The Cornish are a modern people, we accept change sometimes grudgingly, and in the brightness of a summers day are rational twenty first century people, but on a dark night on a county lane or the coast, away from the modern world it’s not the dark that makes some of us uneasy, it’s then the memories of tales from childhood told to us of Buccas and Spriggans and people being Piskie-led, of the ghost of Tregeagle or the Daisy Dog or the Devil’s many visits to Kernow that come unbidden and though we tell ourselves they are stories and it is just the dark and the night, the land around suddenly seems ancient, brooding and watchful.
It’s not surprising that we remember these tales,the Celts have a history of telling stories that get passed down and become richly embroidered as they pass through each generation and in common with other Celtic lands, the tales weaved in Kernow have created a land full of saints, heroes and sinners, a land of giants and mystery
We can be certain as long as there are Cornish people in the Duchy these tales will continue to be part of the tapestry of Kernow.
The ancient stories are not forgotten but what of the more recent ones?
Every village in Kernow has many tales to tell,memories of the last hundred years or more passed down through families as anecdotes once shared and remembered in the community, stories of carnivals and fetes, of acts of kindness or bravery, quarrels and disputes, the name of a field or how a lane or a cottage got its name,of good and bad weather and people long gone but still remembered.
Until fairly recently generations of Cornish families would have continued to live in their village or close surrounding area and these stories would have been passed down but now with so many villages becoming primarily second homes and the locals pushed further away, who will remember them?
The loss of these stories, however small or insignificant they seem, removes from both the villages and Kernow part of its cultural history and once these stories are lost they cannot be replaced.
This is something that is often overlooked in the discussions about second homes.
And there is one more question: what will the new custodians of these villages who come from London and the home counties add to the history of the village.?
Most have no connection to the area or Kernow, they can buy the property but cannot purchase a link to the history of the property so culturally the cottages they buy have as much meaning to them as a new build Barratt home in Milton Keynes.
And what stories will they create and pass on to future generations?
It seems unlikely that in Kernow’s pantheon of myths and legends the day the Waitrose van was delayed and the late delivery of côte de boeuf nearly wrecked the dinner party to celebrate Amanda getting a commission from the Telegraph to write an article on the trials and tribulations of purchasing a second home in Cornwall and Jonathan being made a partner in Lyre and Lyre one of London’s top legal firms, will rank with the tales of King Arthur and Tristan and Iseult.
KernowCalling 