Migration: Crown of Cornish Achievement, or Architect of its Decline? A Throwback in Verse

Migration: Crown of Cornish Achievement, or Architect of its Decline? A Throwback in Verse

Sorting through my research and old teaching notes, I happened upon this absolute gem that was written by one of my students. It was penned in response to my course on Cornwall’s Great Migration and the advent of peripherality due to the decline of the mining industry, which was exacerbated by mass migration. I challenged this orthodox model of decline in Cornish Studies, and this clever poem shows that one of my students was highly engaged and entertained by my lectures on the subject! I just had to share it, as it brought back some lovely memories of lecturing over twenty years ago.

© Dr Sharron P. Schwartz

An essay on the migration of metalliferous miners from Cornwall in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Dedicated to Sharron, with thanks.

Architecture of decline?

I think not! It’s a Cornish mine!

Persuasive are the pessimists;

Their arguments (or just the gist)

Say Cornwall lost its great and best

To foreign climes and left the rest,

A sad, depleted, motley crew,

No gumption nor no work to do.

Men say that, and men may resent

The Cornish tin mines, now extinct,

Psychology could have its say;

Would women think another way?

Cornwall’s ‘ex-pats’ far did roam,

Exporting Cornwall o’er the foam.

Fed up with earning a mere pittance

With pride they sent home their remittance.

Though ostrich feathers flaunted glamour,

In Sunday’s chapel down in Lanner,

They weren’t just spendthrifts without care,

Redruth emporiums saw their share!

Just look to houses, names will tell

Homecoming money was spent well;

Foreign splendour, classy, fine-

That’s not the architecture of decline!

By Jacky Tregonnagle

(Cornish cousin of the infamous Tartan Bard)

Read more about the proliferation of foreign names across the Cornish mining districts: Foreign house names in Cornwall

Migration: Crown of Cornish Achievement, or Architect of its Decline? A Throwback in Verse