Distinctively CornishValuing what makesCornwall Cornish

Mine engine houses are distinctively Cornish, originating in Cornwall but found at historic mine sites the world over. The Crowns at Botallack also illustrate aspects of Cornish spirit: our ingenuity and determination.

www.cornwall.gov.uk

03 Introduction

04 Five themes or sources of Cornish local cultural distinctiveness

08 Why distinctiveness matters

10 How can we care for Cornwall’s distinctiveness?

12 How do we recognise Cornish cultural distinctiveness?

16 A method of ensuring distinctiveness can be assessed and used in decision making

Contents

Cornwall is divided into smaller regions, with their own distinctive qualities, by valleys, ridges, and estuaries, like here at Pont Pill a branch of the River Fowey. Each town and parish also has its own character and distinctiveness, but together they contribute to making Cornwall as a whole a distinctive place.

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Cornwall is diff erent, distinctiveKernow yw dyff rans, diblans Our remarkable heritage reflects how Cornwall’s society, culture and economy has been and still is unusually richly diverse.

All places within Cornwall, while diff erent or distinct from each other, and whether ancient or modern, are distinctively Cornish. They have been made so in the past, and they can be made so (and kept so) in the future. This overview of recent work on assessing distinctiveness in the tangible heritage of Cornwall explores the numerous ways that distinctiveness can be recognised, valued and cared for.

Agan ertach marthek a dhastewyn fatel veu, ha hwath yw, yn anusadow marthys divers kemeneth, gonisogeth hag erbysieth Kernow.

Tylleryow oll yn Kernow, kynth yns dyff rans po diblans an eyl a’y gila, ha hen po arnowydh, yw Kernewek diblans. Re’s gwrug yndella yn termyn eus passyes, hag y hyllir aga gul (ha gwitha yndella) y’n devedhek. An worwolok ma a oberennow a-dhiwedhes owth arvreusi diblanseth yn ertach tavadow Kernow a hwither an lies fordh may hyllir aswon, talvesa ha gwitha an dhiblanseth na.

4 Distinctively Cornish

Much of Cornwall’s distinctiveness can be gathered together into five broad themes.

Five themes or sources of Cornish local cultural distinctiveness

Distinctiveness in Cornwall has been identified in two ways. Those types of building or site or those qualities of place that are Particular to Cornwall and include preaching pits, like Gwennap Pit, created in the 18th century in an abandoned mine pit, for open-air gatherings and services performed by nonconformist Christians.

The second form of distinctiveness covers sites, buildings and aspects that are Typical of Cornwall. Five themes contributing to typicality have been identified, the first being the distinctive language, shown on this signpost at Mylor Bridge, both Celtic Cornish (Truro, Mylor, Trelew, Porloe) and English (Pillars).

One: LinguisticA Celtic language, and a Cornish way with the English language: both still spoken and both visible every day in the names of places, from tre to splat, chy to row and in dialect, from loustering to schemying.

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Two: EconomicA uniquely diverse rural, industrial, urban and marine economy, much of it characterised by a particularly Cornish resourcefulness and innovation, adapting to conditions and taking opportunities:

• mixed and moorland farming• wool, cloth and leather-making, in towns and in the

rural valleys • tin, copper, lead, silver, zinc and manganese mining

and in local towns, engineering and other ancillary industries, now quiescent, but once dominant

• granite, elvan and slate quarrying • china-clay and china-stone working • fishing, oyster farming• tourism • art, music, and entertainment • sport• boatbuilding, victualling and defending• forests, managed woodlands, coppices and willow

gardens• cherry, apple and plum orchards

A second theme Typical of Cornwall is its unusually diversified economy. Here at Cotehele Quay we see warehousing (right), lime-burning for sweetening acid soils in Cornwall’s mixed farms (in the central kiln structure) and commerce (the public house and hotel on the left ).

• growing strawbs, taties and caulis • brewing and cider-making

• flower-growing • renewable energy• communications.

