View source for Cornwall

{{Short description|Ceremonial county in England}}
{{About|Cornwall in the United Kingdom}}

<!-- In Context note Cornish English words may be used, see [[Anglo-Cornish]] -->
{{Infobox English county
| official_name           = Cornwall
| other_name              = {{native name|kw|Kernow}}
| image_main              = {{multiple images |border=infobox |perrow=2 1 |total_width=260px
 | image1 = The stamps and whim engine house at Wheal Coates - geograph.org.uk - 1476958.jpg
 | image2 = St_Michael's_Mount_View.jpg
 | image3 = A walk on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall (3), 30 Sept. 2010 - Flickr - PhillipC.jpg
 }}
| image_caption           = Part of [[Wheal Coates]] [[Mining in Cornwall and Devon|tin mine]], [[St Michael's Mount]], and ponies on [[Bodmin Moor]]
| flag_image              = Flag of Cornwall.svg
| locator_map             = Cornwall UK locator map 2010.svg
| map_caption             = Cornwall shown within England
| coordinates             = {{Coord|50|24|N|4|54|W|region:GB_type:adm2nd|display=title,inline}}
| region                  = [[South West England|South West]]
| established_date        = 
| established_by          = 
| preceded_by             = 
| origin                  = [[Historic counties of England|Ancient]]
| MPs                     = [[Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall|6 MPs]]
| police                  = [[Devon and Cornwall Police]]
| county_town             = [[Truro]]
| largest_town            = [[Camborne]]
<!-- Ceremonial county fields -->
| lord_lieutenant_office  = Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall
| lord_lieutenant_name    = [[Edward Bolitho]]
| high_sheriff_office     = High Sheriff of Cornwall
| high_sheriff_name       = Peter Geraint Richards<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=64688 |date=24 March 2025 |page=5794 }}</ref>
| ethnicity               = {{Unbulleted list
 | 96.8% [[White people in the United Kingdom|White]]
 | 1.2% [[Mixed (United Kingdom ethnicity category)|Mixed]]
 | 1.1% [[Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom|other]]
 | 0.7% [[British Asians|Asian]]
 | 0.2% [[Black British people|Black]]
 }}
| ethnicity_year          = [[2021 United Kingdom census|2021]]
| ethnicity_footnotes     = <ref name="2021 Nomis">{{NOMIS2021 |id=E06000052 |title=Cornwall Local Authority |access-date=4 June 2024 }}</ref>
<!-- Local government fields -->
| unitary_council         = [[Cornwall Council]]
| admin_hq                = [[Lys Kernow]], [[Truro]]
| iso_code                = GB-CON
| gss_code                = E06000052
| nuts_code               = TLK30
| website                 = {{URL|cornwall.gov.uk}}
<!-- Districts map -->
| districts_map           = [[File:Cornwall UK district map (numbered).svg|250px]]
| districts_key           = 
| districts_list          = 
# Cornwall (unitary)
# [[Isles of Scilly]] {{nowrap|(''sui generis'' unitary)}}
}}
'''Cornwall''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɔːr|n|w|əl}};<ref>{{cite web |title=Meaning of Cornwall in English |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/cornwall |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612161646/https://www.lexico.com/definition/Cornwall |archive-date=12 June 2021 |access-date=3 March 2022 |publisher=Oxforddictionaries.com}}</ref> {{langx|kw|Kernow}} {{IPA|kw|ˈkɛrnɔʊ|}} or {{IPA|kw|ˈkɛrnɔ|}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=Gerlyver Kernewek (FSS) Cornish Dictionary (SWF) |publisher=Cornwall Council, Truro, Cornwall, UK |year=2018 |pages=95}}</ref>) is a [[Ceremonial counties of England|ceremonial county]] in [[South West England]].<ref name="Interpretation Act 1978">{{Cite legislation UK |type=act |year=1978 |chapter=30 |act=Interpretation Act 1978 |section= |schedule=1 |quote="England" means, subject to any alteration of boundaries under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1972, the area consisting of the counties established by section 1 of that Act, Greater London and the Isles of Scilly. [1st April 1974]. |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref> It is also one of the [[Celtic nations]] and the homeland of the [[Cornish people]]. The county is bordered by the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the north and west, [[Devon]] to the east, and the [[English Channel]] to the south. The largest urban area is the [[Redruth]] and [[Camborne]] conurbation.

