Media In Cornwall

History

Timeline

1688

1801

1870

1901

1904

1927

1949

1956

1956

1962

1982

1992

1998

2000

2001

2006

2008

Start of

Packet ships

first local

Cornish

newspaper

Telegraphy

arrives

in Cornwall

first radio

transmission

on

The Lizard

first cinema

screenings

in Redruth

first BBC radio

broadcasts

receivable

in Cornwall

first

magazine

published

in

Cornwall

first BBC TV

broadcasts

in Cornwall

first BBC FM

broadcasts

receivable in

parts of

Cornwall

first UK

satellite

Earth Station

starts on

The Lizard

first BBC

local radio

in Cornwall

first ILR

station in

Cornwall

DVB in

Cornwall

starts

DAB Radio

starts

broadcasting

in Cornwall

Broadband

in

Cornwall

starts

3G mobile

phone

starts in

Cornwall

Radio St Austell Bay

launches as

Cornwall's first

mainland Community

Radio

Background

The telecommunications mast on Carnmenellis hill. The mound to the right is a covered reservoir according to the OS map

Porthcurno in 1870 - Britain became wired to the world. For the first time telegraphy made it possible for Britain to communicate with its colonies in the British Empire. Originally, the intention was to land telegraphy cables at Falmouth, Cornwall, but a last minute change by the Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company ensured that Porthcurno has gone into telecommunications history. The reason was to protect the cables from dredging damage in the busy Falmouth harbour. Although the new telecommunications industry itself did not affect the communications between the sparse and geographically spread out villages and towns within Cornwall, it started the Victorian Internet, which had a profound effect on mobilising the speed of change during the latter days of the Industrial Revolution.

Cornwall's geography, a long, narrowing peninsula, pointing into the Atlantic, made travel by land (Cornwall is only joined to Devon by a short four mile stretch of land--the River Tamar divides the rest) slow, unreliable and poor. (Crossing the Tamar was by a few ancient stone bridges and two ferries to Plymouth). Selling and distribution of market goods used the sea and major rivers. However, improved telecommunications stimulated growth in the ports of Cornwall and the exchange of goods, particularly of mining products, like copper and tin. It also led to previously unexplored markets being discovered, for example arsenic, a by-product of tin production, was exported to the USA, where it was used in the production of pesticides in the cotton fields.

Before the arrival of mass media in Cornwall and telegraphy, since 1688, Falmouth was the hub of the Packet ships Post Office mail system. Newspapers were slow to develop in Cornwall. Despite the first British newspaper (London Gazette) starting in 1665, due to poor roads, and long distances, distribution of national newspapers did not start fully until the coming of the railways in the 1840s. Outside key urban areas like Truro and Falmouth, national news travelled slowly, and unreliably, by word of mouth.

Mines used cork bulletin boards displayed in "the dry", a building used for miners to change in and out of work clothes. The information displayed included: employment, tin output, rates of pay (for piece workers) and new Resource extractions. Little information was passed on concerning news from the neighbouring village, or the next market town along the road.

Although the Cornish language had effectively died out by the early nineteenth century, dialects and accents remained strong throughout the whole of Cornwall. Different areas within Cornwall had their own variations from each other. It was more common for a miner, seeking work to travel from his home in West Cornwall to South Africa, than it was for him to travel to the Tamar Valley, or other mining locations within Cornwall. The communications with developing mining towns in the British Empire were better than they were within the county.

With the major slump in mining at the end of the nineteenth century, and the coming of the Great War, Cornwall was about to embark on a process of change, which has continued to the present day.

Telegraphy

The white pyramid which replaced a clifftop hut near Porthcurno at which the submarine telegraph cable from Brest in France was terminated

In 1869, John Pender formed his first telegraph company, the Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company, with the aim of completing the cable chain connecting India to England with cables via Gibraltar and Portugal. The company name was somewhat misleading as although Pender intended the cable to land at Falmouth, the final landing point was the more westerly Porthcurno, because of fears of shipping damaging the cables.

