Interesting Cornwall facts
Famous Sussex People
Boscastle
Did you know that St Juliot’s Church near Boscastle was restored by Thomas Hardy ? His training was as an architect, and in 1870 he was commissioned to work on what was then a dilapidated wreck of a building. While doing this he met Emma Gifford, sister-in-law of the rector, who in 1874 became his wife, a great encourager of his ambitions to write.
Helston
Did you know that the Goonhilly complex near Helston was the site of the first parabolic satellite antenna on earth? That disc, installed in 1962 and dubbed Arthur, was built to monitor Telstar. It is now a Grade II listed structure. Arthur handled the first ever TV broadcast made via satellite. At one time the station was the largest of its kind on the planet with more than 60 such dishes.
Did you know that the first China Clay deposits found in Britain were discovered in 1746 at Tregonning Hill near Helston? Local wholesale pharmacist, William Cookworthy, noticed that miners were using clay to repair furnaces; he had read a book by a Jesuit missionary about porcelain making in China; and the year before had been visited by clay exporters from Virginia hoping to work with him. He experimented with ‘moorstone’ until he had a formula suitable to porcelain manufacture, and in 1768 was granted a patent for it.
Mousehole
Did you know that the first mention of Britain in writing detailed tin dealing on St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall? Pytheas, a Phoenician from Marseille, travelled to Cornwall in 325BC on a trading mission that he recorded: his text was lost long ago, but its information was quoted in a later Greek history. Some say the use of saffron in traditional Cornish cookery results from exchanges made with the Phoenicians.
Newquay
Did you know that at Perranporth - just south of Newquay – the remains of what is probably the oldest Christian church in Britain lie buried in the sand? St Piran, for whom the village is named, was a 5th century saint thought to be of Irish origin. He built an oratory just beyond the beach, whose sands centuries later overwhelmed the building – as they did its 10th century successor.
Padstow
Did you know that the immortal lines "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old" were written on the cliffs above Polzeath (nr padstow) by Laurence Binyon in 1914.
Polzeath
Did you know that the immortal lines "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old" were written on the cliffs above Polzeath (nr padstow) by Laurence Binyon in 1914.
Redruth
Did you know that the first domestic residence in the world to be lit by gas is in Redruth - installed by William Murdock in 1794? He was also the originator of the term gasometer.
Did you know that in 1842 Cornish Engineer Michael Loam gave a demonstration of the country’s first ever elevator at Gwennap near Redruth? The so-called Cornish Man Engine was installed at Tresavean Mine there to transport miners between the surface and the workings, saving an hour’s climbing a day.
Zennor
Did you know that D.H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda were expelled from Zennor in 1916? He wrote much of Women in Love there. They first stayed in the local pub, then rented a cottage in spite of the writer’s instant and ignorant loathing for the Cornish. Their noisy rows, suspicions about Frieda (cousin to German flying-ace von Richthofen) which included a belief her red underwear drying on the line was signalling to U-Boats, and doubtless Lawrence’s nasty beard led the local rozzers to order them out in 1917.
Famous Cornwall people
Alfred Rowse | Antony Hewish | Arthur Quiller-Couch | Bob Fitzsimmons | Charles Causley | Geoffrey Grigson | George Lloyd | Helen Glover | Henry Bastian | Henry Martyn | Humphry Davy | John Adams | John Colenso | John Mayow | John Opie | Jonathan Hornblower | Kristin Scott-Thomas | Leonard Hobhouse | Mick Fleetwood | Peter Lanyon | Richard Lander | Richard Lower | Richard Trevithick | Rory McGrath | Sapper | Sidney Godolphin | William Golding |
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