Timeline of Cornish history

This timeline summarizes significant events in the History of Cornwall.

• 400,000 - 200,000 BC - Ancestors of modern humans visited Cornwall for the first time [3]. Cornwall is too far south to be under the ice sheet, and is joined to Continental Europe.

• 10,000 BC - Rising sea levels cut Cornwall off from the Continent as the Channel floods.[4]

4000BC

Rooms in a building within Chysauster village

The Mên-an-Tol, a small formation of standing stones in Penwith

• Examples of Cornish Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age structures are Chûn Quoit, Boscawen-Un and Chysauster Ancient Village. First Cornish hedges.[5]

2000BC

• Mining in Cornwall has existed from the early Bronze Age around 2150BC and it is thought that Cornwall was visited by metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean. It has been suggested that the Cassiterides or "Tin Islands" as recorded by Herodotus in 445BC may have referred to the Scilly Islands and Cornwall as when first discovered they were both thought to have been islands.^[1][2]

1600 BC

• 1600 BCE Cornwall experiences a trade boom driven by the export of tin across Europe.

600 BC

• The first Celts have arrived by this point, although it is disputed when.[6]

750BC

Castle an Dinas as viewed from St. Columb Major

• The Iron Age reaches Cornwall, permitting greater scope of agriculture through the use of new iron ploughs and axes.

330BC

• Pytheas of Massilia (now Marseilles), a Greek merchant and explorer, circumnavigated the British Isles between about 330 and 320 BC and produced the first written record of the islands. He described the Cornish as civilised, skilled farmers, usually peaceable, but formidable in war.^[3]

100BC

• 60BC Greek historian Diodorus Siculus named Cornwall "Belerion" - "The Shining Land", the first recorded place name in the British Isles.
• 43BC First attempted invasion of British Mainland by Julius Caesar. Over the next century, the Romans come to rule Cornwall, then part of Dumnonia.

• 19 AD - Total eclipse in Cornwall.[7]

55–60AD

• Construction of Nanstallon Roman fort near Bodmin. One of only a few Roman sites in Cornwall.

150-230AD

• Roman villa at Magor Farm near Camborne occupied.^[4]

300 AD

• 360 and after: various Germanic peoples came to Roman Britain: raiders, Roman armies recruited from among German tribes, authorized settlers: ref. Aelle of Sussex

400

"King Mark of Cornwall", illustrated by Howard Pyle (1905)

• Cornwall's native name (Kernow) appeared on record as early as 400AD. The Ravenna Cosmography, compiled ca. 700 AD from Roman material 300 years older, lists a route running westward into Cornwall and on this route is a place then called Durocornovio (Latinised from British Celtic duno-Cornouio-n – “fortress of the Cornish people”). In Latin, 'V' represented and was pronounced as a 'W' and the fortress name refers to Tintagel.^[5]
• King Mark –- of Tristan and Iseult fame -- probably ruled in the late 5th century. According to Cornish folklore, he held court at Tintagel. King Salomon – father of Saint Cybi, ruled after Mark.
• 410: Emperor Honorius recalls the last legions from Britain. There is some uncertainty: some say that this "rescript" refers not to Britannia (= Britain) but to Bruttium in Italy.
• Mid 5th century - first waves of settlers from Cornwall, and Devon, go to Brittany
• 433: The Britons call the Angles to come and help them [as mercenaries ] against the Picts. ASC
• about 446: The "Groans of the Britons" last appeal (possibly to the Consul Aetius) for the Roman army to come back to Britain.

500

• 500 The Kingdom of Cornwall emerged around the 6th century which included the tribes of the Dumnonii and the Cornish Cornovii.^[6] The origins of the neighbouring Kingdom of Wessex are also in this period.
• 490 to 510: Likely range of dates for the Battle of Mons Badonicus, in which Romano-British Celts defeated an invading Anglo-Saxon army.
• 525 - earliest known example of written Cornish in the Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius, which used the words ud rocashaas. The phrase means "it (the mind) hated the gloomy places". ^[7][8]
• 535/6 - Extreme weather events of 535–536 cause European famine.
• After 540s - Plague of Justinian, which would affect all of Europe.
• 577 Battle of Deorham Down near Bristol results in the separation of the West Welsh (the Cornish) from the Welsh by the advance of the Saxons. Earliest Cornish Saints systematically convert Cornwall to Christianity, a considerable period before the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of England (the territory east of the River Tamar). These early monastic foundations were started by Christian preachers or Christian Druids from other Celtic lands, mainly Ireland (as in the cases of Saint Piran and Saint Petroc), Wales (as in the case of Saint Lewis or Gluvias) and Brittany (as in the case of Saint Mylor).

