On 25 April 1332 Penzance was granted a charter to hold a weekly market. Why was it granted then in particular and why is it important?

Harold Morris was the third of the four sons of Richard and Charlotte Morris of 5 Boswedden Road, St Just. He is one of the forgotten men of World War One, those who survived and whose names appear on no war memorials.

The story of the last days of the Warspite is well known, the old ship gallantly contesting the best efforts of the shipbreakers to take her to Faslane to be broken up. Warspite's battle with the breakers made waves across the British press……………

On 22 April 1722 William Borlase, aged 26, became rector of Ludgvan and so secured, courtesy of his father, a secure living for the rest of his life.

There’s no doubt about it: the world is changing, and for the better. The Russians have orbited the moon, The Spencer Davis Group are topping the charts, and Harold Wilson is back in for a second term. But locally? Open your copy of the Cornishman, folks, and see what you shall see...................

I have reached the conclusion, after due thought and observation, that if times are hard at Newlyn the men have only themselves to blame...........

War Weapons week is upon us. They’re already calling it the Battle of Britain. 

The nation needs your metal, but the nation also needs your money. Drop in at any Post Office or bank – or see your stockbroker – for War Bonds.............

“In the parish of S. Levan, there is a promontory called Castle Treryn. This cape consists of three distinct groups of rocks. On the western side of the middle group near the top, lies a very large stone, so evenly, poised that any hand may move it to and fro; but ......... it is morally impossible that any lever, or indeed force, however applied in a mechanical way, can remove it from its present situation.”

Although born in Truro, Joseph Carne probably ranks as one one of Penzance's most eminent sons, a man whose days seem to have 48 hours in them, so much does he achieve...........

Although it is quite difficult to decide on the actual date of the surrender of St Michael’s Mount, since there are several different possibilities, the most likely is Thursday 16^th April 1646, 

John Oates died at Camp Sherman, Ohio, on April 15 1919, he had just returned from Europe where he been serving in the 112^th Engineers.................

At 11.40 pm on April 14 1912, the largest steamer in the world, Titanic, part of the White Star Line, hit an iceberg and sank with the loss of 1502 lives...............

All is not well at St Ives. The fishermen have been bringing good money into the town – their official returns for the year up £5,000 last year to £52,000. Money like this should – surely – bring a substantial voice...........

Levant mine reopened in November 1820 after being closed for about 25 years. It was to remain open virtually without interruption until 1930 and the first sale from the newly reopened mine was made on 12 April 1821.

April 11 1823 saw the opening of “Sir Christopher's School” in St Ives. Sir Christopher was Sir Christopher Hawkins of Trewithen, the local M.P., and the school was described by John Tregerthen Short (JTS), in his diary entry for 11 April 1823) as a free school for the education of poor children.

The winter of 1836/37 is not generally cited as a particularly bad one but in St Ives the weather was severe enough to prompt John Tregerthen Short to comment several times in his diary:

King Edward VII is driving about Penzance, with fifty cyclists as a vanguard.............

On 8^th April 1812 Humphry Davy was knighted by The Prince Regent .......

A census has been taken every 10 years from 1801 until 2011, covering England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.....

Sir Christopher Hawkins died aged 70 on 6 April 1829. He was born in Probus in 1758, second son of Thomas Hawkins of Trewithen and grandson of Christopher Hawkins of Trewinnard........

Residents of Redruth were astonished today to find two Mexican miners in there town...............

Richard Rowe of Newlyn is a post office messenger. We can picture him, this ordinary lad. He’s probably proud of his work, and enjoys being out in the open air, especially now spring is on the way. He works evenings, and sometimes he cuts it a bit fine......

These two plays and accompanying entertainment were performed on 3 April 1805 in Penzance's Georgian Theatre in Chapel Street built in 1787. The site is at the rear of the Union Hotel.

At that time England was still at war with France, artist Samuel Palmer was travelling and painting in Cornwall, and a Cornish movement for Parliamentary reform was begun by 14 Cornishmen meeting in the Freemasons' Tavern ....

The 1871 census took place on 2 April 1871 and was similar in structure to the previous one in 1861. 

This was the last census of the time of prosperity and expansion in West Cornwall......

All over the nation, it’s time for a brand new start.

Town councils, rural districts, even some counties, have long been enamoured of bold schemes. Penzance Town Council has been no exception.....................

Anyone looking for something a bit out of the ordinary on the weekend of 30/31 March 1930 got a bit of a treat at Porth Nanven. Washed ashore on Saturday 30^th was the British World War One submarine L1.  

On Tuesday 30^th March 1875 the Penzance Choral Society, assisted by the 32-strong orchestral band and by bro. Rd. White at the organ, gave a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, which the Royal Cornwall Gazette considered to be the best amateur rendering of this piece to have taken place in Penzance.......................