The completion of this cable in 1870 was the final link in the London to Bombay line. In 1872, this was one of the companies merged to form the Eastern Telegraph Company.

Established in 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company was an amalgamation of a number of important smaller telegraph companies: John Pender, became the company's Chairman, and Sir James Anderson, who had captained the Great Eastern on its successful laying of the 1866 Atlantic cable, was the General Manager.

The company developed a network of telegraphs by creating new routes and doubling and trebling cables on busy existing routes. In the early years of the 20th century, the Eastern became part of the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies which incorporated many other telegraph companies from around the world.

Porthcurno's telegraphic code name was "PK". In 1929 the company began to operate world radio communications through a merger with Marconi's radio network and it was renamed Imperial and International Communications. In 1934 the name changed once again to Cable & Wireless. At its height, Porthcurno was the world's largest cable station, with fourteen telegraph cables in operation.

Although telegraphy itself is not generally regarded as mass media, as its communications are, in effect, on a one to one basis, the data and information that was transmitted through Porthcurno had both national and international importance. Wars were declared, announcements of deaths of royalty announced - these in turn were relayed to the national and local newspapers for the general public to absorb. Without telegraphy, there would have been little news in newspapers, and very little national and global content over the radio airwaves.

Newspapers and magazines

See also: Category:Newspapers published in Cornwall

History of Cornish newspapers

Royal Cornwall Gazette

The first newspaper printed and published in Cornwall was the Royal Cornwall Gazette, first published in 1801. It finally ceased publication in 1951, but formed the roots of today's Packet Newspapers. It was published in Falmouth by a Cornishman, Thomas Flindell. Flindell was born in Helston in 1767, and he had previously been editor of the Doncaster Gazette. Unfortunately, the newspaper got off to a rocky start--Flindell's business partners became bankrupt, and Flindell himself ended up in a debtor's jail in Bodmin. The last edition appeared on 16 October 1802. All was not lost however, as Cornish landowners got a group subscription together, and Flindell offered his services as publisher and printer. The paper re-appeared, published in Truro on 2 July 1803. Two years later it was sold to Nettletons, and Flindell moved to Exeter to set up another newspaper there. The newspaper was mainly subscribed by doctors, bankers, lawyers and landowners, but it was also made available publicly to inns and guest houses, a process which made it more amenable to advertisers.

Although the Royal Cornwall Gazette was the first newspaper published within Cornwall, another regional newspaper, which had many subscribers and distribution throughout Cornwall, as far west as Penzance, was the Dorset based Sherborne Mercury, which started in 1737, and predates the national Times. It covered many Cornish news items, and was read by key businessmen and professional classes in the County. Archive copies are available in the Cornish Studies Centre in Redruth.

Flindell purchased large numbers of postage stamps from a stationers Messrs Tipper & Fry of Aldgate in London. He wrote requesting more stamps at election time. Despite use of stamps for getting copies of the newspapers out to his subscribers, he also used a large body of couriers to get the paper down throughout the County of Cornwall. He negotiated with organisers of markets to sell his newspaper direct from stalls on market days. The Gazette, however, despite Flindell's best efforts, fell into the hands of the Tory Party. To counter balance this, the prominent Whig Party in Truro set up The West Briton in 1810, which is still published today, although now under theownership of Cornwall & Devon Media / Northcliffe Newspapers Group. Newspapers continued to expand across the county, both in number, size and readership.

Falmouth Packet

The next most prominent newspaper to start was the Falmouth Packet & Cornish Herald in 1829, which also still publishes today, though now under the Packet Newspapers banner, and under ownership of Newsquest.