The county is predominantly rural, with an area of {{convert|3562|km2|sqmi|order=flip}} and population of 568,210. After the Redruth-Camborne conurbation, the largest settlements are [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]], [[Penzance]], [[Newquay]], [[St Austell]], and [[Truro]]. For [[Local government in England|local government]] purposes most of Cornwall is a [[Unitary authorities of England|unitary authority]] area, with the [[Isles of Scilly]] governed by a [[Council of the Isles of Scilly|unique local authority]]. The [[Cornish nationalism|Cornish nationalist]] movement disputes the [[constitutional status of Cornwall]] and seeks greater [[autonomy]] within the United Kingdom.

Cornwall is the westernmost part of the [[South West Peninsula]], and the southernmost county within the United Kingdom. Its coastline is characterised by steep cliffs and, to the south, several [[ria]]s, including those at the mouths of the rivers [[River Fal|Fal]] and [[River Fowey|Fowey]]. It includes the southernmost point on [[Great Britain]], [[Lizard Point, Cornwall|Lizard Point]], and forms a large part of the [[Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty|Cornwall National Landscape]]. The national landscape also includes [[Bodmin Moor]], an upland outcrop of the [[Cornubian batholith]] granite formation. The county contains many short rivers; the longest is the [[River Tamar|Tamar]], which forms the border with Devon.

Cornwall had a minor Roman presence, and later formed part of the Brittonic kingdom of [[Dumnonia]]. From the 7th century, the [[Celtic Britons|Britons]] in the South West increasingly came into conflict with the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdom of [[Wessex]], eventually being pushed west of the Tamar; by the [[Norman Conquest]] Cornwall was administered as part of England, though it retained its own culture. The remainder of the [[Middle Ages]] and [[Early modern period|Early Modern Period]] were relatively settled, with Cornwall developing its [[Tin mining in Britain|tin mining]] industry and becoming a [[Duchy of Cornwall|duchy]] in 1337. During the [[Industrial Revolution]], the tin and copper mines were expanded and then declined, with china clay extraction becoming a major industry. Railways were built, leading to a growth of tourism in the 20th century. The [[Cornish language]] became [[Extinct language|extinct]] as a living community language at the [[Last speaker of the Cornish language|end of the 18th century]], but is now being revived.

== <span id=Toponymy>Name</span> ==
[[File:Saxon England according to the Saxon Chronicle.jpg|thumb|"Cornweallas" shown on an early 19th-century map of "Saxon England" (and Wales) based on the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]''.]]
[[File:Land's End, Cornwall, England.jpg|thumb|right| Cliffs at Land's End]]
The modern [[English language|English]] name "Cornwall" is a [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] of two terms coming from two different language groups:
*"Corn-" originates from the [[Proto-Celtic language|Proto-Celtic]] ''*kornu''- ("[[Wiktionary:horn|horn]]", presumed in reference to "[[headland]]"), and is [[cognate]] with the [[English language|English]] word "horn" and [[Latin language|Latin]] "cornu" (both deriving from the [[Proto-Indo-European]] *ḱerh₂-). There may also have been an Iron Age group that occupied the Cornish peninsula known as the ''[[Cornovii (Cornwall)|Cornovii]]'' (i.e. "people of the horn or headland").<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Cornwall |title=Cornwall |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=21 May 2013 |date= |archive-date=27 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927091845/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Cornwall |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=horn&searchmode=none |title=Horn |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=21 May 2013 |date= |archive-date=27 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927091746/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=horn&searchmode=none |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Payton |first=Philip |author-link =Philip Payton |title=Cornwall: a history |edition=revised |publisher=Cornwall Editions Ltd |location=Fowey |year=2004 |isbn=1-904880-00-2}}</ref><ref>[[Charles Thomas (historian)|Charles Thomas]]. (1986). ''Celtic Britain''. (Ancient Peoples & Places Series.) London: Thames & Hudson</ref>{{efn|[[Eilert Ekwall]] who studied the place-names of England in the 1930s and 40s gives the following forms: Cornubia in Vita Melori &c.; Middle Welsh Cerniu; Welsh Cernyw; Cornish: Kernow; (on) Cornwalum ASC 891; Cornwealum ASC(E) 997; "The Brit name goes back to *Cornavia probably derived from the tribal name Cornovii. OE Cornwealas means 'the Welsh in Cornwall' this folk-name later became the name of the district".<ref>Ekwall, E., ''The Concise Dictionary of English Place-names'', 2nd ed., 1940, p. 117a.</ref>}}
*"-wall" derives from {{lang|ang|[[Walhaz|wealh]]}}, an [[Exonym and endonym|exonym]] in [[Old English]] meaning "foreigner", "slave" or "Brittonic-speaker" (as in [[Welsh person|Welsh]]).<ref>{{cite web |title=Cornish History – Stone Age to Present Day |url=https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history#:~:text=The%20name%20Cornwall%20is%20most,name%20of%20the%20country%20Wales. |website=www.cornwalls.co.uk |access-date=17 January 2022}}</ref>

