Rob Vickery

Confined to her room in Padstow after a crippling illness, Nellie Sloggett, known by her pen name Enys Tregarthen, transformed a lifetime of stillness into one of Cornwall’s richest legacies. From her window she captured the voices of the Piskies, the spirit of her town, and the wonder of its people, preserving a world of myth and memory that still echoes across the Cornish coast.

Cornwall’s miners carried more than picks overseas during the nineteenth century. They brought the knockers, spirits of the mines who warned of danger or played tricks, appeased with pasty crusts. In the goldfields of America they became tommyknockers, thriving while other Old World beings faded. Miners swore their knocks saved lives, and belief endured into the twentieth century, leaving a rare transatlantic folklore legacy.

John Thomas Blight (1835–1911) was a Cornish antiquarian and artist whose sketches preserved countless crosses, churches and ancient sites now lost. Once hailed as a prodigy, he spent his last forty years in Bodmin Asylum, forgotten and even declared “late” while still alive. I found his A Week at the Land’s End for a bargain price, and in my latest blog, I explore why I feel he came into my life now, as a ghostly guide through Kernow’s past. In my latest blog, I reflect on finding his