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 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......

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

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.

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.

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.....

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

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.

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.....

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

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.

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........

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

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.

It’s been a dismal day in court. Dismal, that is, for those of us on the Bench who still hold out a glimmer of hope for the youth of West Cornwall in general – and Penzance in particular.

Regular readers may remember that, on October 26^th, we left two Penzance men awaiting sentence. Here is the third and final part of the story. If the wait has seemed long to you, imagine how it might have felt to them…

New Street, the morning after, a whiff of smoke and some broken glass..........

Tonight Oscar Wilde is going to speak on the subject of America, about which he will later say that, "America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself". 

Penzance's finest are holding a ball in Chapel Street but their enjoyment is about to be interrupted by news of a great victory....and a great death!

Councillor Thomas is the man who runs Penzance entertainment but today he is at the centre of the drama and doing none to well.........

To have the postal service served by by a building which is "second to none of any building of that kind in the west of England" is essential for a civilised town.................

Lemon Hart, founder of a rum distilling business which was selling 100,000 gallons a year to the Royal Navy by 1849, was born in Penzance on 31 October 1768.

Lawyer Lanyon was arrested yesterday, along with Richard Stevens and now they're up before the magistratefor forgery and perjury..........

Morrab Place, bastion of middle class values, has been raided by the police and there they go, prisoner discretely held between them............. 

Penzance Corporation borrowed and spent a lot of money in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mayor Henry Boase was one of those who found himself dealing with the consequences........

It’s Saturday evening, and the departure platform at Penzance is packed with 60 people.

It used to take 32 men to unload a collier at Penzance, but Taylors now have a steam crane............

Penzance Free Library, a beacon of light illuminating the path to the future......

The seafront at penzance is subject to fairly regular assaults by the sea. Many ppeople will remember the damage caused to the Jubillee Pool in 2014 but in 1880 the road to Newlyn was destroyed and lives were lost.

It's been hot, but the pressure has suddenly fallen, a storn is coming. How bad will it be?

This is Penzance. This is Penzance. The train now standing at platform 1 is the 10.00 am train for Paddington. Passengers for Aberdeen please board the rear two carriages. This train calls at St Erth, Hayle, Camborne..........arriving in Aberdeen at 8.35 tomorrow morning. 

On 1 October 1817 a house belonging to Admiral Linzee, in Chapel Street, Penzance, was put up for sale. Which house was it? Is it still there? And who was Admiral Linzee?

It's 1882, just three years since Joseph Swann amazed the Lit. and Phil. in Newcastle with his electric light, and now the people of Penzance can visit an exhibition lit by electric light.

World Championship Heavyweight Boxing comes to Penzance, two years after the event on Coney Island but now's your chance to see the Cornish Blacksmith and World Champion Bob Fitzsimmons of Helston face challenger James J. Jefferies of California....

20th September 1816: Banker Boase to run for Mayor of Penzance. Mayor for only a single term, one of only five single term Mayors of Penzance between 1800 and 1834, his diary throws light upon the affairs of Penzance in the wake of Napoleon.

Farron, Greet and Grattan, not a new firm of solicitors but a visiting company of players come to entertain Penzance as the nights draw in. 

Parade Street pickled pork from Perrys. Lit by 'lectric lighting!

Another step up the ladder for Penzance as the one vital component lacking in the life of the town is addressed with the first edition of the Penzance Gazette. 

Fishpaste Gang's crime spree in Market Jew Street ends in 12 month cinema ban in Juvenile Court.

It's Pirates versus Wanderers in the big match on Moday night and an opportunity to see the magic Jennings strut his stuff, AND LOSE and the pirates cut their opponents down to size.

Yellow jack, musket balls, cannon balls, flying splinters, power explosions and mutiny - Walter Tremenheere faced them all and emerged unscathed from an active service career in the Marine Corps during the Napoleonic Wars.  

My pal Charlie’s in a spot of bother. He's landed up in court due to what the Chief Constable’s seen fit to refer to as his “unfortunate attitude”.  