600

Map of area of settlement of the Britons in the 6th-century.

• 664 The Synod of Whitby determines that England is again an ecclesiastical province of Rome, with its formal structure of dioceses and parishes. The Celtic Church of Dumnonia is not party to the decision and the Cornish Church remains monastic in nature.

• 682 Centwine, king of Wessex drove the Britons of the West at the sword's point as far as the sea. (ASC) This resulted in the Saxon occupation of the North-east tip of Cornwall. Even today several Saxon place names are found it that area, i.e. Widemouth (OE WID), Canworthy (OE WORTHIG), Crackington Haven (OE HAEFEN), Otterham (OE HAMM)..^[9]

700

• 710 Battle of Linig (probably between the rivers Lyhner and Tamar) resulted from King Geraint of Cornwall's refusal to allow the celtic church to follow the call of the English church (which was perhaps 300 years younger) to conform to the standards of Rome. The battle was fought against Wessex King Ine and his kinsman, Nonna.^[10]

• 722 Battle of Hehil - The Cornish Britons (the Cornovii) together with their friends and allies, the (Danish) Vikings push back a West-Saxon offensive at "Hehil", unlocated, but possibly Slaughterbridge on the River Camel. (Annales Cambriae).

800

• 807 - Unsuccessful Cornish alliance with Danes.[8]
• 815 The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states "& þy geare gehergade Ecgbryht cyning on West Walas from easteweardum oþ westewearde."...and in this year king Ecgbryht harried the Cornish from east to west.^[11]
• 825 The Battle of Gafulforda, unidentified but perhaps Galford, near Lydford. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle only states: "The West Wealas (Cornish) and the men of Defnas (Devon) fought at Gafalforda".^[12][13]
• 838 Battle of Hingston Down - The Cornish in alliance with the Danes were defeated by Egbert of Wessex at Hingston Down (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). In 838 the eastern Cornish border was still on the River Exe-River Taw line) and the site of the battle is disputed, but now believed to be at Hingston Down near Moretonhampstead in Devon. The only record of this is from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which state: "There came a great ship army to the West Wealas where they were joined by the people who commenced war against Ecgberht, the West Saxon king. When he heard this, he proceeded with his army against them and fought with them at Hengestesdun where he put to flight both the Wealas and the Danes".^[14][15]. As a result it would appear that a bishop, who was subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury, was shortly afterwards appointed for Cornwall. His name was Bishop Kenstec, whose see was placed in the monastery of Dinnurrin, possibly, Dingerein, the city of King Gerennius, now Gerrans.
• 875 King Dungarth (Donyarth) of Cerniu ("id est Cornubiae") drowns in what is thought to be the River Fowey.
• 880s - the Church in Cornwall is having more Saxon priests appointed to it and they control some church estates like Polltun, Caellwic and Landwithan (Pawton, in St Breock; perhaps Celliwig (Kellywick in Egloshayle?); and Lawhitton). Eventually they passed these over to Wessex kings. However according to Alfred the Great's will the amount of land he owned in Cornwall was very small.^[16]

900

Olaf Tryggvason, who supposedly visited the Isles of Scilly in 986. It is said an encounter with a cleric there led him to Christianise Norway

