The media in Cornwall has a long and distinct history. The county has a wide range of different types and quality of media.
| 1688 | 1801 | 1870 | 1901 | 1904 | 1927 | 1949 | 1956 | 1956 | 1962 | 1982 | 1992 | 1998 | 2000 | 2001 | 2006 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start of Packet ships | first local Cornish newspaper | Telegraphy arrives in Cornwall | first radio transmission on The Lizard | first cinema screenings in Redruth | first BBC Radio broadcasts receivable in Cornwall | first magazine published in Cornwall | first BBC TV broadcasts in Cornwall | first BBC FM broadcasts receivable in parts of Cornwall | first UK satellite Earth Station starts on The Lizard | first BBC local radio in Cornwall | first ILR station in Cornwall | DVB in Cornwall starts | DAB radio starts broadcasting in Cornwall | Broadband in Cornwall starts | 3G mobile phone starts in Cornwall | Radio St Austell Bay launches as Cornwall’s first mainland Community Radio |
Background
Cornwall’s geography, a long, narrowing peninsula, pointing into the Atlantic, made travel by land (Cornwall is only joined to Devon by a short four-mile stretch of land—the River Tamar divides the rest) slow, unreliable and poor. (Crossing the Tamar was by a few ancient stone bridges and two ferries to Plymouth). Selling and distribution of market goods used the sea and major rivers. However, improved telecommunications stimulated growth in the ports of Cornwall and the exchange of goods, particularly of mining products, like copper and tin. It also led to previously unexplored markets being discovered, for example arsenic, a by-product of tin production, was exported to the US, where it was used in the production of pesticides in the cotton fields.[1]
Before the arrival of mass media in Cornwall and telegraphy, since 1688, Falmouth was the hub of the Packet ships Post Office mail system. Newspapers were slow to develop in Cornwall. Despite the first British newspaper (London Gazette) starting in 1665, due to poor roads, and long distances, distribution of national newspapers did not start fully until the coming of the railways in the 1840s. Outside key urban areas like Truro and Falmouth, national news travelled slowly, and unreliably, by word of mouth.
Mines used cork bulletin boards displayed in “the dry”, a building used for miners to change in and out of work clothes.[2] The information displayed included: employment, tin output, rates of pay (for piece workers) and new Resource extractions. Little information was passed on concerning news from the neighbouring village, or the next market town along the road.[3]
Although the Cornish language had effectively died out by the early nineteenth century, dialects and accents remained strong throughout the whole of Cornwall. Different areas within Cornwall had their own variations from each other. It was more common for a miner, seeking work to travel from his home in West Cornwall to South Africa, than it was for him to travel to the Tamar Valley, or other mining locations within Cornwall.[4] The communications with developing mining towns in the British Empire were better than they were within the county.
With the major slump in mining at the end of the nineteenth century, and the coming of the Great War, Cornwall was about to embark on a process of change, which has continued to the present day.
