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Do you know where the base material for some of your fine china was first discovered?
Parish Template update
12 May 2010
We now have three sets of volunteers busily transcribing documents:
The St Stephen in Brannel team is now moving back a further 100 years, and is beginning training in the art of reading 1600 handwriting.
A team of volunteers is now working its way through probate documents for the parish of Creed.
This coming Monday will see a new team of volunteers working in the Borough of Launceston.
We have secured funding to employ a part time archivist to 'open up' another parish in the group of 'clay' parishes we are investigating; this work should begin in September.
Do contact us if you would like to be part of this exciting venture.
The Parish Template
Taking the parish of St Stephen in Brannel as an example of a parish where there is an extensive collection of primary source materials, where there has been agriculture, mining and the clay industry, where there is church and chapel, and both primary and secondary schools, we are making a template to guide the work on our future parish projects.
A team of volunteers, lead by two experienced archivists, is working their way through probate records, leases and maps held in the Cornwall Record Office.
The first results of their work can be seen on the Victoria County History website.
Note: The china clay used by Cookworthy for his pots was discovered in St Stephen in Brannel.
Did you know there was a leper colony in Veryan? Did you know there never was a temple at Temple? Did you know that Week St. Mary had a grammar school in 1504 or that a Newlyn fishing boat once sailed up the Thames to Parliament?
These examples illustrate the diversity of interesting subjects involved in VCH of C's first two projects:
The Religious History Study
This was led by Professor Nicholas Orme, of the University of Exeter, who researched and wrote the histories of the 25 or so religious houses of Cornwall whose holdings extended over wide areas of Cornwall.
A subsequent phase was the writing of a narrative history of religion in Cornwall to 1559. This again had a Cornwall-wide focus.
The study also included a survey of the parishes undertaken by volunteers using a questionnaire provided by Professor Orme. At the time of writing some parishes still have to be visited.
The paperback version, 'Cornwall and the Cross' was launched at St Michael's Mount on 29th September by the Bishop of Truro. The red volume - the hard back version, is due to be published in 2009.
Penwith Communities Study
This was a community- oriented study of Newlyn and Mousehole coordinated by Dr. Joanna Mattingly. Although the geographical area was defined by local government boundaries, the history of these villages was set within a Mounts Bay context.
The work of Dr Mattingly and her team of volunteer researchers included a study of early wills, through which they traced fishing families, their goods and chattels.
The project had a time scale from the earliest records to the present day, though possibly with a 19th and 20th century focus. A topic or theme-based approach was adopted, as appropriate. The completed work is due for publication in November 2009.
Publication of findings:
Some of the research material from both studies has been put on the website built for the England's Past for England HLF funded projects : www.englandspastforeverone.org.uk.
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