In the [[Cornish language]], Cornwall is ''Kernow'' which stems from the same [[Proto-Celtic]] root.

In later times, Cornwall was known to the [[Anglo-Saxons]] as "West Wales" to distinguish it from "North Wales" (the modern nation of [[Wales]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Bernard |title=A Concise History of Cornwall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOUWAQAAIAAJ |year=2007 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2032-7 |page=4 |access-date=16 October 2015 |archive-date=31 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231220816/https://books.google.com/books?id=oOUWAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The name appears in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' in 891 as ''On Corn walum''. In the [[Domesday Book]] it was referred to as ''Cornualia'' and in c. 1198 as ''Cornwal''.<ref name=VW>{{cite book
|title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-names
|last=Watts |first=Victor
|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]
|edition=1st paperback |year=2010
|page=158
|isbn=978-0-521-16855-7}}</ref>{{efn|"[[Wales]]" is derived from the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] word ''[[Walhaz]]'', meaning "Romanised foreigner"; through [[Old English]] ''welisċ'', ''wælisċ'', ''wilisċ'', meaning "[[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]]"; to [[Modern English]] ''Welsh''. The same etymology applies to Cornwall and to [[Wallonia]] in Belgium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |author-link=John Davies (historian) |title=A History of Wales |publisher=Penguin |year=1994 |location=London |page=69 |isbn=978-0-14-028475-1}}</ref>}} Other names for the county include a [[latinisation of names|latinisation]] of the name as ''Cornubia'' (first appears in a mid-9th-century deed purporting to be a copy of one dating from c. 705), and as ''Cornugallia'' in 1086.

==History==
{{Main|History of Cornwall}}
{{For timeline|Timeline of Cornish history}}
[[File:Men-an-Tol.jpg|thumb|right|[[Mên-an-Tol]]]]

===Prehistory, Roman and post-Roman periods===
{{Main|Prehistoric Cornwall}}
{{See also|Dumnonia}}
Humans reoccupied [[Great Britain|Britain]] after the [[Last Glacial Period|last Ice Age]]. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the [[Palaeolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] periods. It continued to be occupied by [[Neolithic]] and then by [[Bronze Age]] people.

