Cornwall
is a very beautiful county, set at the South Western tip of England.
Approximately 80 miles in length with many sandy beaches, quaint Cornish
villages and rugged coast lines.
Famed
for it's Celtic
heritage, granite tombs and mystic stone circles, as well as Irish Saints
and Pagan
Festivals, Cornwall is the home of Myth
and Legend.
From Tales of ship-wrecks and smuggling, to legends of King Arthur,
Mermaids
and maidens turned to stone, all give rise to traditional Cornish
Folklore.
Surrounded
on 3 sides by water, Cornwall thrives on it's tradition and customs
that not only the visiting tourists find appealing. As Cornwall has
a slow and easy feel to it, it either becomes a place to retire to,
or attracts those with Artistic
and Creative
natures.
Although
very beautiful,
Cornwall is a long and thin county, with tiny winding lanes that make
travel awkward and long-winded. This means that the people who live
here live in small community
pockets in rural or even isolated areas.
In
retrospect, Cornwall was once a county bustling with tin
mines and is full of quaint little
fishing villages. It is also well known for it's "Clotted
Cream" and the "Cornish
Pasty". Cornwall now has no
main trading industry to support it and has become a county of low income
and high unemployment. This obviously does not help the situation for
Women living in Cornwall,
even less for us as Lesbians,
many of whom are in rural and isolated areas.
Many
years ago Women in Cornwall were "Jowsters"
(fish-sellers) and worked long and gruelling hours, or they would work
in the mines as "Bal-Maidens".
Bal-Maidens worked in cold and draughty places spending hours in cramped
positions breaking the rubble and granite that had been mined. As a
result they formed a close-knit social
group, like Women in America who make
the American quilts. Other Women in Cornwall worked on farms,
or, as with other parts of the world if you were a little "different"
and did not fit the norm, you would become a social outcast, a "Witch".
There
are many tales of Witches in Cornwall, but perhaps the most famous was
"Tamsin Blight"
from Helston, who was a faith healer
and herbalist
of exceptional ability, and as with many of the Witch stories, there
are many tales of her deeds and remarkable powers.