Until spring 1916 recruitment into the British Army to fight World War One was voluntary. One of the big recruitment initiatives to encourage volunteers was what became known as the Pals Battalions................

The Channel swarmed with French privateers that seized English merchant vessels on an almost daily basis. This was the fate of the brig, Friendship – a vessel of 15 tons burthen, built at Swansea in 1801 and partly owned by Josias Sincock of St Ives.

It’s the last weekend before the election. In the St Ives and Western Divisions, the contest is becoming heated. The contestants have already published lengthy election addresses in the newspapers...................

The St Ives built schooner Eldred left for Swansea with her first cargo on 26 March 1829. Eldred had been launched on 20 January and Lloyd's Register for 1830 shows her to have been a single deck schooner of 93 tons skippered and owned by J. Matthews. Her crew on that first trip was probably something in order of five men and a ship's boy.

The Antient house belonging to the sayd vicaridge consistinge of many Rooms was wholely burnt and demolished by Certaine Spanish Invaders aboute the yeare 1595, of which sayd house some parte was Reedifyed and some parte left ever since to ruines......

The Ritz in Penzance has a new film starting tonight and showing over the weekend: Moira Shearer in The Man Who Loved Redheads. One thing you can say for that – it won’t be in black and white. The advert actually says “rich colour” just in case anyone was wondering................

Midnight has fallen, bringing in Saturday morning, the 23^rd of March 1968. But 500 Penzance and district youngsters have had a great night out, and (leaving aside any possibility of illicit substances having been consumed) are probably just too excited to sleep.

On the 6 April 1883 the Royal Cornwall Gazette carried an advertisement dated 22 March 1883. The advertisement was for The Lamb and Flag Smelting Works, otherwise known as Treloweth.

In a letter dated March 21 1877, the Rev John Pope Vibert said 'I venture to write on paper with a picture of my church and parsonage on it although not quite accurate.'

At the itinerant stannary court which met at Lelant on 20 March 1498 two tinworks in Truthwall, While an Woth and le Neue Worke were registered................

An afternoon in mid-March, the local boys are amusing themselves by chasing and hanging onto cars going up the hill. They've been doing this for quite a while but today they've been joined by a little lad of five...............

Torrey Canyon was, in 1967, the biggest ship ever to be wrecked; two and a half times the length of a football pitch, and carrying 119,000 tons of heavy crude oil..............

A few weeks ago the paper really was first with the news, and confirmation has arrived today that the story has legs. For readers of the Cornishman – and only the Cornishman – will know about the imminent marriage plans of the new king, Edward VIII.

It’s first thing Monday morning. Never a good time, not for anyone who has to work for a living, but on the deck of the steamer Hayle the men are getting back into harness for another normal week’s routine.

Sir Clifford Cory, at a public meeting in St John's Hall just after the armistice said that the Base had been the means of “destroying and damaging many submarines around the coast from Mount's Bay to Hartland Point”. The vessels of the Base had convoyed no fewer than 11,000 vessels to and from France.........

The last sentence of Cyril Noall's history of Botallack Mine reads, Rodda's Almanack tersely records that Botallack Mine closed on March 14^th 1914, just five months before the outbreak of the first World War.

Raymond Harry is better known as Jack Penhale, author of The Mine Under the Sea, an account of his days at Levant Mine between 1917 and 1921. Raymond/Jack worked at Levant when the disaster took place on 20 October 1919.................

On Friday March 12 1915 the steamer Indian City was torpedoed by a U-Boat 10 miles south of St Mary's, Scilly en route from Galveston to Le Havre laden with cotton, copper and cask staves.

On 10th March 1852 the Cornish Telegraph published the timetable for the Penzance to Redruth railway which was to re-open the next day...........

The 1801 Census was based on the Parish system, forms were sent to local clergy and landowners who were responsible for collecting different types of data. In St Hilary the responsibility fell to the Reverend Malachy Hitchins....

It was on Monday March 9, back in 1891 that the giant blizzard struck the county. The fine weather of the past weeks suddenly ended, the temperature dropped quickly, and snow began to fall as the wind increased in strength. There was tremendous damage to property in the next few days, trains were de-railed, many ships wrecked around the Cornish coast, and throughout the county there were stories of lives lost in snowdrifts…

Poldark lives…. And although some may contend that W S Graham, who started it all when he published Jeremy Poldark in 1945, might be turning in his grave, West Cornwall is alive with excitement.

Penzance has every reason to be pleased with itself. The new floating dock is nearing completion, and tonight, the engineers are to close the new coffer dam and keep the sea out.........