[[Cornish Bronze Age|Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age]] formed part of a maritime trading-networked culture which researchers have dubbed the [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] system, and which extended over most of the areas of present-day Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, and Portugal.<ref>{{Cite book |editor= Barry Cunliffe |editor2= John T. Koch |title= Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature|year= 2010|publisher= Oxbow Books and Celtic Studies Publications|isbn= 978-1-84217-410-4|page= 384|url= http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/88298//Location/DBBC|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100612212219/http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/88298/Location/DBBC|archive-date= 12 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last= Cunliffe|first= Barry|title= A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity|journal= Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society|volume= 75|year= 2009|pages= 55–64|publisher= The Prehistoric Society|doi= 10.1017/S0079497X00000293|s2cid= 192963510}}</ref>

During the [[British Iron Age]], Cornwall, like all of Britain (modern England, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man), was inhabited by a [[Celts|Celtic-speaking]] people known as the [[Britons (Celtic people)|Britons]] with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring [[Brittany]]. The [[Common Brittonic]] spoken at this time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including [[Cornish language|Cornish]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Breton language|Breton]], [[Cumbric language|Cumbric]] and [[Pictish language|Pictish]].<ref>Payton (2004), p. 40.</ref>

The first written account of Cornwall comes from the 1st-century BC Sicilian Greek historian [[Diodorus Siculus]], supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the 4th-century BCE geographer [[Pytheas]], who had sailed to Britain:
{{blockquote|The inhabitants of that part of Britain called ''Belerion'' (or Land's End) from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilized in their manner of life. They prepare the [[tin]], working very carefully the earth in which it is produced ... Here then the merchants buy the tin from the natives and carry it over to [[Gaul]], and after traveling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 51.</ref>}}
[[File:England Celtic tribes - South.svg|thumb|right|Celtic tribes of Southern Britain]]
The identity of these merchants is unknown. It has been theorized that they were [[Phoenicia]]ns, but there is no evidence for this.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 52.</ref> Professor Timothy Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that the Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organized by local merchants, by sea and then overland through France, passing through areas well outside Phoenician control."<ref>{{cite journal|last= Champion|first= Timothy|title= The appropriation of the Phoenicians in British imperial ideology|journal= Nations and Nationalism|volume= 7|issue= 4|pages= 451–65|doi= 10.1111/1469-8219.00027|year= 2001}}</ref> Isotopic evidence suggests that tin ingots found off the coast of [[Haifa]], [[Israel]], may have been from Cornwall.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Berger |first1= Daniel |last2= Soles |first2= Jeffrey |last3= Giumlia-Mair |first3= Alessandra |last4= Brügmann |first4= Gerhard |last5= Galili |first5= Ehud |last6= Lockhoff |first6= Nicole |last7= Pernicka |first7= Ernst |title= Isotope systematics and chemical composition of tin ingots from Mochlos (Crete) and other Late Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: An ultimate key to tin provenance? |journal= PLOS ONE | date= 2019 |volume= 14 |issue= 6 |pages= e0218326 |doi= 10.1371/journal.pone.0218326 |pmid= 31242218 |pmc= 6594607 |bibcode= 2019PLoSO..1418326B |doi-access= free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1= Woodyatt |first1= Amy |title= Ancient tin found in Israel has unexpected Cornish links |url= https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/uk/cornwall-tin-israel-intl-scli-gbr/index.html |access-date= 16 March 2020 |work= CNN |date= 19 September 2019 |archive-date= 9 January 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200109064059/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/uk/cornwall-tin-israel-intl-scli-gbr/index.html |url-status= live }}</ref> Tin, required for the production of [[bronze]], was a relatively rare and precious commodity in the Bronze Age – hence the interest shown in Devon and Cornwall's tin resources. (For further discussion of tin mining see [[#Economy|the section on the economy below]].)

