Where do The Cornish go to holiday? It’s an interesting question, and the answer – we feel - is truly inspired.
The uninitiated think of The Cornish as those living in Cornwall, but there’s actually a far greater Cornish population living either elsewhere in the UK or overseas. The latter are known as Cousin Jacks/Jills and take their Cornish ancestry seriously – their roots never forgotten (more of which later).
Cornwall’s resident population is about ½ million with roughly 25% of them identifying as Cornish: but what do they do for a holiday? It is a quandary: living in God’s own country. Although traditionally renowned as great travellers (due to their seafaring heritage), they hold a lesser-known ideal close to their hearts…
They love nothing better than taking a break in Cornwall! It could be a week in another area (we’ve often ventured Down West, across to East Cornwall and repeatedly popped over to the Isles of Scilly). Another trick amongst farmers is to take a family house 20 minutes from home each summer. Usually on the coast, it’s everything anyone could want without wasted travel time (and in an emergency, somebody can nip home to sort things out).
Then there’s the mini breaks – a weekend with friends or mid-week getaways to an hotel, for a birthday or anniversary celebration. Or the annual pilgrimage to a festival, or a spot of wild swimming from a clifftop camp site. Any excuse will do – even an artisan pasty-hunt!
Meanwhile, across the rest of the UK, in the region of 100,000 people consider themselves Cornish. They’ve migrated: following work or to marry, often on the back of attending university away. It’s known locally as the brain-drain.
Any guesses where they go, whenever the opportunity arises? Yep – hole in one! Children put on Cornish-bound trains for half-term with grandparents, or whole families returning for local events that run through the veins (like Padstow Obby Oss, Helston Flora Day or the Royal Cornwall Show). Occasional forays elsewhere do happen, but if the truth be known: it’s usually to keep somebody else sweet. Just to secure the fortnight summer holiday in Cornwall.
The overseas Cornish number an estimated 6 million people worldwide, some sources quote nearer 11 million. It’s said that wherever there’s a hole in the ground, there’ll be Cornishmen working it. Known as Cornish diaspora, a mass Cornish emigration happened between 1860 and 1900 (about 20% of the male population leaving Cornwall every decade). As mines closed at home they followed the work elsewhere, sending money back to families left behind.
Add in those that took advantage of Australasia’s £10 poms scheme in the ‘50s/’60s and you’ll find Cornish Associations, Cornish festivals and pasties across many continents. Although a biggie, there’ll be times Cornish descendants want to visit their roots. Either to just savour the flavour of Cornwall or on a ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ mission, delving into family history. Either way, it’s Destination Cornwall.
We were put in mind of all this last summer; when a family member was ‘home’ from New Zealand and gathered branches of the family together at Tom’s Cottage, from Dorset and across Cornwall. A truly Cornish holiday.
Cornish folk holidaying in Cornwall? How strange we hear you say – surely everybody wants a complete getaway. Not so, in the land of milk and honey. The call of Cornwall is idiosyncratic: endorsed by the Cornish themselves.