• 926 The entry in the Saxon Chronicle reads....'This year fiery lights appeared in the north part of the heavens. And Sihtric perished : and king Aethelstan obtained the kingdom of the North-humbrians. And he ruled all the kings who were in this island: first, Huwal king of the West-Welsh (Cornish); and Constantine king of the Scots; and Uwen king of the people of Guent; and Ealdred, son of Ealdulf, of Bambrough : and they confirmed the peace by pledge, and by oaths, at the place which is called Eamot, on the 4th of the ides of July [12th July]; and they renounced all idolatry, and after that submitted to him in peace.
• 927 William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that Athelstan evicted the Cornish from Exeter and perhaps the rest of Devon - "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race".^[17] The area inside the city walls still known today as 'Little Britain' is the quarter where most of the Cornish Romano-British aristocracy had their town houses, from which the Cornish were expelled. Under Athelstan's statutes it eventually became unlawful for any Cornishman to own land, and lawful for any Englishman to kill any Cornishman (or woman or child)..^{[citation needed]}
• 928 It is thought that the Cornish King Huwal, "King of the West Welsh" was one of several kings who signed a treaty with Aethelstan of Wessex at Egmont Bridge.
• 930 Armes Prydein, (the Prophecy of Britain), this early Welsh poem mentions 'Cornyw', the Celtic name for Cornwall. It foretells that the Welsh together with Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland and Cumbria would expel the English from Britain. This poem also demonstates any early allegiance between the Celtic people of Britain.^[18]
• 936 Athelstan fixed Cornwall's eastern boundary as the east bank of the Tamar.^[19] There is no record of Athelstan taking his campaigns into Cornwall and it seems probable that Huwel, King of the Cornish, agreed to pay tribute thus avoiding further attacks and maintaining a high degree of autonomy. Prior to this the West Saxons had pushed their frontier across the Tamar as far west as the River Lynher, but this was only temporary. It was long enough, however, for Saxon settlement and land charters to influence our modern day inheritance of placenames: between Lynher and Tamar there are today many more English than Cornish place names, as is also the case in that other debatable land between Ottery and Tamar in north Cornwall.
• 944 Athelstan's successor, Edmund I of England, styled himself "King of the English and ruler of this province of the Britons" ^[20]
• 986 Olaf Tryggvason allegedly visits the Isles of Scilly
• 997 The Dartmoor town of Lydford, near the Cornish/Wessex border just east of the Tamar is completely destroyed by an angry mob of Danish Vikings. The surprise attack on Lydford is ordered by the King of Denmark and Viking leader Sweyn Forkbeard (previously, Lydford was believed to be impregnable against Viking attack). However, Cornwall is left alone as Sweyn Forkbeard has no intention of crushing Cornwall -- unlike Wessex.

1000

A page of the Domesday Book.

• 1013 Cornwall's enemy and Anglo-Saxon neighbour, Wessex is crushed and conquered by a Danish army under the leadership of the Viking leader and King of Denmark Sweyn Forkbeard. Sweyn annexes Wessex to his Viking empire which includes Denmark and Norway. He does not, however, annex Cornwall, Wales and Scotland, allowing these "client nations" self rule in return for an annual payment of tribute or "danegeld".
• 1014-1035 The Kingdom of Cornwall, Wales, much of Scotland and Ireland were not included in the territories of King Canute the Great^[21]
• 1016 - Famine throughout Europe.[9]
• 1066 - Norman Conquest brings many Bretons into Cornwall. The Cornish and Breton languages are mutually intelligible at this point.
• 1066 According to William of Worcester, writing in the 15th century, Cadoc, was described as the last survivor of the Cornish royal line at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. ^[22]
• 1066 William the Conqueror installed his brother, a Celtic speaking Breton^{[citation needed]}, Robert, Count of Mortain as the Earl of Cornwall.
• 1067 - Harold Godwinson's sons, who have taken refuge in Ireland, raid Somerset, Devon and Cornwall from the sea.^[23]
• 1068 The Battle of Exeter - the Cornish attacked the Saxon stronghold of Exeter but were eventually driven back by an Anglo-Norman army sent to mop up pockets of resistance.
• 1088 - Domesday Survey

1100

• 1120 Ingulph's Chronicle records Cornwall as a nation distinct from England.
• 1154-1214 (effective)/1242 (formal) Angevin Empire, which includes other Brythonic areas such as Brittany and parts of Wales.
• 1173 Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall, grants a charter to his 'free bugesses of Triueru' and he addresses his meetings at Truro to: "All men both Cornish and English" suggesting a continuing differentiation. Subsequently, for Launceston, Reginald's Charter continues that distinction - "To all my men, French, English and Cornish".
• 1198 William de Wrotham (Lord Warden of the Stannaries) writes of those working tin in Cornwall paying twice the taxation of their Devon counterparts.

