cornishbirdblog

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Falmouth's Mysterious Meridian Stone

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Interview with Cornwall County Coroner - Dr E. Emma Carlyon

In the summer of 2017 I interviewed Dr E. Emma Carlyon about her role as County Coroner for My Cornwall magazine. It was the first professional interview that I had ever done but she put me completely at ease. Although I only met her that once I still remember how struck I was by her warmth and compassion. I was therefore deeply saddened to hear of her passing, such a tragic loss not only for her…

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The Sharrow Grot of Whitsand Bay

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The Fake Vicar of Talland Church

There are certain members of our community who are supposed to be beyond reproach. Individuals that we hold in higher esteem, who are meant to set the standard for the rest of us – the village constable or doctor perhaps and of course, the local vicar. But experience should have taught us that these individuals are just a fallible as the rest of us, just as likely to commit a crime or indulge in…

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A 'Cornish Madman' & the Siege of St Blazey

In the spring of 1909 a series of startling events in Cornwall became front page news across the British Isles. The newspapers reported that a ‘madman’ had shot four people and had barricaded himself into his home in the small rural town of St Blazey. Cecil Dench was quoted as saying that his home was his “own castle” and that he would shoot anyone that approached it. He was frighteningly true to…

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Review: Cornwall & the Peace by Charlotte MacKenzie

Last year I was very fortunate to hear Dr MacKenzie speak at the NMMC as part of their autumn lecture series. The topic that night was a well known Cornish character, Mary Bryant, and her extraordinary life, a story I thought I knew reasonably well. But the insight and detail that Dr MacKenzie presented really brought it all to life for me and added a different dimension. This is what academia…

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The Ruins of Poltesco

Poltesco is one of those really beautiful hidden spots on the Lizard. A place that you only seem to get to if it was where you were heading for in the first place. But this now isolated cove was once a hive of industry, with men and machinery at work and ships coming and going, and all because of a particular rather special rock. Royal Approval On the 9th September 1846 Prince Albert stepped…

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The Truth behind the Beast of Bodmin Moor!

For many years there have been stories about a large wild cat roaming the isolated moors in the centre of Cornwall and while most people have come to regard the Beast of Bodmin Moor as something of a joke, what if some of those sightings were actually real? I began looking into this story by chance and as someone who had always been very sceptical of what I thought had become an overly…

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The Amazing Feats of Cornwall's Wheelbarrow Men

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Treverven Standing Stone & being Piskie-Led

This Bronze Age standing stone can be found in a field about two miles west of the Merry Maidens Stone Circle and a mile south of St Buryan Church. Standing about 6ft (2m) high it has a wonderful irregular shape that means that it looks slightly different from whichever angle you view it from. For some reason I have always found this stone particularly striking, perhaps because of its quiet…

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Meet Daisy - the Alligator Movie Star from St Keverne

Some stories just come to you like a gift. A brightly wrapped present with a big bow on top! The story of Daisy is one of those wonderful gifts, especially since she, the hero of this tale, was, well, an alligator who ‘liked’ wearing a ribbon round her neck! So, how exactly did Daisy the alligator end up living in an ordinary house in the village of St Keverne on the Lizard!? Daisy the Film…

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Review: Long Road to Nowhere - The Lost Years of Richard Trevithick (Part One) by Joel Griffett

“From the very first day I stumbled upon this subject, the stories on the fringes of the mining world have interested me the most – not the stories of the mines themselves but the stories of those who stomped beneath the earth each morning, their tales of danger and debauchery, the myths, legends and folklore that exist in and around those mines. There is no shortage of tales like this from South…

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Meet Janet Issac - The Last Gypsy Queen of Cornwall

A few years ago I was contacted by a Cornish gypsy family who wanted to tell me the story of their great-grandmother, Janet Isaac. I met them for a cup of tea and a chat and to my surprise and joy a whole other world, a wonderfully fascinating and unfamiliar part of our Cornish heritage, opened up to me – one that until that moment I had never really known existed. Our Cornish gypsies. Our…

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The Tragic Tale of the Cross on The Ridge, Bodmin Moor

A small granite cross stands entirely alone on an isolated slope of Bodmin Moor. Just three feet high somehow it manages to dominate the landscape, easily spotted by the few that might find themselves walking out there on this peaceful part of the moorland. But sadly this little cross doesn’t mark the site of some forgotten ancient chapel or holy well and it is not a waymarker. It has a tragic…

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The Dog King & the Truth about the Cult of Jericho Valley, St Agnes

The 22nd item on the running order of ITV’s News At Ten on the 10th December 1969 was a little odd to say the least. The news anchor, Reginald Bosanquet, who had been presenting the programme since it began two years earlier, introduced the story – it was about the elaborate funeral of a dog by a secretive religious sect in Jericho Valley, “a remote part of Cornwall”. The group responsible for…

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Matthew Quintal - Cornish 'Bounty' Mutineer & Settler of Pitcairn Island

When most people think of a Cornish connection to the infamous mutiny on the Bounty they usually think of the unfortunate Captain William Bligh whose family was from St Tudy, near Bodmin. Very few realise that one of the main ring-leaders of those notorious events was also a Cornishman – Matthew Quintal. I first came across Quintal’s story a few of years ago and was initially excited to write…

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The Forgotten Ruin of St Rumon's Church, Ruan Major

Hidden amongst trees down a narrow dead-end lane is what remains of St Ruan Major Church. Once a grand building described as “one of the most curious and interesting” of Cornwall’s churches it is now a shadow of its former self. A atmospheric shell, open to the sky. When I first came across the ruin, as known as St Rumon’s Church, I was understandably curious about what story of this place…