For my second project, I have decided to base my work on a subject that has fascinated me for many years. The two particular areas of Cornish History that I will be focusing on, have gone hand-in-hand for countless generations, these being ‘Work and Prayer’.
It is remarkable that this extremity of Great Britain has stayed relatively untouched for in excess of 150 years (In some places, for much longer). Coming to Cornwall from a large city where landscapes change on a day-to-day basis, has made me want to research the cornucopia of weather-beaten buildings, to find out about their former days and comprehend the effect they had on the surrounding communities.
Looking around at the countryside in which I now live, there is a great wealth of historical buildings; from the small churches that were once the centre of village life, to the crumbling, now desolate remains, of the industrial engine houses.
Throughout time, life has revolved around work and prayer. Tin mines were abundant in Cornwall in the 18th and 19th Centuries and most of the villagers (including women and children) sought employment in them. Life was undoubtedly tough and miners were old men by their forties. Dust, fumes, hard work deep underground and a poor diet since childhood saw to that. Mining was a precarious occupation and death and injury were an everyday fact of life. Just walk around any Cornish Churchyard in any of the numerous Mining Districts to see this for yourself.
Home life was also often a struggle and diseases like cholera and typhoid ravaged many of the mining villages and towns with their lack of sanitation, uncertain water supplies and overcrowded homes. But life was not ubiquitously nasty, brutish and short, whatever the local tombstones suggest. These conditions bred a strong sense of self reliance, whilst shared experience built strong communities. Feasts and celebrations emerged - many marked by drinking and singing. For the more abstemious, there were new roads to self-improvement – Working Men’s Institutes, reading rooms, music and poetry, but above all, religion.
Over the past few months, I have studied many photographs, by many different artists and the two photographers that have inspired me to take up this theme are Edwin Smith, famous for his photographs of English parish churches and Robert Preston, well-known for his photographs of Cornish landscapes at the turn of the century, which include many eminent images of Botallack mine in Penwith. Both these photographers have been extremely influential to me whilst working on this project; Smith for his image of Abbey Ruins in Ireland and Preston for his fascinating photographs of a ‘19th Century Working Cornwall’.