1200

• 1214 - Battle of Bouvines confirms French crown's sovereignty over the duchy of Normandy's lands in Brittany and Normandy, meaning Cornwall and Brittany are once more in separate states.
• 1235-1237 - Cornish militia fight against the Scots [10]
• 1265 Work starts on the Lostwithiel Stannary Palace. It is reputed to be the oldest non-ecclesiastical building in Cornwall and was said to have been built as a replica of the Great Hall of Westminster. Its original function was as a Court dealing with the Cornish tin industry.
• 1265 Glasney College was founded at Penryn.
• c 1280 - Mappa Mundi shows the four constituent parts of Britain as England, Scotland, Wales and Cornwal

1300

• 1307 The Tinners Charter is granted by Edward 1.
• In Europe, climate change leads to the Great Famine of 1315–1317
• 1336 Edward, the Black Prince was named Duke of Cornwall.
• 1338-1339 French raids along the Channel
• 1350 - Black Death kills half of Bodmin population. [11]

1400

• 15th Century - the emergence of a popular Cornish literature, centred on the religious-themed mystery plays (see Literature in Cornish).
• 1455–1487 Wars of the Roses, the feud between the Courtenays and Bonvilles in Cornwall and Devon.
• 1480s-1551 - Sweating sickness
• 1485 Polydore Vergil, an Italian cleric commissioned by King Henry VII to write a history of England, states that "The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts, whereof the one is inhabited by Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third of Welshmen, the fourth of Cornish people ... and which all differ among themselves either in tongue, either in manners, or else in laws and ordinances."
• 1497 The Cornish Rebellion of 1497
• 1497 Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
• 1497 Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 - The Cornish march on Exeter and Taunton before the pretender to the English throne Perkin Warbeck was captured at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire.
• 1498 - Plague.

1500

Cranmer's Prayer book of 1549.

Route taken by the Spanish Armada

• 1508 'Charter of Pardon' granted by Henry VII Cornwall's legal right to its own Parliament was confirmed and strengthened by the 1508 Charter of Pardon.^[24]
• 1509 King Henry VIII's coronation procession includes "nine children of honour" representing "England and France, Gascony, Guienne, Normandy, Anjou, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland."
• 1509-1510 - Plague.
• 1531 From the court of King Henry VIII, the Italian diplomat Lodovico Falier writes in a letter that "The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other". He also claims it is possible to distinguish the members of each group by alleged "national characteristics".
• 1533-1540 - Henry VIII founds Church of England and commences Reformation.
• 1536-1545 - Dissolution of the Monasteries including Glasney College
• 1538 Writing to his government, the French ambassador in London, Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon, indicates ethnic differences thus: "The kingdom of England is by no means a united whole, for it also contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a [different] language".
• 1542 - Andrew Borde writes in the Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, "In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche. And there be many men and women the which cannot speake one worde of Englysshe, but all Cornyshe." ^[25]
• 1549 The Cornish rose up in the Prayer Book Rebellion - some 5,000 "rebels" were killed by mercenary forces. The main confrontations were the siege of Exeter, the battles of Fenny Bridges, Woodbury Common, Clyst St Mary, Clyst Heath (where 900 unarmed Cornish prisioners were killed) and Sampford Courtenay. Following this, Provost Marshal Sir Anthony Kingston was sent into Cornwall to seek retribution.^[26] The Book of Common Prayer was enforced resulting in a decline in the use of the Cornish language.
• 1555 - Famine.
• 1578 - Plague in Penzance.^[27]
• 1585–1604 - Anglo-Spanish War, intermittent conflict, never declared, many raids on shipping.
• 1586 - Famine [12]
• 1588 - Spanish Armada. The first sighting is on July 19, when it appears off St Michael's Mount. Soon afterwards, 55 English ships set out in pursuit from Plymouth under the command of Lord Howard of Effingham, with Sir Francis Drake as Vice Admiral. There is an inconclusive skirmish off Eddystone Rocks, and the Spanish fleet sails eastwards up the Channel.
• 1595 - Battle of Cornwall. Spanish forces under Don Carlos de Amesquita, land in Penzance area raiding and sacking settlements, including Newlyn^[28]. A detailed description of the Spanish raid of 1595 can be found here.

