Local and national newspapers: an excellent resource, available at resource centres such as Kresen Kernow and in collections (such as the Morrab Library’s which includes some editions not available elsewhere). But probably – for everyday purposes – best accessed through the BNA archive.
Using the BNA archive on line
For a modest subscription, this reliable website allows unlimited access to a range of local newspapers. Researchers interested in West Cornwall currently have access to the ‘Cornishman’ (founded in 1878) up to 1950, and almost all editions of the ‘Cornish Telegraph’ (founded 1851 and progressively absorbed into the ‘Cornishman’ during the early 20th century). Before 1851, the major local stories of the day are to be found in the ‘Cornwall Gazette’ (founded 1801 and listed as ‘Royal Cornwall Gazette’). There are also some years of the ‘West Briton’ from 1862. This is the only local newspaper available on line for the later 20th century, and most editions from 1950 are available.
Some national titles are also on the site, including the ‘London Illustrated News,’ and the ‘Daily Mirror.’
The archive can be searched for a key word, with a date range (from half a century down to a specific issue) title, region or town of publication specified. I haven’t found that the filter by type of reference – advertisement, article etc – works particularly well. You can download the scan as text, to copy into word and edit – although for the editions before 1900 the original scan is often so poor that it is quicker to just snip or copy it from the screen, complete with the reference, and retype as necessary. Searching by ‘relevance’ sifts through, giving you the most likely of your 2,000 possible references and you can work down the list until tedium sets in: for example, I’ve been looking recently for ‘Penzance water’ and the first few results are often about the town reservoir and piping of supply, while the lower reaches of the list offer Water Street, Liverpool and religious references to ‘living waters.’
Serendipity and skimming
What you see on screen has been scanned in from print versions, and the search facility is only as good as the scanning. Plenty of references will therefore be missed by a search, which leaves scope for the joy of browsing through an edition, skimming the headlines for interesting items. This can be done on the BNA site, or in a research library – generally using microfilm, although the Morrab Library may grant access to paper versions. As an insight into a particular year, in a particular place, it’s hard to beat as entertainment.
The letters are often highlights, although their density of allusion and insistence on hints and in-jokes often renders them incomprehensible, and – as now – there are those who love nothing more than to trot out their hobby-horses.
The 19th century advertisements are always interesting in themselves (although not necessarily at every appearance). Wind pills? Cures for female irregularities or loss of manly vigour? Hair dye (forget the idea that pre-Raphaelite red hair set an instant fashion) or restorer? There are strange inventions – most of which sink without trace - and startling predictions (such as the Channel Tunnel, first expected over a century before it was opened). There are outlandish plans: Penzance Aquarium, anyone? Or in the 20th century, a canopy along the entire length of the Terrace (vetoed by the newly-built Barclay’s Bank)?
Journalists are often privy to high words in the proceedings of the Town Council, and their columns often reveal more than the flavourless official minutes (as well as being much easier to locate). No wonder the idea of holding ‘open’ meetings was controversial in the 1850s. The Chamber of Commerce and other bodies often have interesting perceptions – and religious controversy, political disputation and the merits or otherwise of teetotalism will keep anyone interested in these areas busy for days.
Fortunately for the researcher who risks dying of old age before the work is done, but less fortunately for those who crave a long read, the editions are short – the 19th century ‘Cornish Telegraph’ has only four pages. Page one and part of page two are devoted to advertisements, most of them identical from week to week. Page four offers a little poem and non-local news. So that leaves only a page and a half to be looked through with care, and even this includes a great deal of national news.
The mixture of local and national news leads to some odd juxtapositions. One of my favourites, from the early 20th century, was news of what turned out to be a turning point in the Russian Revolution. In the next column was a much larger headline, ‘Big Fish Caught at Mullion.’ But ‘letters home’ from troops and migrants can also provide insights, and although obviously WWI is a particularly rich seam here, the Boer War and Gold Rush are also well worth a look.