Harry and Fred Poole have brought their Myriorama to town. The craze of the new century – moving pictures! This is the “Largest, latest and most beautifully designed machine for the projection of Animated Photography”

Phantom photographers snap bathing beauties in Penzance conspiracy scare: read all about it!

Cornwall's always had a bit of a thing about royalty, particularly since that dreadful business back in 1649, but in 1933 the people of Penzance really go for it: it's a gloomy time, nationwide depression and mining virtually ended in the Duchy, so let's have Two Queens............

Admit it, you thought Nadia Comăneci was the first child sports star! Nadia was 14 when she hit the headlines but today we bring you Phyllis Bottrell, the 13 year old swmming prodigy from Penzance.......

The School of Science - no, nothing to do with Everton Football Club - is to come out into the light! It's subterranean era beneath the rocks and strata of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is to come to an end and the foundation stone of its new home is laid......

On 18^th August 1663 Charles II issued letters patent to”appointe our Towne of Pensanse within our said stannery of Penwith and Kerrier in our said County of Cornwall to bee from henceforth for ever one of the Coynage Townes…..”

One of the richest tin mines in Cornwall is near Penzance and lies under the sea, which is excluded by iron funnels, or shafts rising above the level of high-water…..(Sherborne Mercury 13 August 1792)

It's Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee and David Bischofswerder is at the height of his power in Penzance. To celebrate he is opening his new Jubilee Hall on Market Jew St....

A fine load of mugs they all sounded in the witness box today, the victims. Taken for a ride, all right: motor car or otherwise. It was as if they were falling over themselves: a sovereign here, ten shillings there........

There’s a mighty new cinema in town, on the site of the old Horse and Jockey – closed since way back, before the Great War.

The Crown employed supervisors to check blowing houses and smelters to ensure that coinage tax was paid, but it wasn't always straightforward as in this incident on New Street Stairs... 

Today is the anniversary of the opening of Alexandra Road, opened by and named in honour of Princess Alexandra, consort of the future King Edward VII. Later the Royals will go underground at Botallack but his morning the Princess has a less exciting  duty to perform....

The three fleet static review in Mount's Bay to celebrate the coronation of George V avoided air attack by a whisker on 23 July 1910.............

Penzance's first talkie - The Doctor's Secret - read Toestrap of the Cornishman's of the gripping story of........well, read on to find out....

140 years old today and still going strong(ish). The Cornishman was first published on 18th July 1878.

"That lady from the church...", how not to render assistance.

Penzance market cross gets around a bit: Greenmarket, water shote in Causewayhead, old town hall and now it's off again...

Bucket's silver key opens the door to a healthy future....

I was married three days ago; to Caitlin Macnamara; in Penzance registry office; with no money, no prospect of money, no attendant friends or relatives, and in complete happiness”.

Charles Campbell Ross: Scoundrel, Fantasist or Fool?

Father absent at sea and mother mother unable to cope and taking solace in the bottle, it was never going to be easy for the Yates children.........

The stranding of whales on Long Rock beach in 1911 revealed conflicting attitudes in the Cornwall of the time, a place still heavilt dependant upon harvesting the sea........

Don’t mention Trafalgar, and certainly don’t mention De Ruyter burning Chatham. For here we present: the Western Union Fleet....

At one o’clock the doors of the new Guildhall, Corn and Shamble-markets were thrown open for the Great Dinner provided by public subscription. More than 1,000 people sat down to a meal of “good old English fare” including the beef Penzance market was famous for.....

It is not easy to find any document from almost 700 years ago but Penzance is fortunate in that one is held in the National Archives of today’s date. It describes the property of Henry Tyes, who held the manor of Alverton.

As night fell, youths gathered, “vainly endeavouring to assume a very careless air” but with “an anxious manner” and “mysterious protuberances” beneath their coats......

Saturday afternoon, and the season’s begun. Down at the Jubilee Pool, in a match between the two county champion teams, we’ve had the better of Devonport. The score..........

after six weeks of money hunting we are informed at a meeting of the Committee that only sixty pounds have been raised and that several leading hotel keepers …….. have, with extreme munificence, contributed the extraordinarily large sum of ten shillings.....