1600

Pendennis Castle keep

Sites of the battles of the First Anglo-Dutch War.

• 1603 Following Queen Elizabeth I's death, the Venetian ambassador writes that the "late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples' - English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and Irish".
• 1616 Arthur Hopton (ambassador to Madrid) writes that "England is ... divided into three great Provinces, or Countries ... speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish".
• 1616 - Pocahontas may have visited Indian Queens, although this is disputed.
• 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War
• 1620 - The Mayflower, en route to America with the Pilgrim Fathers stops off at Newlyn to take on water. ^[29]
• 1640 Charles I recalls Parliament in order to obtain money to finance his military struggle with Scotland. Parliament agrees to fund Charles, but only on condition he answer their grievances relating to his 11-year "personal rule" or "tyranny". Charles refuses and dissolves Parliament after a mere 3 weeks, hence the name of the "Short Parliament"
• 1642 The Cornish played a significant role Civil War as Cornwall was a Royalist stronghold in the generally Parliamentarian south-west. The reason for this was that Cornwall's rights and privileges were tied up with the royal Duchy and Stannaries and the Cornish saw the Civil War as a fight between England and Cornwall as much as a conflict between King and Parliament.^[30]
• 1642–1646 - The First "English" Civil War
• 1642 First Battle of Lostwithiel.
• 1643 January 19 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Battle of Braddock
• 1643 May 15 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Battle of Stratton.
• 1644 August 1 - King Charles I arrived in Cornwall and spent the night at Trecarrell near Launceston^[31]
• 1644 August 31 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Second Battle of Lostwithiel.
• 1645 Cornish Royalist leader Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet made Launceston his base and he stationed Cornish troops along the River Tamar and issued them with instructions to keep "all foreign troops out of Cornwall". Grenville tried to use "Cornish particularist sentiment" to muster support for the Royalist cause and put a plan to the Prince which would, if implemented, have created a semi-independent Cornwall.^{[32][33][34][35]}
• 1646 Following the Roundhead victory at the Battle of Naseby in 1645 they had proceeded towards Cornwall reaching Launceston on 25 February 1646 and Bodmin by 2 March 1646. There were skirmishes but the Cornish were vastly outnumbered. Fairfax offered Hopton terms and the surrender took place at Tresillian Bridge, Truro, on 15 March 1646.
• 1646 The siege of Pendennis Castle began in April 1646 and lasted for five months. Parliamentary forces attacked the castle from both land and sea and it finally surrendered on 17 August 1646.
• 1578 - Plague in Penzance.^[27]
• 1648 The Gear Rout - The last Cornish armed uprising involving some 500 rebels.
• 1648–1649 - Second English Civil War
• 1649–1651 - Third English Civil War
• 1651: June: Capture of the Isles of Scilly by Admiral Robert Blake
• 1652 Battle of Plymouth off Cornish coast, part of First Anglo-Dutch War
• 1676 - Chesten Marchant supposedly the last Cornish monoglot, dies.

1700

• 1702 - Sidney Godolphin becomes Lord Treasurer until 1710
• 1715 Jacobite uprising in Cornwall
• 1715 - Lizard lighthouse built.
• 1743 - John Wesley visits Cornwall for first time. Methodism will become dominant.[13]
• 1747 - Admiral Boscawen wins fame at Cape Finisterre by singly engaging the French fleet until the English fleet arrive
• 1755 A tsunami caused by the Lisbon earthquake strikes the Cornish coast
• 1756-1763 Seven Years' War
• 1771 Birth of Richard Trevithick
• 1777 - Death of Dolly Pentreath
• 1778 Humphry Davy born in Penzance
• 1779 William Murdoch the Scottish inventor moves to Cornwall. Whilst in Cornwall he carried out important work on steam engines and gas-lights.
• 1788 - James Ruse, a Cornishman, a Launceston man, arrives in New South Wales aboard the transport Scarborough, part of the "first fleet" of Australian convict ships.^[36]
• 1792 - Cornwall County Library (public) founded in Truro.
• 1792-1802 - French Revolutionary Wars
• 1796 - Earthquake in St Hilary.[14]