In the first four centuries AD, during the time of [[Roman Britain|Roman dominance in Britain]], Cornwall was rather remote from the main centres of Romanization – the nearest being [[Isca Dumnoniorum]], modern-day [[Exeter]]. However, the Roman road system extended into Cornwall with four significant Roman sites based on forts:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Parcero-Oubina |first1=Cesar |last2=Smart |first2=Chris |last3=Fonte |first3=João |date=2023-07-25 |title=Remote Sensing and GIS Modelling of Roman Roads in South West Britain |journal=Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=62–78 |doi=10.5334/jcaa.109 |issn=2514-8362 |doi-access=free |hdl=10261/338676 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Tregear near [[Nanstallon]] was discovered in the early 1970s, two others were found at [[Restormel Castle]], Lostwithiel in 2007, and a third fort near [[Calstock]] was also discovered early in 2007. In addition, a Roman-style villa was found at [[Illogan|Magor Farm]], Illogan in 1935. [[Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Geographike Hyphegesis]]'' mentions four towns controlled by the [[Dumnonii]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=ToposText |url=https://topostext.org/work/209#2.3.13 |access-date=2023-09-11 |website=topostext.org}}</ref> three of which may have been in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fitzpatrick-Matthews |first=Keith |date=2022-01-01 |title=Britannia in the Ravenna Cosmography: a Reassessment |url=https://www.academia.edu/4175080 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref> However, after 410 AD, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the [[Cornovii (Cornwall)|Cornovii]] tribe as part of the Brittonic kingdom of [[Dumnonia]] (which also included present-day Devonshire and the Scilly Isles), including the territory of one [[Mark of Cornwall|Marcus Cunomorus]], with at least one significant power base at [[Tintagel]] in the early 6th century.

King [[Mark of Cornwall]] is a semi-historical figure known from Welsh literature, from the [[Matter of Britain]], and, in particular, from the later Norman-Breton medieval romance of [[Tristan and Iseult|Tristan and Yseult]], where he appears as a close relative of [[King Arthur]], himself usually considered to be born of the Cornish people in folklore traditions derived from [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]]'s 12th-century ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]''.

Archaeology supports ecclesiastical, literary and legendary evidence for some relative economic stability and close cultural ties between the [[Sub-Roman Britain|sub-Roman]] [[Westcountry]], South Wales, Brittany, the Channel Islands, and Ireland through the fifth and sixth centuries.<ref>{{cite web
|url= http://www.archaeology.co.uk/specials/the-timeline-of-britain/tintagel.htm
|title= AD 500 – Tintagel
|publisher= Archaeology.co.uk
|date= 24 May 2007
|access-date= 24 November 2013
|archive-date= 14 November 2013
|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131114234506/http://www.archaeology.co.uk/specials/the-timeline-of-britain/tintagel.htm
|url-status= live
}}</ref> In Cornwall, the arrival of Celtic saints such as [[Nectan of Hartland|Nectan]], Paul Aurelian, [[Saint Petroc|Petroc]], [[Saint Piran|Piran]], [[Samson of Dol|Samson]] and numerous others reinforced the preexisting Roman Christianity.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Orme |first=Nicholas |title=Unity & Variety: A History of the Church in Devon & Cornwall |publisher=[[University of Exeter]] |year=1991 |isbn=0859893553 |pages=1–22}}</ref>

===Conflict with Wessex===
The [[Battle of Deorham]] in 577 saw the separation of [[Dumnonia]] (and therefore Cornwall) from Wales, following which the [[Dumnonii]] often came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of [[Wessex]]. [[Centwine of Wessex|Centwine]] of Wessex "drove the Britons as far as the sea" in 682, and by 690 [[Saint Boniface|St Bonifice]], then a Saxon boy, was attending an abbey in Exeter, which was in turn ruled by a Saxon abbot.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Probert |first=Duncan |title=New light on Aldhelm's letter to King Gerent of Dumnonia. |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781842173572 |pages=110–28}}</ref> The [[Carmen Rhythmicum]] written by [[Aldhelm]] contains the earliest literary reference to Cornwall as distinct from Devon. Religious tensions between the Dumnonians (who celebrated [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic Christian]] traditions) and Wessex (who were [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]]) are described in [[Epistola ad Geruntium|Aldhelm's letter]] to [[Geraint of Dumnonia|King Geraint]]. The ''[[Annales Cambriae]]'' report that in AD 722 the Britons of Cornwall won a battle at [[Battle of Hehil|"Hehil"]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/annalescambriae.html |title=Medieval Sourcebook: The Annales Cambriae 447–954 (The Annals of Wales) |publisher=Fordham.edu |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-date=4 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204110611/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/annalescambriae.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It seems likely that the enemy the Cornish fought was a West Saxon force, as evidenced by the naming of [[King Ine]] of Wessex and his kinsman Nonna in reference to an earlier Battle of Llongborth in 710.<ref>[[Weatherhill, Craig]] ''Cornovia''; p. 10</ref>