The new pier, completed in 1813, represented an extension of 150 feet which significantly increased the capacity of the harbour but not all vessels wished to pay the increased dues...................

At the Baptist Church, the Reverend Alfred Bird does not look a happy man. To be honest, the congregation perhaps reflect, he hasn’t looked happy for quite a while. But here he is in the pulpit – and what is he saying?

Penzance has always been a good venue, what with the excellent trains and all the West Penwith farmers. The 1912 attendance of 21,454 hasn’t been bettered by any show since.....

Penzance: the magistrates are busy. In fact so busy that the Mayor was taken ill yesterday, and had to go home. What’s been happening? Well, it’s the new pre-fabs they’re building over at New Street. Or supposed to be building.

The news came into Penzance from London, yesterday evening – the end of a sleepy Sunday afternoon. When the telegram arrived at the Post Office, the operator said it was better than being handed a five pound note. The news was bound for the Telegraph offices in Chapel Street, and was posted up outside. 

George V’s silver jubilee is the big event of May 1935, and the opening of the already-floodlit Pool three weeks later is to be the central part of Penzance’s celebrations...

Greeting to Buffalo Bill: From the far Wild West to the Western Wilds

Long days at sea, fat wads of cash, plentiful booze, a cultural misunderstanding of two and an exchange with the boys in blue. Fish, fight and copper?

The miners from the western mines assembled at Penzance to endeavour to get corn and flour sold to them at a reduced rate. John Tregerthen Short, St Ives 27 May 1847

Empire Day 1916 - there is to be a ceremony in Penzance but, at the insistence of Richard Foster Bolitho, it will be unpublicised and winessed only be a few passers-by......

Spring 1916 but not a lot to smile about with the war grinding on and on and the casualty lists growing longer and longer. But this after, in St John's Hall, Mrs Tupper will be openig the Patriotic Housekeeping Exhibition........

What a scene the field presented! Immense crowds everywhere; and all pleased, all delighted. A lovely day, a splendid ceremony……..”

Numerous pictures on the Internet claim to show the remains of the schooner Jeune Hortense exposed on Long Rock beach. Her skeleton is occasionally exposed by storms, or is it?

They came in cars from Newquay, Perranporth, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle, St Ives and scores of other places………. A sight that will probably never be repeated….. (The Cornishman 21 May 1936)

Sir Rose Price elected President of the new Penzance Library, Dr Forbes as Honorary Librarian.

His Majesty driven off by house surgeon at the West Cornwall Hospital. Read all about it!

Hear ye, hear ye. From this day forth the Common Seal of the Borough of Penzance shall be the head of John the Baptist, on a platter, as demanded by Salome of King Herod II - nice pun terrible association.......

Son of a famous father, traveller, cowboy, lumberjack, soldier, writer and the man credited with creating the inspiration for Poldark – Crosbie Garstin, born Penzance 7 May 1887……...

What could be a more delightful to a town with aspirations to become a sought-after watering place, than a commodious bathing machine?

On 27^th April 1864 not one, but three foundation stones were laid to start the building of the Penzance Public Buildings.........

On 25 April 1332 Penzance was granted a charter to hold a weekly market. Why was it granted then in particular and why is it important?

There’s no doubt about it: the world is changing, and for the better. The Russians have orbited the moon, The Spencer Davis Group are topping the charts, and Harold Wilson is back in for a second term. But locally? Open your copy of the Cornishman, folks, and see what you shall see...................

Although born in Truro, Joseph Carne probably ranks as one one of Penzance's most eminent sons, a man whose days seem to have 48 hours in them, so much does he achieve...........

King Edward VII is driving about Penzance, with fifty cyclists as a vanguard.............

On 8^th April 1812 Humphry Davy was knighted by The Prince Regent .......

These two plays and accompanying entertainment were performed on 3 April 1805 in Penzance's Georgian Theatre in Chapel Street built in 1787. The site is at the rear of the Union Hotel.

At that time England was still at war with France, artist Samuel Palmer was travelling and painting in Cornwall, and a Cornish movement for Parliamentary reform was begun by 14 Cornishmen meeting in the Freemasons' Tavern ....

