Agriculture

Economic activity most readily identified with Cornwall was mining, being almost as old as the country itself. However, of the variety of ways in which families earned their livelihood, agriculture employed most people. The other staple industry was fishing.

Throughout Cornwall's history, agriculture has played an important part although the land is of variable quality, with granite uplands, heavy clays in the east, and free-draining loams, all of which make farming a particularly demanding occupation; but the climate was generous, with longer than usual growing seasons and fewer spring frosts.

Agricultural Labourer (or "Ag Lab" as it was usually abbreviated in Census’) reflected the social conditions of the time, with farming being as yet almost entirely non-mechanised (and still feeding almost all the population; food imports in 1881 were confined to luxuries only).

Agricultural events such as ploughing matches, stone-hedging, cutting and faggotting of wood, rope spinning and sheep-shearing have been recorded as being held in the 1800s. It was the object of those who arranged these contests and demonstrations to get the rising generation to take interest in this work.

Francis, Richard, Josiah, Joseph and William Henry Fradd all of Mawgan received prizes for stone-hedging and other skills in the late 1880s.

 

 Royal Cornwall Gazette - Saturday 1 July 1871

Fields were small and square and surrounded with granite or slate stone hedges; or by way of dividing ditches in earlier times. Within them oats, rye, pilez or wheat were grown. Fallow fields provided winter hay for the animals. Cornish farmers also invested most heavily in cattle and sheep for the profit in meat and milk, but also in bones and hides.
   
The English open-field system was not widely adopted in Cornwall, though villages here and there, particularly in the north and east of the county, were re modelled during Mediaeval times.
Much of Cornwall, was not affected by tin and copper mining. This included the parishes of St Breock, St Ervan, Little Petherick, St Merryn, Mawgan-in-Pydar, St Issey and parts of St Wenn, Withiel, and St Columb Major.

This ‘manor’ was one of the large areas of land given in 909AD by King Athelstan to his English bishop of Crediton. It stayed in church ownership for 450 years giving a continuity which is apparent in the sameness of the villages and hamlets, with the preservation of their Cornish names.
Starting just north of the A392, the enclosures south-west of Trebudannon have the appearance of burgage strips, each with its cottage in a row at the hamlet.

The fields around Trencreek, on the edge of Newquay, have remnants of two layouts of stitches (long narrow strips of ground); the one to the north of the railway has the internal lane access characteristic of an open field, with the ends of the stitches abutting it to either side.
Tregaswith, west of St. Columb, has good remnants of stitches at Brookland. On the south side of Tregaswith, although many of the original stitches either were not hedged, or the hedges have been removed, there is a short length of double hedge clearly indicating another classic open-field.
A similar situation may have been at Bosoughan, to the south-west.

Moving to St. Mawgan airfield, much has been obliterated by the runways. Some of the stone for the runways came from hedges demolished at Bedrugga; the landowner Lord Falmouth was said to have been paid 1/- a ton for it during the Second World War.

This used to be part of the manor of Bejowan, with farms and cottages largely in the parishes of St Columb Major and Minor just inland from Newquay.
There is written historical evidence for arable strips at the hamlet of Bedrugga ('intermingled parcels') and at Trebulsue ('pieces ... in a common field', and 'in diverse parcels divided').

Crossing St Mawgan airfield to Tregurrian, this was surveyed in 1606 as part of the manor of Carnanton then in the hands of the Crown, the surveyors in entry after entry enumerating acres 'in communibus campsis [in common fields] ... in styche meal [divided into strips]'. The survey of lands of the adjacent hamlet of Trevarrian estate adopts a classification of land which acknowledges that many farms had both closes and unenclosed strips: the surveyor divides the acreage of each farm into three categories, in 'claus' (enclosed), 'vasta' (waste) and in 'stitches'.

Of particular interest today are the hay meadows bordering the river at Mawgan Porth where the mowing stitches still have their original dividing ditches.
Meadows tended to be sited on land which was flooded during winter, but which dried out early enough to give a bumper hay crop. This was used to feed the breeding livestock during winter when the pastures had been eaten off.

These two hamlets, Tregurrian and Trevarrian, were recorded in 1606 as having or having had open-fields. All the nine villagers in Tregurrian and the three in Trevarrian have similar entries. Both hamlets had common grazing on the cliff land. The descriptions of the land are carefully set out, with closes distinguished from open-fields and commons.

Correspondence relating to Tregurrian and Treligga (St Teath) describes as late as 1833 '... stitches, the boundaries of which are mostly distinctly indicated by the ridges of furze or turf, tilled with corn... usually about once in twenty-five or thirty years', and refers to 19th Century enclosure of common land; 'We are now breaking it up for tillage' (June, 1856); 'I had no idea there were so many pieces of land' (October, 1870).

In Cornwall the word 'down' usually describes less fertile land which was likely to have been common land in earlier times. The inclusion of the term close, inferring hedged boundaries, seems to be the key to interpretation of these surveys as to whether or not there were open-fields.
Cornish sheep had produced poor quality wool before the 1600s but selective breeding prompted a healthy wool industry.
  
The industrialisation of much of Cornwall, beginning from 1760, with a huge influx of population from England, increased the pressure on the Cornish language. This dilution of the native population has continued ever since, with the attendant loss of the Cornish culture.

William Marshall wrote in 1817 in reviewing the Board of Agriculture's reports , that "...Cornwall comprises a greater proportion of in arable lands, than any other English County."
  
Horses gradually replaced oxen for ploughing and more winter fodder was grown. Around 1800 growing turnips was a popular means of enriching the soil's nitrogen content, but they depleted the lime and they were less frequently used in Cornwall.

In some places lime was used for manure but marl though it is found in the county, was little used except in bringing uncultivated land into use. Seaweed, to which sand was sometimes added, was also used and near the fishing ports decayed pilchards and salt used in curing them were both bought at a low price for use as manure.

Potatoes became essential to the diet of the poor. Two sorts of potato were grown, the flat or kidney potato (planted in winter, harvested in June and would last until Christmas) and the round potato (planted in spring, harvested at Christmas and would last until the following autumn). Riots resulted from scarcity of corn after bad harvests and the effects of the French Wars on trade.

By the late 19th century Cornish farms had a very high proportion of cattle in comparison with England and Wales, and relatively more pigs and sheep per acre.
Farms remained mainly small, however and even one hundred years on they are mostly less than 100 acres. By this time, too, the market garden industry had begun to develop, especially in west Cornwall. Crops of spring cabbages, onions, carrots, lettuce, and early potatoes all benefited from the coming of the railways.

Housing consisted of mainly two-bedroom cottages, with a blue slate roof, with many exposed beams, different level floors, natural stone of exposed granite and plaster-wall finishes, slate flagstone and wood floors, open granite fireplace or wood-burning stove. Reinforced concrete did not exist in those days so buildings were erected with pre-shaped stone held together by weight locked in position by keys cut into the granite or by mortar made on the spot.
Except for a water barrel by the side of the cottage, all the water including water for the weekly wash had to be carried from the well or river.