6 Distinctively Cornish

Three: TopographicalDistinctively Cornish ways of living in and working with a beautiful, rugged and exciting natural topography.

• The Atlantic and the two Channels, one day all agitation and fierce power, the next flat as a millpond

• An extraordinary coastline, loved by millions, from exposed, sheer cliff s to sheltered sandy or shelly beaches, shingly coves and wild towans (dunes)

• Sinuous, wooded rias, the sunken estuaries of Cornwall’s main rivers

• Their winding valleys, steep-sided, requiring eff ort to leave and breaking Cornwall into separate parts, local Cornwalls within Cornwall

• Rounded downlands rising on the granite to tor-topped nearly mountains

• Geology that is sedimentary and igneous, metalliferously mineralised, and exploitable in many ways.

A third Cornish theme is the way its people have adapted to rugged natural topography. At Bedruthan precipitous rough grazing is crossed by a zig-zag track, now cut by a cliff -fall, that led down to a cove from which seasand would have been collected to improve fields.

The fourth Cornish theme covers the ways that natural environment has been managed. On Carn Galva in Zennor a stand of Western Heath, a particularly Cornish mix of Erica vagans (a tall heather) and furze, rare and ecologically important as well as remarkably beautiful, has been maintained by traditional land management including grazing.

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Four: NaturalEqually distinctively Cornish ways of adapting a natural environment that reflects that diverse topography, especially its flora and fauna. Cornish ways of adapting to that natural environment, living closely and respectfully with nature, and also introducing a distinctively Cornish suite of non-native plants and animals.

Five: SpiritThe distinctive Cornish identity and spirit, Onen hag Oll, One and All. The ways we have of relating to place, to each other, to our culture and that of others. From maintaining customs to gathering for ceremonies, festivals, feastings and pleasures, partaking in rituals and religious practices, engaging in raucous and more disciplined sports, composing and retelling stories, creating art and literature, making music and dancing wildly; all these contribute tangibly and intangibly to what it is that makes Cornwall distinctive.

The fift h and final Cornish theme relates to the spirit of its people, including the ways they have responded to beliefs like Christianity and paganism, the beliefs of the pays, the local country, oft en in places like springs that have become sacred or holy wells, like here at St Cleer.

8 Distinctively Cornish

Caring for this distinctiveness when making decisions that will aff ect Cornwall in the future will help our economy, society and individual people in many ways:

• It will reduce or halt the gradual diminishment of Cornwall’s distinctiveness, which to many is its principal asset, the basis of its brand, a major contributor to the beauty and the interest of its places

• It will ensure that Cornwall’s landscape, towns and sites continue to be a major part of Cornwall’s draw for visitors, contributing greatly to the tourism that is worth nearly £2 billion a year to Cornwall’s economy, supporting jobs and giving pleasure to people from all over the world

Why distinctiveness matters

• It will help make Cornwall a better place to be, a more attractive place in which to work, live, relax and play. This will increase people’s sense of well-being and encourage them to be more active and healthier

• It will inspire people to learn about and engage more actively with the places they know and love, and get more involved in deciding their future

• This will contribute to Cornwall’s sustainability and resilience and ensure that future generations can continue to draw on the cultural and heritage capital that distinctiveness contributes to. Additionally it will encourage younger people’s involvement in maintaining, celebrating and understanding Cornwall.

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Ertach Kernow (Heritage Kernow) is a forum of bodies with interests in Cornwall’s heritage, set up as part of the Devolution Deal between Government and Cornwall that followed the formal recognition of the Cornish as a National Minority. It has commissioned work on how to use and sustain the significance of Cornish Distinctiveness when considering change in any part of Cornwall.

The remarkable 1630s north front of Godolphin exemplifies Cornish innovation; such a design, the loggia and classical forms and proportions, would have been at the forefront of London design, but stands in Breage, west Cornwall, the materials used being locally sourced granite.