1800

European strategic situation in 1805 before the War of the Third Coalition

Richard Trevithick's statue by the public library at Camborne, Cornwall

• 1801 Richard Trevithick built a full-size steam road carriage.
• 1814 Royal Geological Society of Cornwall founded.
• 1815 The Davy lamp containing a candle, devised by Sir Humphry Davy.
• 1818 Royal Institution of Cornwall
• 1832 Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society founded in Falmouth.
• 1834 - Augustus Smith obtains the Isles of Scilly, and evicts the inhabitants of some of the smaller islands.
• 1858 The Miners Association established.
• 1858 The Cornish Foreshore Case 1854-1858 confirmed that the Duke of Cornwall, was considered to be a quasi-sovereign within the Duchy of Cornwall territory.
• 1859 The Royal Albert Bridge (sometimes called the Brunel Bridge or Saltash Bridge) was opened.
• 1860s Louis Lucien Bonaparte visits Cornwall.
• 1883 - Artists colony established at Newlyn[15]
• 1883 - Artists' colony established at Lamorna[16]
• 1888 School of Mines was established.
• 1888 Local Government Act
• 1888 - Artists' colony established at St Ives
• 1890 - Bob Fitzsimmons of Helston is the first native Briton heavy-weight boxing champion.
• 1891 - Severe winter weather, including snowdrifts twenty foot deep.[17]
• 1896 Stannaries Court (Abolition) Act 1896.^[37],

1900

"Arthur", The world's first parabolic satellite communications antenna, based at Goonhilly

• 1904 - Cornwall accepted into Celtic Congress
• 1904 - Entente cordiale between United Kingdom and France; its signing of marks the end of almost a millennium of intermittent conflict between the two states and their predecessor states.
• 1910 - Truro Cathedral completed.
• 1920 First Old Cornwall Society founded in St Ives.
• 1921 Cornwall's deepest mine, the 3,500ft Dolcoath mine, closes
• 1928 First Gorseth Kernow at Boscawen-un, (instituted by Henry Jenner) symbolising the resurgent interest in Cornwall's Celtic cultural and linguistic heritage. Cornwall College founded.
• 1930s - Unified Cornish developed.
• 1935 - Cornish author, Silas K. Hocking is first to sell a million books in his lifetime.
• 1944 Hill 112 in Normandy acquired the name "Cornwall Hill" after Cornish soldiers of 5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry suffered 320 casualties in the fighting here.
• 1951 Cornish Political party, Mebyon Kernow, or ("Sons of Cornwall"), was formed.
• 1953 - Mebyon Kernow wins first council seat.
• 1961 - Celtic League founded at Rhos near Wrexham, includes Cornish branch.
• 1962 - Goonhilly Receiving Station started, receives first transatlantic TV broadcast.[18]
• 1964 - Commercial helicopter service to Isles of Scilly is first in Europe.[19]
• 1967 The Torrey Canyon Supertanker Disaster.
• 1971 The Kilbrandon Report into the British constitution recommends that, when referring to Cornwall - official sources should cite the Duchy not the County. This was suggested in recognition of its constitutional position.
• 1972 Local Government Act 1972 - special dispensation for Scilly.
• 1973 - The UK joins the EEC, which was to become the EU.
• 1977 Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley confirms in Parliament that the Stannators right to veto Westminster legislation is confirmed by Parliament.^[38]
• 1979 - First European Parliament election contested in Cornwall and Plymouth (European Parliament constituency)
• 1980s - Split in Cornish language revival, with Modern Cornish and Kernewek Kemmyn being developed.
• 1987 - Cornwall has Britain's first air ambulance service.[20]
• 1988 - Camelford disaster. 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate were accidentally emptied into reservoir, tainting the water supply to 20,000 people, causing brain damage in some cases.[21]
• 1991 - First windfarm in Cornwall.[22]
• 1992 - Pirate FM launched. First commercial station in Cornwall.
• 1993 The joint Cornwall and Devon bid for Objective One funds fails because of Devon's high GDP.[23]
• 1997 Keskerdh Kernow 500 march to London.
• 1998 South Crofty tin mine closes in March 1998 when ores began to be produced more cheaply abroad.
• 1999 English China Clays taken over by French owned company, Imerys in a £756m deal.
• 1999 - South West Regional Assembly established, but is not elected.

