Cornwall art and culture from genius loci

THE VEINS OF THE COUNTRY by Clies Steven

About two million years ago Cornwall existed, the geology of the country rocks tell us that. Severe Volcanic activity from deep under the country began to melt it’s way to the surface in what is now Penwith; and gave us what is known as pillow Granite. The distinctive slabs of weathered Granite form the layered piles of rounded, smooth granite and the piles of loose rubble that fill the hill sides of the glorious Northern coast.

With this molten granite came the minerals, minerals like tin and copper, bismuth wolfram and arsenic, silver and lead and many others not so well known filled the fluid that pushed its way up from deep in the melting pot of the earth, up through the still molten granite. This was liquid quartz, that white sparkling strata that we see in the surface rocks today where it has weathered and with it contained in its white hot 1000 degree Celsius heart, was carried the metals and minerals Cornwall has become so well known for.

The old saying is ‘A mine is a hole in the ground with a Cornishman at the bottom’ and it has proved true. Cornwall perfected the art of hard rock mining, developed and perfected the mighty steam engines that pumped the mines, lifted and lowered millions of tons of material and men; and powered the industrial wealth of the country of England. I can hear the cries of disbelief from you as I write this, but it is true! In it’s day Cornwall was THE most heavily industrialised county in England, industry that drew heavily on the canny imagination of its native men and women.

Steam pumps where made and exported to other countries all over the world, made in places like Hayle, Perranporth and Camborne Redruth the list could go on and fill the page of the little towns and villages where a foundry sprang up to fill the void for machinery. Three of the WORLDS biggest ever steam pumps where made here, right here in Cornwall at Harvey’s foundry in Hayle, and sent to Holland to drain the mighty inland lake that the Dutch had created. They are still there, preserved now as museum pieces but still able to steam and pump. Just one of the cylinders was 100 inches in diameter! The picture exists of a horse and cart stood inside the first cylinder ever cast, with men sat on the cart.

And the purpose of this history extravaganza?

Look around my country today, it is a beautiful scene, with all it’s complex and divers life. The holiday industry is now the chief income for us who live here, but in the secret places of our heart the fierce heartbeat of winning the metals from the bowels of the very earth itself is still vibrant and alive. For about 2 thousand years the then natives started a mystic love affair with tin and copper, a love affair that would take the men thousands of miles from their beloved homeland; to sing in the resonant bass and tenor voices of Cornwall around a bar or campfire in the middle of nowhere.

The cousin Jacks and jennies that left the shores of Cornwall had no knowledge of the lands they were going to, only that they carried their calling within them. Today there are Cornish societies all over the globe, in every country Cousin jack has left his mark and within the children of the present natives of those countries beats the genetic calling for the high lonely moors and the soft south wind from the Atlantic Ocean.

Today (Sunday) I listened to a program called Cornwall is calling, broadcast from Radio Cornwall. So! I hear you ask? That same program is also sent out over the internet by the BBC to every corner of the Globe where a Cornish child of the homeland lives. Places like the Falkland Islands and the cattle ranches of Australia, the steamy heat of Singapore and the eastern Jungles, Africa and the America’s. Can you dear reader tell me of another County in England that does this? That sends it’s homeland songs and thoughts to people unknown and unseen, who listen and dream of the ‘HOMELAND’.

I am a lucky man to have the history of my ancestors, and my country is here for all to rest in and be a part of the great melting pot of Cornwall