10 Distinctively Cornish

Cornish Distinctiveness will be threaded through all future heritage work in Cornwall. This will be set out in the Heritage Strategy that Ertach Kernow has also commissioned and will involve the following. • Improving our understanding of the extent, character

and significance of Cornwall’s heritage• Working out all the ways that we value heritage and the

historic environment• Turning valuing into action through

protecting • caring • managing change • celebrating and involving

• Developing partnerships with all who aff ect and benefit from heritage and the historic environment

How we can care for Cornwall’s distinctiveness

Cornish hedges, stone-faced earth banks, are distinctively Cornish by being predominantly confined to Cornwall, and also by being typical features of fields in all parts of Cornwall. They do, however, have more local styles, dependent on tradition and the qualities of the readily available stones. Here at Pentire near Polzeath the angular slate has been set on end and nicely coursed.

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Assessing the form and significance of Cornish and more local distinctiveness will then inform the following:

• Extending protection through designation (Listing, Scheduling, Registering and creating more local lists of assets and places)

• Ensuring distinctiveness is recognised and sustained through involvement in the assessments that support a range of decision making: Neighbourhood Plans, Heritage Assessments, Design and Access statements, Environmental Impact Assessments, and so on

• Various forms of design guidance• Conservation Management Plans, Historic Environment

Action Plans and other management tools

• Enhancement of understanding and records of heritage assets, places, areas, and historic landscape

• Contributions to more general Environmental Growth by maintaining and reinforcing Cornish cultural and heritage capital, alongside and interwoven into our natural capital

• The weaving of Cornish and local distinctiveness (and thus a broad and inclusive understanding of the Cornish historic environment) into related initiatives, including those addressing Cornish culture, language and identity.

Our Heritage Strategy will improve our understanding of the extent, character and significance of Cornwall’s heritage

12 Distinctively Cornish

The Ertach Kernow’s work established two approaches to recognising the cultural distinctiveness of Cornwall’s heritage. Particular to CornwallThis involves identification of that which is peculiar or particular to Cornwall, whether a type of site or feature (like the Romano-British courtyard house, or the medieval plein an gwarry) or an aspect of the quality or character of a place or feature (such as the use of Pentewan and Serpentine stone or china-clay white bricks). If a type or quality is also found beyond Cornwall, then Cornish distinctiveness is recognised in their particularly dense distribution in Cornwall (such as cliff castles, holy well chapels, fish cellars, or materials like Delabole slate) or, when disseminated through Britain or around the world, those that have their origins in Cornwall (like Cornish engine houses or Cornish Unit houses).

How do we recognise Cornish cultural distinctiveness?

There are relatively few types of site or building that are found only in Cornwall. One of those is the courtyard house, complex multi-roomed all-in-one farmsteads of the Romano-British period, seen here at Chysauster in Gulval (© Cornwall Council).

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Cliff castles, Iron Age defended promontories, are found in other parts of Britain, but have an unusually dense distribution in Cornwall, and especially in its western half. Gurnard’s Head in Zennor (© Cornwall Council).

Here on a 16th century town house in Boscastle, Particular distinctiveness is displayed in the use of the famous Delabole slate for roofing (here half-rag slates of random widths laid in slightly diminishing courses, itself a distinctive style). Four pieces of slate have been shaped and pinned together as a flue on top of a piece of granite (probably from Bodmin Moor) that has been shaped to mimic slates and has been placed on a stack of more local stones.

Cornish distinctiveness can also apply to methods and materials, such as the use of Pentewan stone for the finely-carved figures pinned to the tower of St Austell church.

14 Distinctively Cornish

Engine houses (providing power for pumping, winding and dressing) are found in many mining regions around the world, but are one of Cornwall’s most distinctive building types because their design was developed here; indeed they are normally known as Cornish engine houses. The famous example at Wheal Coates near St Agnes, part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site (© Ainsley Cocks).

The architectural forms of mine engine houses originated in Cornwall so that even when found on the other side of the world, as here at Hughes engine house, Moonta Mines, South Australia , they are recognisably Cornish engine houses (© Deborah Boden).