On Tuesday 30^th March 1875 the Penzance Choral Society, assisted by the 32-strong orchestral band and by bro. Rd. White at the organ, gave a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, which the Royal Cornwall Gazette considered to be the best amateur rendering of this piece to have taken place in Penzance.......................

Midnight has fallen, bringing in Saturday morning, the 23^rd of March 1968. But 500 Penzance and district youngsters have had a great night out, and (leaving aside any possibility of illicit substances having been consumed) are probably just too excited to sleep.

An afternoon in mid-March, the local boys are amusing themselves by chasing and hanging onto cars going up the hill. They've been doing this for quite a while but today they've been joined by a little lad of five...............

Sir Clifford Cory, at a public meeting in St John's Hall just after the armistice said that the Base had been the means of “destroying and damaging many submarines around the coast from Mount's Bay to Hartland Point”. The vessels of the Base had convoyed no fewer than 11,000 vessels to and from France.........

On 10th March 1852 the Cornish Telegraph published the timetable for the Penzance to Redruth railway which was to re-open the next day...........

Penzance has every reason to be pleased with itself. The new floating dock is nearing completion, and tonight, the engineers are to close the new coffer dam and keep the sea out.........

1st March 1867 saw the first broad gauge passenger train from Plymouth to Penzance. The availability of broad gauge all the way to Penzance opened the way for through trains from Paddington to Penzance.................

At the Three Tuns Hotel in the Greenmarket, something out of the ordinary is taking place. The Loyal Queen's Own Lodge No 3910 is holding its first meeting. The Odd Fellows have come to town.

Clark described Penzance as being in one of the most beautiful positions “upon a bay proverbial for its salubrity and beauty” yet stated that “It would be difficult to find a spot so foul in which life is so seriously affected “– the sickness and mortality caused by dysentery had been excessive in his judgement.

The Penzance and District Electric Supply Company have done themselves proud. Mr Lawrence will be giving his special lecture on the Holophane System of Illumination at 7 30 sharp, but while you wait there is plenty more to see.  

But now, after the first winter of what will soon be called the Great War, those lads are not so sure. And in Penzance, on February 18^th 1915, matters have come to a head. They know that, should they be drowned or blown to smithereens, their families will be given ample compensation. But that doesn’t seem like enough.

Royal Cornwall Gazette, 19 February 1814 reported that a meeting was held on Friday 11^th February to look into the formation of a geological society for Cornwall.

Richard Oxnam, one of the original partners in Penzance's first bank, leading merchant and investor in mines looks as if he's made it.

Penzance seemed to be full of marching men in late January 1915 and inevitably there was a certain amount of competition.

Penzance is alarmed. Hoteliers, be on your guard – your “difficulties” will be “increased”. Farmers – be ready. You must prepare for longer journeys on the difficult January roads. Housewives beware – there will henceforth be less “odds and ends".........

Urgent military training requirements in 1915 saw men travelling all over the country to attend training camps....

Open your copy of the Cornish Tidings, hot off the press. It’s 1921 now, and after the long war everything’s getting back to normal. Or what will pass for normal, in the coming age.

The outbreak of WW1 saw an urgent need to grow the small, professional, British Army which was now committed to war on four fronts against the huge conscript armies of the opposition.

Mr Branwell, President of the Penzance Gas Company, has not enjoyed 1887 so far. There are new boys in town, selling what they claim is a better – albeit more costly – product than his company can offer. Coming to a street near you, and soon – the new electric light.

Penzance Choral Society is one of the country's oldest mixed voice choral societies, and almost certainly its most westerly one..........

Charles Ross has left town, the self-appointed liquidator of the affairs of Batten, Carne and Carne has made himself scarce and now his house and possessions are up for sale.

Here comes Mary Bolitho of Trewidden, with her silver key.....

Window dressing - sounds harmless enough, not exactly a high risk activity.......or so I thought

Penzance, Saturday morning, 9th January 1937. What’s on at the pictures, darling? Shall we look and see?