Poetry from Cornwall

The Flooding of Wheal Owles

This is the transcript of a booklet published in 1893 by or on behalf of W. Herbert Thomas. W. H. was a miner who worked at the Wheal Owles mine.

'The Cornishman' Thursday 12 Jan 1893 19 men and a boy died in the watery darkness of Wheal Owles, at St Just in Penwith. A terrible roar was heard by the 40 men & boys working deep underground at Wheal Owles mine”

There was great confusion at the time of the names of those who died in the disaster.
The newspaper list of 1993 below is a more accurate list of those lost.

William DAVEY : [a young man, native of St Just, recently returned from the north of England]
William EDDY - James ROWE - William ROBERTS - John TAYLOR & Mark TAYLOR [brothers]
James Edwards TREMBATH - Edward WHITE - Thomas ELLIS - Peter DALE - John William THOMAS - James WILLIAMS  - Thomas ALLEN - John GROSE & Thomas GROSE [father & son] - John OLDS -
William Stevens THOMAS - Charles Hichens THOMAS - Lewis Blewett WILKINS - Richard WILLIAMS

Kenidjack Valley : by Mitzi King

In Praise of Budehaven : by Lucille Opie

Our Canal: by Lucille Opie

Lucille Opie, a staunch Cornish woman with a long history of mining in her family, was born at Redruth in 1929 and educated at Truro County School.  She has lived at Bude in North Cornwall since her marriage and is now enjoying her retirement from teaching.  Her interests are many, being a working member of several organisations in Bude. Lucille was secretary of the Bude Old Cornwall Society for some years during which time she compiled and wrote, with  fellow OCS member Kenneth Hargrove, the book ‘Around Bude’ for the Bude OCS.  Recently she was persuaded to join a U3A poetry group having written several poems over the years. Lucille has a strong love for Cornwall and its people and appreciates its beauty very much, especially that of the North Cornish coast, hence the inspiration to write these poems.

John Harris was born in 1820 at Bolenowe on the outskirts of Troon. Apart from a few years education with a pensioned-off miner and other inadequate teachers he was entirely self educated. Like all children of that time he was put to work at the age of nine and was underground working with his father at Dolcoath copper mine by the time he was thirteen. With few materials to work with John wrote his poetry on roof slates, iron wedges and even on the inside of his hat at croust time. He collected blackberries and used the juice as his ink.                                    His day would start well before sun up with the walk from his home to the mine. He would then climb down the shaft and do a days work, then at the end of his 'core' climb up and walk home. This life had its affect on his health and by the time he was thirty three, like most miners his energy was almost spent. A local Methodist Minister saw some of John's poems and liked them so he set about raising money to have some of them put into a book. This  literally changed John's life as, due to its success and the other books that followed, he was soon able to give up working in the mine.Altogether fifteen volumes of John Harris's work were published and he went on to live until he was sixty four.

Les Merton was born in 1944 on Medlyn Moor, between Falmouth and Helston. He began writing poetry during a serious illness when he was just sixteen, with his first three poems being about death. Les says that they were never submitted for publication. However, his experiences in the University of  Life shows in the depth and colour of his poems. A range of diverse occupations, from the youngest manager of a Co-op store, via coalman to fortune teller, and in between times being a single parent with the responsibility of bringing up three daughters, is there to see. In addition his deep love for his homeland is conveyed  to us in the poem chosen for this site. 
His first published poetry collection. "Cornflakes and Toast", was published
by the National Poetry Foundation in 2000. Since then his published works
include dialect books, "Missus Laity's Tay Room" & "Oall Rite Me Ansum!,"  and a book on the Cornish Chough "The Spirit of a King" and another on the    " Adders in Cornwall".
Les has now undertaken the task of editing Bardhonyeth Kernow's  "Poetry
Cornwall" magazine, and the new anthology from Bluechrome '"101 Poets for a Cornish Assembly"
For a fuller biography and publications list click here.

Joseph Thomas was born at Clahar Garden in the parish of Mullion, Cornwall
on July 28th 1840. He was educated at the school of Mr Robert Blight in Jordon  Terrace, Penzance.{Robert Blight was the father of artist and author John Blight.)
In 1866 Joseph moved to Liskeard where he trained to be a Land Agent and
Surveyor and, on completing his training, he was hired by Sir Edward St. Aubyn of St Michaels Mount as an Assistant Agent.
He later became a lay preacher and he  loved to talk and mix with the working
people, from whom he collected many dialect words and phrases and he also recorded many of their superstitions beliefs and drolls. These he incorporated into his  poems which he wrote for the pleasure of his own family and friends. When he died in 1894 his children gathered his poems together and had them published  in a little volume with the enigmatic title "Randigal Rhymes". The following  poem is taken from this collection and  I have chosen to illustrate it with a painting by Walter Langley entitled, " The Sunny South." Whenever I see this painting - now hanging in the Penlee Gallery, Penzance - I think it illustrates  the  poem perfectly  and also its proposition of  just what was a  "Gwidgy-gwee".

Douglas Sladen was born on 5th February 1856 and christened in London. As a young man he emigrated to Australia and became a travel writer, author and editor of "Who's Who" between 1897-1899. In 1885 he wrote a book of poems entitled  In Cornwall and Across the Sea  from which this poem is taken. this was published by Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh of London and Sydney. He also wrote "A Ballad for the Tercentenary of The Spanish Armada", which was published by the Alverton Press, in Penzance in 1888. He died in 1947 in Australia.

Trevithick Remembered 1801 - 2001

Cap'n Dick's Puffing Devil  : by David Oates, Camborne O.C.S.

David Oates recently retired as a  school teacher from Camborne School. He lives at Troon and is a member of the Camborne O.C.S. He has written a number of books including "Echoes of an Age - The Story of Troon", The book traces the origins of this once great mining village on the hills above Camborne and takes a detailed and affectionate look at social life in the heyday of the mining industry. His second book was "Godrevy and Gwithian" a guided walk of the area with historical notes. His third publication is a book of poems entitled  "Poems from the West" which included the wonderful poem "The Church of St Gwinear". 

"Thou shoud'st have sen un Cap't Dick" : by George Pritchard Redruth O.C.S.