Cornish Unit prefabricated dwellings, made in the tens of thousands as Britain was rebuilt following the Second World War, were manufactured by the St Austell firm Selleck, Nicholls & Co using the quartz waste left from the nearby china-clay working. Examples are found in 1950s housing estates (as here in St Austell itself © Francis Shepherd) and in rows of Council houses throughout Cornwall and as far afield as Kent, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. They are distinctive as a recognisable asset type created in Cornwall. Their design is unmistakable, even when clad with skins of brickwork and other materials.

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Typical of CornwallThis form of distinctiveness recognises that which is typical or representative of Cornwall, again whether a type, quality or character. Public discourses on what contributes to typical or representative Cornish-ness can be resolved into the five broad themes introduced at the beginning: language, spirit, economy, and responses to Cornwall’s natural topography and natural environment. China-clay working is one of the numerous economic activities that is both quite particular to Cornwall and also typical of it. Although concentrated in the St Austell area, some of the best-preserved and most distinctive remains of the industry, such as the conical sky tips and undisturbed dressing floors, are found in outlying clay-working areas, like here at the Glynn Valley Works in Cardinham, on Bodmin Moor.

Portreath. Principally an importing and exporting harbour, but in a place that had also been a fishing centre, is both Particularly and Typically distinctive, containing types with especially large numbers in Cornwall (industrial harbour, huer’s hut that doubled as a daymark) and representing activities that are typical of it, including tourism (beach, crazy golf, holiday villas) (© Barry Gamble).

16 Distinctively Cornish

Ertach Kernow developed a simple four stage method of assessing Cornish distinctiveness and using it when informing decisions about the future of places. This feeds into guidance on the use of distinctiveness assessment in the range of applications outlined earlier, and which will become important tools in the box that decision-makers draw from.

1 Define and describe the thing to be assessed, whether a particular building, site, place or landscape, or a type of any of these.

A method of ensuring distinctiveness can be assessed and used in decision-making

2 Decide the degree to which the thing is either particular to or typical of Cornwall. Many will be both.

3 Consider the ways that distinctiveness contributes to how people value the thing. The four ways of valuing heritage set out in Conservation Principles (evidential, historic, aesthetic and communal) ensure this is comprehensive.

4 Based on that, prepare a statement of significance and consider how the subject’s distinctiveness should inform protection, management and design of change.

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Art and performance are important elements of Cornwall’s diversified economy, and are again oft en locally specific, such as the twentieth-century artist colony based at St Ives, here represented by the Porthmeor Studios. The oldest working artists’ studios in the country, Porthmeor Studios was originally built for the pilchard industry and is still used by fishermen today as well as artists (© Chris Massey)

Methodist chapels are found throughout Britain but are distinctively Cornish through being found in greater numbers than in most other parts and by representing an aspect of the spirit of Cornish people. (Scorrier © Barry Gamble)

18 Distinctively Cornish

Recognition, assessment and protection and management of Cornish local distinctiveness will increase and extend into consideration of the more intangible heritage of Cornwall, particular Cornish practices, music, art, poetry, festivals and other communal events.

The intricacies of local traditions, such as the Mayday Padstow Obby Oss processions, are usually quite specific to their particular place. May Day festivals may themselves be distinctively Cornish, relating to the time of year when animals were sent to summer grazings, accompanied by young women.

All places within Cornwall, while diff erent or distinct from each other, and whether ancient or modern, are distinctively Cornish.

If you would like this information in anotherformat or language please contact us:

Cornwall Council, County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY

Email: equality@cornwall.gov.uk www.cornwall.gov.ukTelephone: 0300 1234 100

Photos: Peter Herring unless otherwise stated.45869 06/19

For more information emailher@cornwall.gov.uk

This initiative has been undertaken by Cornwall Council with considerable support fromHistoric England as part of the 2016 Devolution Deal between Government and Cornwall Council