2000

• 2001 Eden project opened
• 2001 Cornish Assembly declaration containing the signatures of 50,000 people was handed into 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 12 December 2001.^[39]
• 2001 The Cornish were allocated the ethnic code of '06' for the 2001 Census - (see Census 2001 Ethnic Codes)
• 2002 The Cornish language is officially recognised by the Government.^[40]
• 2004 - Cornwall merged into South West England (European Parliament constituency)
• 2008 The Standard Written Form (Cornish: Furv Savonek Scrifys) of the Cornish language was formally agreed.
• 2009 An election for Cornwall's new unitary council took place on 4 June 2009. There are now 123 councillors.^[41]

See also

• History of Cornwall

External links

• Timeline of Cornish History 400,000 BC - 1066 AD Cornwall County Council webpage
• Timeline of Cornish History 1066-1700 AD Cornwall County Council webpage
• Timeline of Cornish History 1700 to 1800 AD Cornwall County Council webpage
• Timeline of Cornish History 1800 AD to date Cornwall County Council webpage

See also

• List of years in the Kingdom of England
• List of years in Great Britain
• Kingdom of Cornwall

References

1. ^ Google books - Sharon Turner
2. ^ Cornish Stannary Parliament since AD 700
3. ^ BBC - British History Timeline
4. ^ O'Neill, B. St. J. (1933), 'The Roman villa at Magor farm, near Camborne, Cornwall
5. ^ Payton, Philip (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
6. ^ Ellis, P. B. (1993). Celt and Saxon. London: Constable
7. ^ Oxford scholars detect earliest record of Cornish
8. '^ Sims-Williams, P. (2005) 'A New Brittonic Gloss on Boethius: ud rocashaas, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies; 50 (Winter 2005), 77-86.
9. ^ http://boscastle-archive.org/Pages/Book/chapter2.html
10. ^ Cornovia by Craig Weatherhill, (page 10)
11. ^ harrying of Westwealas
12. ^ Pearce, Susan M. (1978) The Kingdom of Dumnonia: Studies in History and Tradition in South Western Britain, AD 350 - 1150, Padstow: Lodenek Press, ISBN O 902899 68 6
13. ^ Payton, Philip (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
14. ^ Payton, Philip (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
15. ^ Pearce, Susan M. (1978) The Kingdom of Dumnonia: Studies in History and Tradition in South Western Britain, AD 350 - 1150. Padstow: Lodenek Press, ISBN O 902899 68 6
16. ^ Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael (tr.) (1983), Alfred the Great - Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources, London, Penguin, p. 175; cf. ibid, p 89.
17. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
18. ^ [http://www.geocities.com/branwaedd/t06.html#2 Armes Prydein Vawr The Prophecy of Prydein the Great Book of Taliesin VI]
19. ^ Payton, Philip (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
20. ^ Malcolm Todd, 1987 p289
21. ^ Dominions of King Canute
22. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
23. ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, ed. and tr. Michael Swanton (2000), London: Phoenix, ISBN 1-84212-003-4, p. 203; Florence, vol. 3, pp. 6-9
24. ^ Sources of Cornish History - Charter of Pardon - 1508
25. ^ Henry JennerA Handbook of the Cornish Language chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature (1904)
26. ^ Cornish World - The Anglo-Cornish War of June-August 1549 - Aftermath: The Death Squads
27. ^ ^{a b} Notes on the Madron Parish Registers -Canon Jennings
28. ^ A History of the Church in Paul Parish by G. M. Trelease
29. ^ Newlyn Art Gallery
30. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
31. ^ [1] 'Parishes: Lawhitton - Luxulion', Magna Britannia: volume 3: Cornwall (1814), pp. 193-206.
32. ^ West Britons, by Mark Stoyle (Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton) University of Exeter Press, 2002
33. ^ A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, a military history, 1959
34. ^ S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vol. i, 1888
35. ^ Peter Gaunt, The Cromwellian Gazetteer, 1987
36. ^ .Tolchard, C. The humble adventurer (Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1965)
37. ^ House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 29 Mar 2007 (pt 0004)
38. ^ Cornwall timeline
39. ^ BBC News 11th December 2001 [2]
40. ^ BBC News November 2002 - Cornish gains official recognition from Government
41. ^ http://www.onecornwall.cornwall.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=47800