Other current newspapers

Indeed, of all the current newspapers published within Cornwall, only one is independent, the St. Ives Times & Echo, which formed out of the merger of Western Echo and the St. Ives Times in 1972. All of the others are either owned by Tindle Newspaper Group, Newsquest or Northcliffe Newspapers Group. The geographical coverage of the existing papers is also haphazard, with a lot of duplication (for example, Callington is covered by the East Cornwall Times, The Cornish Times and the Cornish & Devon Post) while some areas (particularly North Cornwall/Bude) are poorly served (just the North Cornwall edition of the St Austell centric Cornish Guardian). There is an argument that Cornwall would be better served having at least one weekly paper which covers the entire county, as one of the main reasons for purchasing the weekly paper is by prospective property buyers and people buying and selling cars and job seekers. Indeed, The West Briton has gone some way to accommodate this; although there are four separate news editions of the paper, each week a classified/job vacancy section and a property section cover all of mid and west Cornwall, though places east of Bodmin, for no known reason, are generally excluded.

Newsagents

The final part of the chain in getting the newspaper from printer to the reader are the news wholesalers and the newsagents. Newsagents sprang up in Cornwall in the 1850s, but still continued to buy direct from the publisher. This generally meant a long delivery time from publication dates to shelf date, particularly for the national newspapers. However, by the 1870s both independent and national chains of news wholesaler started to make in roads into Cornwall. Currently, there are just two news wholesalers in the County, who distribute all newspapers and magazines to all outlets, from the village Post Office to the hypermarket. They are Smiths News, who are based in Plymouth, but have sub-branches in Bodmin and Redruth, and DashNews, which distributes Cornwall & Devon Media titles as well as News International newspapers.

Table of historic and current newspapers in Cornwall

Newspapers previously published in Cornwall

publication dates in brackets

excludes free newspapers

Newspapers currently published in Cornwall

year of 1st publication in brackets

excludes free newspapers

Royal Cornwall Gazette (1801 - 1951)

Falmouth Packet & Cornish Herald (1829 - 1848)

Penzance Gazette (1839 - 1858)

Penzance Journal (1847 - 1850)

Cornubian (1850 - 1925). Between (1867 - 1879) called the Redruth Times

Cornish Telegraph (1851 - 1915)

Launceston Weekly News (1856 - 1931)

Falmouth & Penryn Weekly Times (1861 - 1895). Continued as Cornish Echo until 1952.

Redruth Independent (1879 - 1895)

Cornish Post & Mining News (1889 - 1944)

St. Austell Star (1889 - 1915)

St. Ives Weekly Summary (1892 - 1918)

Western Echo (1899 - 1957)

Newquay Express (1905 - 1945)

St. Ives Times (1910 - 1971)

Cornish & Devon Post (1877)

Cornish Guardian (1901)

East Cornwall Times (1859)

Newquay Voice (2002)

Packet Newspapers (1829)

St. Austell Voice (2005)

St. Ives Times & Echo (1972)

The Cornish Times (1857)

The Cornishman (1878)

The West Briton (1810)

Western Morning News (1977)

Social and economic effects

The rapid expansion of newspapers in Cornwall can be directly related to the boom in tin and copper mining throughout the county. Indeed, both the printed media and the mining industry fed off each other. However, growth was not all due to mining. Agriculture benefited too. By promoting livestock markets outside of a farmers immediate area, it stimulated expansion of the rural economy. By looking at archive newspapers in Cornwall from the 1830s and 1840s they are full of detail about markets, property, livestock farming equipment. mining equipment and prices for buying and selling tin and copper as well as other metals. Job vacancies were widely advertised, meaning that workers did not have to toil in their immediate village or town, This became especially important when the mining slump started in the 1880s. Jobs and opportunities were advertised from far flung places like South Africa, Australia, Bolivia and Canada, where Cornish entrepreneurs had already started new mining operations using skills they had learnt back home.