The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' stated in 815 (adjusted date) "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." this has been interpreted to mean a raid from the Tamar to Land's End, and the end of Cornish independence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Book/CHAPTERS/XIV.html |title=The Foundation of the Kingdom of England |publisher=Third-millennium-library.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005105356/http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Book/CHAPTERS/XIV.html |archive-date=5 October 2011 }}</ref> However, the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' states that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at [[Gafulforda]]. The Cornish giving battle here, and the later battle at Hingston Down, casts doubt on any claims of control Wessex had at this stage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Fletcher |first=John |title=The Western Kingdom: The Birth of Cornwall |publisher=The History Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-1803990002}}</ref>

In 838, the Cornish and their Danish allies were defeated by Egbert in the [[Battle of Hingston Down]] at Hengestesdune. In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall, [[Donyarth|Dumgarth]], is said to have drowned.<ref>[[wikisource:Welsh Annals|Annales Cambriae]]</ref> Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the north eastern part of Cornwall; notably [[Alfred the Great]] who had acquired a few estates.<ref>Keynes, Simon; Lapidge, Michael (tr.) (1983), ''Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and other contemporary sources'', London, Penguin Books, p. 175; cf. ''ibid'', p. 89</ref> [[William of Malmesbury]], writing around 1120, says that King [[Athelstan]] of England (r. 924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the [[River Tamar]].<ref name="Stenton, F. M. 1947 p. 337">Stenton, F. M. (1947) ''Anglo-Saxon England''. Oxford: Clarendon Press; p. 337</ref> While elements of William's story, like the burning of [[Exeter]], have been cast in doubt by recent writers<ref name=":0" /> Athelstan did re-establish a separate [[Bishop of Cornwall|Cornish Bishop]] and relations between Wessex and the Cornish elite improved from the time of his rule.

Eventually [[Edgar, King of England|King Edgar]] (r. 959–975) was able to issue charters the width of Cornwall, and frequently sent emissaries or visited personally as seen by his appearances in the [[Bodmin manumissions|Bodmin Manumissions]].

===Breton–Norman period===
[[File:Kernow Hundreds.png|thumb|right|The ancient [[Hundreds of Cornwall]]]]
One interpretation of the [[Domesday Book]] is that by this time the native Cornish landowning class had been almost completely dispossessed and replaced by English landowners, particularly [[Harold Godwinson]] himself. However, the [[Bodmin manumissions]] show that two leading Cornish figures nominally had Saxon names, but these were both glossed with native Cornish names.<ref>[http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/bodmin/ Cornish (and Other) Personal Names from the 10th Century Bodmin Manumissions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511021107/https://s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/bodmin/ |date=11 May 2016 }} by Heather Rose Jones</ref> In 1068, [[Brian of Brittany]] may have been created [[Earl of Cornwall]], and naming evidence cited by medievalist [[Edith Ditmas]] suggests that many other post-Conquest landowners in Cornwall were Breton allies of the Normans, the Bretons being descended from Britons who had fled to what is today [[Brittany]] during the early years of the Anglo-Saxon conquest.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1386666/llgc-id:1419899/llgc-id:1419912/get |title=Welsh Journals Online |publisher=Welshjournals.llgc.org.uk |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-date=31 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231220817/http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1386666/llgc-id:1419899/llgc-id:1419912/get |url-status=live }}</ref> She also proposed this period for the early composition of the [[Tristan and Iseult]] cycle by poets such as [[Béroul]] from a pre-existing shared Brittonic oral tradition.<ref>E. M. R. Ditmas, ''Tristan and Iseult in Cornwall: The Twelfth-century Romance by Beroul Re-told from the Norman French, by E. M. R. Ditmas Together with Notes on Old Cornwall and a Survey of Place Names in the Poem'' (Forrester Roberts, 1970)</ref>

