Davies Giddy is probably more well known as Davies Gilbert but if you try to find a birth date for young Mr Gilbert by searching parish registers you'll run into a problem. In short, he is not there! So, just who is this famous man of west Cornwall and why the enigma concerning his birth?

Today is St Piran's Day. Patron saint of Cornwall and patron saint of tin-miners, his flag is the flag of Cornwall and his day is celebrated widely throughout the Cornish world. But who was St Piran?

On 4 March 1863 Richard Trevorrow, a miner previously of St Just, came before the West Penwith justices to sue Captains Carthew and Wearne of St Just United Mine for non-payment of his wages.........................

All the parish priests and their officers for the whole of Penwith and Kerrier were due to meet in Helston that Thursday to take the oath. We don’t know what the weather was like but on Friday and Saturday when the men of St. Ives and St. Just took the oath the lists, called Protestation Returns, got wet and the ink ran.

In their accounts of the Petty Sessions local newspapers can shine a light on the murky affairs of the past, often to reveal that they are in fact little different from the present......

1st March 1867 saw the first broad gauge passenger train from Plymouth to Penzance. The availability of broad gauge all the way to Penzance opened the way for through trains from Paddington to Penzance.................

On Tuesday last sennight the last day of February Mr Trevannion of Carhease and Mr Kenipt, Sir Robert Carey's man, Mr Slader with 7 or 8 men came in the copper mines at St Just and took all the tools from the workmen by inventory and said they should work no more...........

Cornubia was the only iron passenger vessel ever built in Cornwall and between 4000 and 5000 people are estimated to have turned up to watch the launch. 

At the Three Tuns Hotel in the Greenmarket, something out of the ordinary is taking place. The Loyal Queen's Own Lodge No 3910 is holding its first meeting. The Odd Fellows have come to town.

On 25 February 1739 William Borlase, now engaged in serious study of the natural history and antiquities of Cornwall, wrote to Archdeacon George Allanson at Exeter regarding the lack of libraries in Cornwall...