Parade Street pickled pork from Perrys. Lit by 'lectric lighting!

Another step up the ladder for Penzance as the one vital component lacking in the life of the town is addressed with the first edition of the Penzance Gazette. 

Fishpaste Gang's crime spree in Market Jew Street ends in 12 month cinema ban in Juvenile Court.

It's Pirates versus Wanderers in the big match on Moday night and an opportunity to see the magic Jennings strut his stuff, AND LOSE and the pirates cut their opponents down to size.

Yellow jack, musket balls, cannon balls, flying splinters, power explosions and mutiny - Walter Tremenheere faced them all and emerged unscathed from an active service career in the Marine Corps during the Napoleonic Wars.  

My pal Charlie’s in a spot of bother. He's landed up in court due to what the Chief Constable’s seen fit to refer to as his “unfortunate attitude”.  

Harry and Fred Poole have brought their Myriorama to town. The craze of the new century – moving pictures! This is the “Largest, latest and most beautifully designed machine for the projection of Animated Photography”

Phantom photographers snap bathing beauties in Penzance conspiracy scare: read all about it!

Cornwall's always had a bit of a thing about royalty, particularly since that dreadful business back in 1649, but in 1933 the people of Penzance really go for it: it's a gloomy time, nationwide depression and mining virtually ended in the Duchy, so let's have Two Queens............

Admit it, you thought Nadia Comăneci was the first child sports star! Nadia was 14 when she hit the headlines but today we bring you Phyllis Bottrell, the 13 year old swmming prodigy from Penzance.......

The School of Science - no, nothing to do with Everton Football Club - is to come out into the light! It's subterranean era beneath the rocks and strata of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is to come to an end and the foundation stone of its new home is laid......

On 18^th August 1663 Charles II issued letters patent to”appointe our Towne of Pensanse within our said stannery of Penwith and Kerrier in our said County of Cornwall to bee from henceforth for ever one of the Coynage Townes…..”

One of the richest tin mines in Cornwall is near Penzance and lies under the sea, which is excluded by iron funnels, or shafts rising above the level of high-water…..(Sherborne Mercury 13 August 1792)

It's Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and David Bischofswerder is at the height of his power in Penzance. To celebrate he is opening his new Jubilee Hall on Market Jew St....

A fine load of mugs they all sounded in the witness box today, the victims. Taken for a ride, all right: motor car or otherwise. It was as if they were falling over themselves: a sovereign here, ten shillings there........

There’s a mighty new cinema in town, on the site of the old Horse and Jockey – closed since way back, before the Great War.

The Crown employed supervisors to check blowing houses and smelters to ensure that coinage tax was paid, but it wasn't always straightforward as in this incident on New Street Stairs... 

Today is the anniversary of the opening of Alexandra Road, opened by and named in honour of Princess Alexandra, consort of the future King Edward VII. Later the Royals will go underground at Botallack but his morning the Princess has a less exciting  duty to perform....

The three fleet static review in Mount's Bay to celebrate the coronation of George V avoided air attack by a whisker on 23 July 1910.............

Penzance's first talkie - The Doctor's Secret - read Toestrap of the Cornishman's of the gripping story of........well, read on to find out....

140 years old today and still going strong(ish). The Cornishman was first published on 18th July 1878.

"That lady from the church...", how not to render assistance.

Penzance market cross gets around a bit: Greenmarket, water shote in Causewayhead, old town hall and now it's off again...

Bucket's silver key opens the door to a healthy future....

I was married three days ago; to Caitlin Macnamara; in Penzance registry office; with no money, no prospect of money, no attendant friends or relatives, and in complete happiness”.

Charles Campbell Ross: Scoundrel, Fantasist or Fool?

Father absent at sea and mother mother unable to cope and taking solace in the bottle, it was never going to be easy for the Yates children.........

The stranding of whales on Long Rock beach in 1911 revealed conflicting attitudes in the Cornwall of the time, a place still heavilt dependant upon harvesting the sea........

Don’t mention Trafalgar, and certainly don’t mention De Ruyter burning Chatham. For here we present: the Western Union Fleet....

At one o’clock the doors of the new Guildhall, Corn and Shamble-markets were thrown open for the Great Dinner provided by public subscription. More than 1,000 people sat down to a meal of “good old English fare” including the beef Penzance market was famous for.....

It is not easy to find any document from almost 700 years ago but Penzance is fortunate in that one is held in the National Archives of today’s date. It describes the property of Henry Tyes, who held the manor of Alverton.

As night fell, youths gathered, “vainly endeavouring to assume a very careless air” but with “an anxious manner” and “mysterious protuberances” beneath their coats......

Saturday afternoon, and the season’s begun. Down at the Jubilee Pool, in a match between the two county champion teams, we’ve had the better of Devonport. The score..........

after six weeks of money hunting we are informed at a meeting of the Committee that only sixty pounds have been raised and that several leading hotel keepers …….. have, with extreme munificence, contributed the extraordinarily large sum of ten shillings.....

The new pier, completed in 1813, represented an extension of 150 feet which significantly increased the capacity of the harbour but not all vessels wished to pay the increased dues...................

At the Baptist Church, the Reverend Alfred Bird does not look a happy man. To be honest, the congregation perhaps reflect, he hasn’t looked happy for quite a while. But here he is in the pulpit – and what is he saying?

Penzance has always been a good venue, what with the excellent trains and all the West Penwith farmers. The 1912 attendance of 21,454 hasn’t been bettered by any show since.....

Penzance: the magistrates are busy. In fact so busy that the Mayor was taken ill yesterday, and had to go home. What’s been happening? Well, it’s the new pre-fabs they’re building over at New Street. Or supposed to be building.

The news came into Penzance from London, yesterday evening – the end of a sleepy Sunday afternoon. When the telegram arrived at the Post Office, the operator said it was better than being handed a five pound note. The news was bound for the Telegraph offices in Chapel Street, and was posted up outside. 

George V’s silver jubilee is the big event of May 1935, and the opening of the already-floodlit Pool three weeks later is to be the central part of Penzance’s celebrations...

Greeting to Buffalo Bill: From the far Wild West to the Western Wilds

Long days at sea, fat wads of cash, plentiful booze, a cultural misunderstanding of two and an exchange with the boys in blue. Fish, fight and copper?

The miners from the western mines assembled at Penzance to endeavour to get corn and flour sold to them at a reduced rate. John Tregerthen Short, St Ives 27 May 1847

Empire Day 1916 - there is to be a ceremony in Penzance but, at the insistence of Richard Foster Bolitho, it will be unpublicised and winessed only be a few passers-by......

Spring 1916 but not a lot to smile about with the war grinding on and on and the casualty lists growing longer and longer. But this after, in St John's Hall, Mrs Tupper will be openig the Patriotic Housekeeping Exhibition........

What a scene the field presented! Immense crowds everywhere; and all pleased, all delighted. A lovely day, a splendid ceremony……..”

Numerous pictures on the Internet claim to show the remains of the schooner Jeune Hortense exposed on Long Rock beach. Her skeleton is occasionally exposed by storms, or is it?