Cornwall (pop. 450,000; area: 1,370sq.mi/3,547sq.km), in the extreme southwest corner of the country, is a much favored holiday location. Its attraction lies in its many sites of great and often bizarre natural beauty, its cliffs and moors, subtropical parks and gardens, delightful sandy beaches, picturesque fishing villages and old mining
communities, together with the myriad of myths and legends which surround them.
The first settlement of the region was from Brittany, by folk of the megalithic culture. From the Bronze Age onwards tin mining led to the establishment of vigorous and far flung trading links.
Later, the Romans too exploited the area's mineral wealth. It took until the ninth century before the Anglo Saxon kings were able to assert their authority over Cornwall. In 1068 William the Conqueror named his half brother Roger de Mortain first Earl of Cornwall, with possessions extending as far as Somerset and Devon.
In 1337 Edward III created the duchy of Cornwall for his son Edward, the Black Prince. Ever since 1503 the title of Duke of Cornwall has traditionally been taken by the heir to the British throne, together with the right to the income from the duchy.
Cornwall's churches are often dedicated to saints largely unknown in the rest of Britain, the region having been first converted to Christianity by Irish Welsh monks.
"Fish, tin and copper", so says an old toast, were the foundation on which, for hundreds of years, Cornwall's wealth rested. For many Cornishmen however, they brought in only a modest livelihood; others lived by smuggling and looting shipwrecks.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries heavy industrial demand led to extensive exploitation of Cornish mineral deposits and the county became the world's foremost producer of tin and copper. From 1920 onwards however it faced increasingly intense competition from the Far East. Miners were forced to emigrate as mines shut down and engine houses fell into disrepair. In many places ruins blighting the landscape are a stark reminder of past prosperity.
Over the years the huge shoals of pilchards have also dwindled, so that fishing too has declined. Today tourism, vegetables and flowers grown in the mild climate of the south coast, the slate from quarries near Delabole and the china clay extracted around St Austell are the main sources of income.
The people of Cornwall have always taken pride in their Celtic ancestry. The Cornish language, closely related to Breton, nevertheless died out at the end of the 18th century. The efforts now being made to revive it are hampered by the lack of any substantial body of Cornish literature, the written legacy passed down since 1400 being very fragmentary.
The old language survives chiefly in the form of place names, in particular those with the prefix "tre" (home), "lan" (church), "pen" (end, spit of land") or "pol" (bay). It was these which inspired Sir Walter Scott's well known jingle: "By Tre-, Pol- and Pen- / Ye shall know the Cornishman.
Folkdance and folkmusic festivals, May Day celebrations derived from old fertility rites, a unique form of wrestling, cornish pasties (pastry filled with meat and vegetables) and saffron buns are just a few of Cornwall's specialties.
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