yet on the internet, other bits unknown, the rest noone can agree on because of constitutional issues. The Duchy of Cornwall has a large archive but since restructuring the public archive decades back its now claimed the Duchy is a private business and the archives closed to public. So theres two versions of some history now, that predating the privatisation of the archives and that coming after the privatisation. Can't be many businesses dating back to the 14 century around.

 

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Old china clay pit in St Austell, which is the same thing as quarry, never been there but all I've seen about it is good stuff, seems to have taken off really well. All I know is they've got plants in giant domes and I think you can zipwire across in some domes. Think they've got planned something for outside, some sort of small themepark style thing if I remember right.