
WEATHER
ECONOMY
A BIT OF HISTORY
In medieval times, Cornwall was not an English county like all the others, as it was never colonized by the Anglo-Saxons. The culture of the common people remained completely different from that of their neighbours. For example, they still spoke Brythonic, a Cornish language closely related to Welsh, still boasted of descending from British rather than Saxon ancestors. Until the mid-16th century, they still possessed their own clothing styles, their folklore, their naming costumes, their farming practices and their games and pastimes. From the beginning of the Tudor period onwards, almost everyone accepted the fact that the Cornices were a separate ethnic group. But from the next century, when the common people of East Cornwall gradually abandoned their native language in favour of English, Brytonic was spoken only by the westernmost communities of the peninsula. It was the resulting Linguistic Reform that struck a blow when a law was passed that made English the official language of the Church of England. In the 1700s, there were only 5,000 talking frames left and most of them lived in coastal parishes, between Lizard and Land’s End. Today Cornishmen and women speak revitalized versions of the original Cornish language.

port of Polperro

fisherman in Polperro
#1 POLPERRO

fishing village of Polperro

fishing village of Polperro
#2 KYNANCE COVE AND LIZARD POINT

Kynance Cove

Lizard penisula
#3 ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT

St. Michael’s Mount

St Michael’s Mount
#4 MINACK THEATRE AND PORTHCURNO

Porthcurno

Minack teatre
#5 LAND’S END

Land’s end

Land’s end
#6 ST IVES

villagge of St Ives

beach of St Ives
#7 WHEAL COATES

The mine of Wheal Coates

Wheal Coates
#8 PORT ISAAC

Port Isaac

villagge of Port Isaac
#9 TINTAGEL CASTLE

Tintagel castle

Tintagel castle
#10 CORNISH PASTY
Finally, instead of a place, I insert a typical Cornish dish, the Cornish Pasty. If you’re coming to Cornwall, you can’t leave the county without experiencing this delight that you’ll find everywhere. It is simply a half-moon shaped dumpling of dough, the border folded into a thick crust. With filling that can be meat, potatoes, onions and rutabaga. This is the original recipe, although there are many variations. Since 2003, it has been recognised at European level as an indication of controlled origin (PGI). The Pasty was a simple food for families, fishermen, farmers but also for men and boys who worked in the depths of the tin mines of Cornwall. Their wives and mothers lovingly prepared these tasty and hearty meals to provide a just and warm sustenance to these men during the exhausting dark days in the wet mines, which it was not possible to re-emerge even at lunchtime. The thick crust served as a means of keeping the Pasty with dirty hands without contaminating the meal.

Cornish Pasty
LOGISTICS
- from Italy take a flight to London or Bristol then the most convenient solution is to rent a car with which to move freely between the various places. Take the M4 motorway from London then the M5 to Exeter (or take the M3 and the A303 through Salisbury Plain) and finally the A30, which is mostly dual-lane, or the A38 through Plymouth and Saltash to South East Cornwall. Alternatively, if you enter Cornwall from North Devon, there is the panoramic Atlantic Highway A39 through Bude, which you can reach from junction 27 on the M5.
- You can reach Cornwall via an internal flight from London Gatwick or Manchester to Newquay Airport.
- With public transport, you can use boththe train and the bus and the route from London takes about 7/8 hours
- By ferryyou can reach Cornwall, Plymouth is the nearest port connected by the French city of Roscoff or Santander in Spain.
- To get around the Conovaglia by public transport, visit thelocal bus website or Cornwall Maps
ORGANISED TOURS
If you don’t want to visit the county yourself, you can think about going on some organized tours without having the thought of driving or travelling by public transport.