Benefits of the newspapers was not solely limited to developing economic growth. It encouraged social networks by putting the Cornish people in touch with other villages and towns, as well as encouraging social meetings at summer fairs and agricultural shows (e.g. Royal Cornwall Show). The newspapers also became points of record for births, marriages, deaths and court calendars, prosecutions, bankruptcies and hangings.

Education benefited too. It encouraged people to read, and indeed stimulated people to learn to read. It also encouraged people to write, for example articles and letters. A gauge of literacy , or specifically the ability to sign one's name, is available form 1754 when both parties were required to sign marriage registers. By analysing five Cornish parishes indicates that approximately 24% of men and 70% of women could not sign their name between 1760 and 1770. However, by 1870 that figure had improved to 18% for men and 40% for women. Although it cannot be shown that this is a direct cause of the newspapers, there are writings (e.g. Andrew Brice writing in the Grand Gazetteer) to indicate that it was the considered opinion at the time.

Post World War II the effects of the importance of newspapers lessened. With the coming of television and the abundance of radio, it effect was less marked. Numbers of newspapers in Cornwall at that time declined, and several mergers occurred. In this technological period of growth, there is still a role for local newspapers in Cornwall, particularly as not all local newspaper content is available online.

Magazines

Magazines are a much newer media industry in Cornwall than all of the other media types, however, it is one which is starting to develop rapidly. One of the reasons for this is, due to improvements in IT, it is no longer necessary to be in a large city, like London to publish any magazine or written word. In addition, the relatively new University of Cornwall in the county is creating original media talent. Some of these newly qualified media students, having seen the benefits of Cornwall in their student years, do not want to leave at the end of their studies. An example of magazines include Stranger, a bi-monthly creative lifestyle magazine based in Falmouth. It focuses on the alternative, creative, and non-metro centric side of British culture. Since its first local issue on October 2004, the magazine has grown to become distributed worldwide. Other magazines which are published in Cornwall, but have national or international distribution, and include out of County topics include the International Railway Journal, gasworld, a Truro based magazine about the global industrial gas industry and Smallholder Magazine, which caters for small scale farming in the UK.

It was from Trencrom Hill in St Ives that the first issue of a Cornish magazine, the Cornish Review (editor: Denys Val Baker), was published in 1949. It ran until 1952, and offered the very best of Cornish writing on all aspects of the arts, including articles by Bernard Leach, R. Morton Nance, Peter Lanyon and Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin, as well as poetry by Charles Causley.

Cornish Review was followed by Cornish Scene, an A5 black & white quarterly, which covered Cornish history, as well as other topics including the arts. It ran from 1972 until the mid-1980s.

Since then, a whole raft of glossy magazines have sprung up which cater for the ever-expanding interest in the county, including Cornish World Magazine, aimed at the Cornish diaspora; Cornwall Today magazine, a more 'frothy' title catering for aspirational residents and would-be residents; Taste Cornwall, about food, food production and restaurants in Cornwall; and Inside Cornwall magazine, a listings magazine covering the arts, entertainment and sport.

It is the world of sport and specifically, water sports, which has seen and developed the third section of magazine growth in Cornwall. Surfing is key to Cornwall's tourism, and this has led to titles like Surf Girl magazine, Pitpilot magazine and Wavelength catering for this market. These titles not only cover surfing in Cornwall but the UK too, and in the case of Surf Girl, internationally. Another new title is Adventure Cornwall, which covers climbing and other outdoor pursuits.

Cinema

One of the first records of presentations of movies was at Druids Hall in Redruth. In 1904, the Imperial Radioscope Company visited the hall with their animated pictures. In 1910 Druids Hall was converted into the Jenkin's Picturedrome and operated by Mr William Henry Jenkin. Excited audiences filled the hall and marvelled as moving images of Pearl White, RudolphValentino and later Charlie Chaplin flickered across the screen. The cinema had its own orchestra, which started in 1918. Parts of the building (which was converted to a bingo hall in 1954, and burnt down in 1984) still stand today in Penry