Soon after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]] most of the land was transferred to the new Breton–Norman aristocracy, with the lion's share going to [[Robert, Count of Mortain]], half-brother of [[William the Conqueror|King William]] and the largest landholder in England after the king with his stronghold at [[Trematon Castle]] near the mouth of the Tamar.<ref>Williams, Ann & Martin, G. H. (2002) (tr.) ''Domesday Book: a complete translation'', London: Penguin, pp. 341–357</ref>

===Later medieval administration and society===
Subsequently, however, Norman absentee landlords became replaced by a new Cornish-Norman ruling class including scholars such as [[Richard Rufus of Cornwall]]. These families eventually became the new rulers of Cornwall, typically speaking [[Norman French]], Breton-Cornish, [[Latin]], and eventually English, with many becoming involved in the operation of the [[Stannary law|Stannary Parliament]] system, the Earldom and eventually the [[Duchy of Cornwall]].<ref>Payton (2004), chapter 5.</ref> The [[Cornish language]] continued to be spoken and acquired a number of characteristics establishing its identity as a separate language from [[Breton language|Breton]].

====Stannary parliaments====
{{main|Stannary law}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
The [[stannary parliament]]s and stannary courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon (in the Dartmoor area). The stannary courts administered [[equity (law)|equity]] for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines. The separate and powerful government institutions available to the tin miners reflected the enormous importance of the tin industry to the English economy during the Middle Ages. Special laws for tin miners pre-date written legal codes in Britain, and ancient traditions exempted everyone connected with tin mining in Cornwall and Devon from any jurisdiction other than the stannary courts in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

====Piracy and smuggling====
Cornish piracy was active during the Elizabethan era on the west coast of Britain.<ref name="Matthew 1924">{{cite book|last1=Matthew|first1=David|title=The Cornish and Welsh Pirates in the Reign of Elizabeth|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=The English Historical Review |volume=39 |issue=155 |date=July 1924 |pages=337–348}}</ref> Cornwall is well known for its [[Wrecking (shipwreck)|wreckers]] who preyed on ships passing Cornwall's rocky coastline. During the 17th and 18th centuries Cornwall was a major [[smuggling]] area.
====Toponymy====
In later times, Cornwall was known to the [[Anglo-Saxons]] as "West Wales" to distinguish it from "North Wales" (the modern nation of [[Wales]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Deacon |first=Bernard |title=A Concise History of Cornwall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOUWAQAAIAAJ |year=2007 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2032-7 |page=4 |access-date=16 October 2015 |archive-date=31 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231220816/https://books.google.com/books?id=oOUWAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The name appears in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' in 891 as ''On Corn walum''. In the [[Domesday Book]] it was referred to as ''Cornualia'' and in c. 1198 as ''Cornwal''.<ref name=VW/>{{efn|"[[Wales]]" is derived from the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] word ''[[Walhaz]]'', meaning "Romanised foreigner"; through [[Old English]] ''welisċ'', ''wælisċ'', ''wilisċ'', meaning "[[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]]"; to [[Modern English]] ''Welsh''. The same etymology applies to Cornwall and to [[Wallonia]] in Belgium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |author-link=John Davies (historian) |title=A History of Wales |publisher=Penguin |year=1994 |location=London |page=69 |isbn=978-0-14-028475-1}}</ref>}} Other names for the county include a [[latinisation of names|latinisation]] of the name as ''Cornubia'' (first appears in a mid-9th-century deed purporting to be a copy of one dating from c. 705), and as ''Cornugallia'' in 1086.

