Penzance and pirates, they go together like fish, tin and copper don't they? Been togather since time immemorial haven't they so what's the big deal with 31st December 1879?

A scuffle in the street, a knife, a stranger - just an argument over a girl or something more?

The wreck of the Anson on Loe Bar saw over 100 men drowned and battered to death by the waves but it also resulted in two advances in dealing with the consequences of shipwreck....

The magistrates are grinding the mill of justice today in Penzance Guildhall and fines are being handed out to the poor of Penwith but some unexpected wealth comes to light......

Questions surround the life and death of Dolly Pentreath. But the details matter little, what matters more is what she represents and what she represents is, in the Cornish words of a Yorkshire poet,  Mes den hep tavas a-gollas y dyr.

It's pantomime season in Penzance, at the Pavilion a chap calling himself Lanyon Cromlech is in charge of publicity.....

On Christmas Day 1724 Sir Francis Vyvyan of Trelowaren leased a decayed stamping mill in Trewellard to Sibella Hichens, John Ustick and John Dennard. The property was known as Sir Vyell's Stamps......

Sally Prowse grew up as a farmer's daughter at Rosemodress and after her marriage on Christmas Eve 1864 she lived as a farmer's wife at Tregiffian.....

The war aganist the Turks in Mesopotamia claimed the lives of several Pendeen men, among then Charles Pryor of Bojewyan Stennack.

The big day arrived on 19th December, we were to find out out what had happened to Batten, Carne to Carne and what plans were now in place to protect our savings. Or were we?

Tuesday 20th December 1870 in St John's Hall: Handel's Messiah under the baton of the estimable Mr J. H. Nunn with soloists of national fame including the celebrated James Maybrick.

The loss of the Solomon Browne exposed with all too chilling clarity the harsh reality of life on Cornwall's romantic granite coast.

Not knowing where you are at sea is never good but picking a fight with a lighthouse can only have one winner....

Probably Cornwall's most famous scientist, Humphry Davy was fortunate to be born at a time when west Cornwall was a place at the centre of technological achievement.

Sixty seven years ago the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall was holding its annual general meeting in Penzance, just as it does today and as it has done each year since 1814.

Lewis Charles Daubuz lived in Truro and died in London but he was a significant personality in the affairs of Penwith.......

The 'supporters' of Charles Campbell Ross are a destructive bunch but presented with a window of opportunity they can have a smashing time with the best of them.......

A house struck by electric fluid, bell wires burnt out but plaster more or less unscathed.....

"A pillar of fire, exceedingly vivid and apparently the thickness of a man's arm" between sea and sky where it spread out with “splendid coruscations followed by a terrific peal of thunder”. Not a performance of Elijah in the St Just Wesleyan but an electrical storm.....

On 11th December 1807 the Jews of Penzance celebrated taking possession of their newly built synagogue, built with the assistance of Joseph Branwell.

Today the Pedn Olva in St Ives is a place with a fine view up to Trevose Head where you might enjoy a scotch on the rocks but on 10 December 1846 it was a ship on the rocks, the Thomas  of St Ives.

Slave trading in illegal but slavers still sail the seas...

Stalking is not a new offence it seems thought the term was not used to describe what happened to St Ives MP T.B. Bolitho in the early 1890s.

The loss of the Trevessa, a Hain Line ship, happened in a remote area of the Indian Ocean and was followed by 1700 mile voyage to safety in open boats. The final meeting of the investigation into the ship's loss took place 7th December 1923.

Rinking: it’s already sweeping the nation, and now it can sweep Penzance.The old West of England Knitting Company in New Street has been transformed into “the People’s Palace”.

Frank Bodilly, the only Cornishman among the initial group of Newlyn artists, and scion of the old Penzance family of Bodilly was born to Thomas Hacker Bodilly and his wife Elizabeth on 5th December 1860.

It's 1902 and following a strike at the quarry James Runnalls has decided he needs more modern haulage to get his stone to Newlyn harbour.....

Penzance is looking to the future and Newquay is the competition. Strip lights on the prom, broadcasts concerts and to cap it all, an aerodrome, that'll do it!

Not every tragedy sees the light of day. For very good reasons the work of the Penzance Preventive and Rescue Society  was kept done out of the glare of publicity but it was recorded..... 

William Bolitho of Ponsandane has safely returned from his annual 6 week trip to the continent, whither he travelled with his doctor. In recent years he has handsomely endowed Gulval church. Is he perhaps feeling his years?

Major Davey, a man aquainted with the inner workins of the house of correction in Bodmin is back. He's a man who stirs up strong feelings.....

29th November 1813, the last time a bull was baited at Madron Feast.....

There a new cinema in Penzance and I predict it will be become on of the longest lived cinemas in the country!

St Michael's Mount is not normally associated with industry but it was one of the ports used for shipping copper ore to Wales and in 1812 William Jenkin paid the Mount a visit.....

Henric Kalmeter visited Penzance on 25th and 26th November 1724. He's often described a a spy, albeit of the industrial variety. Be that as it may, his journal provides detailed insights into a world which was undergoing some fairly big changes.

St Mary's church has been gradually taking shape on the Penzance skyline over the last three years and today, 25th November 1835, the first service in the new church takes place.

The flake plague has struck. The flake, or dogfish as it's widely known is a species of shark and has a particular liking for herring ...........

There's a war on you know! So the Mayor has set up a new fund for the wives and children of soldiers in South Africa.

Today is the anniversary of the death of John Mathews, the first Borough Surveyor of Penzance. Less well known than many, it's fair to say that John Matthews left a bigger mark on Penzance than almost anyone else.

Sir Rose Price - plantation owner, slave owner, gardener, agricultural improver, show-off, controversialist and dandy was baptised in Panzance in 1768.

It's 1839, coinage is gone in Penzance business is flourishing and professional men of the town need a new club in which to meet, one that rises above the humdrum everyday........

Unpredictable, that's fishing! On 19th November 1821 the St Ives boats went out after herring and they landed the biggest catch of pilchard known up to that time.

Depressed economic conditions can produce extreme reactions, as the Cornish diaspora bears witness. But among the tens of thousands leaving Cornwall's shores few did so in such dramatic fashion as the seven Newlyn fishermen who set sail for Australia on the 16 ton lugger Mystery on 18th November 1854. 

Between 1790 and 1830 a number of west Cornishmen were elected Fellows of the Royal Society including Humphry Davy, Joseph Carne, John Hawkins and on 17th November 1791, Davies Giddy, who would go on to become the Society's President.

The Furry Dance is "Helston's birthright"! If you want to see it the only place to go is Helston........

One of the Penzance banks has just gone out of business and not everyone is pleased with the way it's being handled.....

Today is the advent of a new era: no more red flags in front of motor cars and a new speed limit of 14 miles per hour. You have been warned!

Two days ago we covered the floods of 1894, torrential rains for weeks on end and torrents of water in Newlyn and St Ives. Today, just to show how variable our weather can be, we have record high pressure and clear skies.

Herring! Great numbers of herring, the like of which was scarce known before....