The vessels of the Welsh Fleet were small boats, worked hard, often under-manned and working to tight schedules and like the colliers of the North Sea they could be deadly on the unforgiving north coast of Cornwall.

Panic seized the people of Mounts Bay on 2 August 1595 when Mousehole, Paul Churchtown, Newlyn and Penzance were all set ablaze. The Spanish raid was just one of a number of actions in the intermittent Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604 in which both sides made frequent incursions on each other's territory and shipping. This is the age of Raleigh, Drake, Hawkins and the Armada.............

Richard Pentreath was one of the most accomplished artists of his generation and his works give an invaluable insight into west Cornwall's places and people before the Newlyn School painters were even born.

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........

In 1744 it was said that St Just  was "so very populous…..it is impossible to know the exact number..” Rapid expansion in mining was attracting lots of incomers to the district, but not all were miners......

Cornwall has had many links with Brittany over the centuries, one of the lesser known ones is the St Ives salt trade......

William Borlase was a keen observer of the weather and other natural events andhe certainly got his fill on 28th July 1761...

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.

When the secret select are abolished, 
As all of us wish them to be, -
In short, when James Halse is demolished
There’ll be room in the Market for me.

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....

Miners in St Just have a tradition of doing a bit of fishing to help put food on the table but a man who can find his way around underground in virtual darkness can be hard pressed on an ebb tide in a thick fog and so it proved for four pards fishing out of Priests Cove......

The Royal Cornwall Gazette has had things it's own way for ten years now, but the launch of the West Briton is going to change all that.........

Sunday 19^th July 1908. You might like to picture a lazy and peaceful day in a fine Edwardian summer. Boaters. Croquet.  Cucumber sandwiches. That sort of thing.

But for some it’s a working day. Take James Curnow, for example. He’s 20 years old, and has a steady job at Penbeagle Farm – been there working for John Pearce since he was 16. James is a conscientious young man.  Pearce – who is currently serving as Mayor of St Ives - will later, to applause, “testify to his good behaviour, thoughtfulness and good work.” 

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

About 200 years ago a small coasting vessel carrying a cargo of mining equipment sailed in a leaky state into Crow Sound, Isles of Scilly. She was sinking and her crew of five were just hoping she'd make St Mary's or at least get near enough for them to save themselves. This is the Wheel Wreck......

The loss of a British Airways Helicopter, together with 20 of the 26 people on board, on a sceduled flight from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly was, until 1986, the worst civilian passenger helicopter acident in Europe.

"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....

John Wesley visited Newlyn on fourteen occasion. Today, 12 July, is the anniversary of his first visit in 1747...

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”.

What does Morvah have in common with Peterloo? Answer, the Riot Act was read in both places. Why was the Riot Act read in Morvah? Read on........

Charles Campbell Ross: Scoundrel, Fantasist or Fool?

Tin dressing floors could be hazardous places and required an adult attitude from the children and young people who provided much of the work-force......

High on the windswept moors of West Penwith isolated Ding Dong Mine has accumulated its share of myth and legend. So old it was commonly believed that Christ had been there as a boy, so deep you could hear Australian church bells if you listened by one of the many shafts. But Ding Dong would not get any deeper............

Saturday nights: you never know what might happen. And last night, up at Polteggan Farm Heamoor, things were definitely getting lively.

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.........

Blasting in mines was a dangerous business, especially if Bickford's safety fuse was not being used.........

The Wesley brothers visited St Just on more than 30 occasions but John Wesley's encounter with Squire Stephen Usticke of Botallack is one of the more bizarre events to arise from these frequent visitations of west Cornwall.....

St Ives Coastguards had a busy time in July 1831 seizing nearly 450 tubs of brandy and gin and assorted other contraband......

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....

St Peter’s Feast Day, June 29, 1885. Charles Campbell Ross, MP for St Ives, laid the foundation stone of the new South Pier at Newlyn.

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.....

Michael Joseph, a blacksmith from St Keverne on the Lizard, one of the leaders of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497, is reputed to have said on his way to his execution that he would have ‘a name perpetual and a fame permanent and immortal’.

The convinced, curious, the frankly sceptical:  all have gathered today at Tregeseal to listen to a report of the latest antiquarian enquiries based upon the work of Sir Norman Lockyer.

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.

Parish of Pendeen was created by the tin and copper mining industry, its church was created by the people of the industry and the human cost of the industry is cut into the stones in the graveyard which surrounds the church.

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

The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 was quickly followed by the restoration of the stannaries and a new Lord Warden. 

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..........

On board the Febrero, a Spaniard out of Bermeo bound for Newport are 23 crew including: the cook, Roque Iriarte, a small, moustachioed youth of 20 who has worked at sea for the past few months; and the chief engineer, Jose Espinoso, in the pockets of his blue trousers a lottery ticket............

who was the unfortunate Richard White who was buried in 1840?

On 18^th June 1817 a meeting was held at the Guildhall in Penzance, chaired by the High Sheriff - Mr Harris of Kenegie, to consider how to help the widows and orphans of the 14 fishermen on “two mackrell boats” who had drowned in a great storm on 13^th June.

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?