Attitudes, preoccupations and rivalries
Running the correspondence columns close for entertainment value are the regular contributors – ‘Bystander’ in the Cornish Telegraph is still often a genuine laugh-aloud read, 120 years on. There are also useful and informative features such as the regular columns on Penzance industries by ‘Ouit’ (E W Crofts) which appeared in 1883 and 1884. Less identifiable is the urbane and witty late 19th century commentator ‘Paterfamilias’ – any leads welcome.
I’ve recently been enjoying Penzance in the 1850s, and it provides as good an exemplar as any of what newspaper research might unveil. As national news occupies at least half of the column inches, the impact and awareness of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, even in one of the furthest corners of Britain, becomes starkly apparent. So is the excitement as a massive engineering project, the Royal Albert Bridge, slowly but surely comes good. There is plenty of British bulldog style patriotism, but Cornish pride – where manifested – is a subset of patriotism and love of the Queen, rather than a separate impulse. Prince Albert is roundly defended against anti-German elements in the press. Anti-Catholic sentiment is open, bluntly expressed - and to a 21st-century reader, startling.
Walter Langley, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For a while, there was a healthy to-and-fro between the older, more radical ‘Cornish Telegraph’ – favoured by fishermen, if Walter Langley is to be believed - and the newer, racier upstart. The ‘Cornishman’ consistently does best on ‘local colour’ and by the second decade of the 20th century had taken editorial control and ownership of the ‘Telegraph’. If you are interested in the history of journalism, a marvellous story unfolds before your eyes
Pitfalls and frustrations
Of course, local newspapers have limitations. It is sometimes difficult to see at a glance in which town an event has happened. You are rarely told exactly where a shop, field or crime hotspot is: everyone at the time knew. Many items will have been syndicated from another newspaper – look for an italicised title at the end – and the advice or viewpoint is perhaps not as local as it seems at first glance; this is also true of letters.
Beware also of 19th-century correspondence that may initially look interesting, but can develop into a many-headed monster that extends its tentacles over several pages in several editions. Teetotalism, election candidacy and religious doctrine are particularly prone to this. Unless you have a particular interest in the finer points of these subjects, it is best to leave the arguments to slumber in peace. Another type of correspondence that I have rarely found to be worth the effort involved, is the letter assuming a false rustic dialect or ‘uneducated’ voice, usually intended to belittle the point ostensibly being made.
Lesser known publications
The big names don’t always tell the whole story. For West Cornwall researchers, there are a good many tasty morsels in the ‘Penzance Gazette’, published between 1839 and 1858. This newspaper is available in the Kresen Kernow resource centre but not yet on the BNA website (although the site adds new titles every week). Be warned, however – later editions boasted that the ‘Gazette’ was the cheapest and most news-crammed publication in the whole of Cornwall. It achieved this distinction by use of tiny lettering, and the spacing also suggests cavalier disregard for the eyesight of its readers.
Masthead of the first edition, Penzance Gazette – courtesy of Kresen Kernow
Also useful is the ‘Evening Tidings’ – the daily edition of the ‘Cornish Telegraph’ and later the ‘Cornishman.’ Although most of the news stories also appear in the weekly version, there are a number of advertisements – including cinema listings – which do not, and it is much easier to make sense of a sequence of events or correspondence if you can read it as it unfolds, day by day.
The most complete set of the ‘Evening Tidings’ is housed at the Morrab Library although Kresen Kernow have some editions. Some editions of the ‘Penzance Gazette’ are also available in the Morrab, which in both cases keeps the original paper editions.
Pace, deadlines and distractions
Historians sometimes have deadlines, self-imposed or otherwise, and you may be wondering ‘how long will all this take? As a rough estimate, if you’re looking for something fairly specific in the shorter 19th-century editions, a specific search can take anything from minutes to several hours, depending on how many references come up and how far down the ‘relevance’ list you go. Skim-reading through one year’s editions of one newspaper – with 20-30 references found and saved during your search - should take you 10-15 hours.
As long as you can leave the inquests and murders alone, that is. Personally, I rarely can.
Linda Camidge June 2021
PLHG publications can be purchased online here or perused in the Morrab Library.
Penwith Local History Group
Edited by
Sally Corbet
price £10
plus p&p
Photo Glyn Richards