==Christianity in Cornwall==
{{Main article|Christianity in Cornwall}}
{{See also|List of Cornish saints}}

Many place names in Cornwall are associated with Christian missionaries described as coming from Ireland and Wales in the 5th century AD and usually called saints (''See'' [[List of Cornish saints]]). The historicity of some of these missionaries is problematic.<ref>[[Nicholas Orme|Orme, Nicholas]] (2000) ''The Saints of Cornwall''</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.lelant.info/uny.htm |title=uny |publisher=Lelant.info |date=5 January 2008 |access-date=24 November 2013}}</ref> The patron saint of [[Wendron]] Parish Church, "Saint Wendrona" is an example. and it has been pointed out by [[Gilbert Hunter Doble|Canon Doble]] that it was customary in the Middle Ages to ascribe such geographical origins to saints.<ref>[[Gilbert Hunter Doble|Doble, G. H.]] (1960) ''The Saints of Cornwall''. 5 vols. Truro: Dean and Chapter, 1960–70</ref> Some of these saints are not included in the early lists of saints.<ref>See for example absences from Olsen and Padel's "A tenth century list of Cornish parochial saints" in ''Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies''; 12 (1986); and from ''[[Nova Legenda Angliae]]'' by [[John Capgrave]] (mid-15th century)</ref>

In modern times, [[Saint Piran]], after whom [[Perranzabuloe]] and [[Perranuthnoe]] are named, is regarded as the patron saint of Cornwall.<ref>{{cite web |title = St. Piran – Sen Piran |publisher = St-Piran.com |url = http://www.st-piran.com/st-piran.htm |access-date = 11 May 2007 }}</ref> However, in early Norman times it is likely that [[Michael (archangel)|Saint Michael the Archangel]] was recognised as the patron saint<ref>Henderson, Charles (1935) "Cornwall and her patron saint", In: his ''Essays in Cornish History''. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 197–201</ref> and is still recognised by the Anglican Church as the ''Protector of Cornwall''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wyatt |first=Tim |title=Cornish welcome new status |url = http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/2-may/news/uk/cornish-welcome-new-status |access-date = 8 May 2014 |newspaper=Church Times |date=2 May 2014}}</ref> The title has also been claimed for [[Saint Petroc]] who was patron of the [[Diocese of Cornwall|Cornish diocese]] prior to the Normans.{{efn|The cult of St Petroc was the most important in the [[Diocese of Cornwall]] since he was the founder of the monastery of Bodmin the most important in the diocese and, with St Germans, the seat of the bishops. He was the patron of the diocese and of Bodmin.<ref>Caroline Brett, "Petroc (fl. 6th cent.)", [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], [[Oxford University Press]], 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21757 accessed 16 December 2008]</ref>}}

===Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times===
[[File:St Germans Church 1.jpg|thumb|St German's Priory Church (Norman)]]
[[File:Dupath well cornwall.jpg|thumb|Dupath Well, one of Cornwall's many holy wells dating from c.1510]]
[[File:St Petroc's Church, Bodmin - geograph.org.uk - 51028.jpg|The Church of St Petroc at Bodmin (late 15th century)|thumb]]

The church in Cornwall until the time of Athelstan of Wessex observed more or less orthodox practices, being completely separate from the Anglo-Saxon church until then (and perhaps later). The See of Cornwall continued until much later: Bishop [[Conan of Cornwall|Conan]] was apparently in place previously, but he was re-consecrated in AD 931 by [[Athelstan]]. However, it is unclear whether he was the sole Bishop for Cornwall or the leading Bishop in the area. The situation in Cornwall may have been somewhat similar to Wales where each major religious house corresponded to a [[cantref]] (this has the same meaning as Cornish [[Constitutional status of Cornwall#Cornish "shires"|keverang]]) both being under the supervision of a Bishop.<ref>Charles-Edwards, T. (1970) "The Seven Bishop Houses of Dyfed", In: ''Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies'', vol. 24, (1970–1972), pp. 247–252.</ref> However, if this was so the status of keverangow before the time of King Athelstan is not recorded. However, it can be inferred from the districts included at this period that the minimum number would be three: Triggshire; Wivelshire; and the remaining area. Penwith, Kerrier, Pydar and Powder meet at a central point ([[Scorrier]]) which some have believed indicates a fourfold division imposed by Athelstan on a sub-kingdom.

===Middle Ages===
The whole of Cornwall was in this period in the [[List of Archdeacons of Cornwall|Archdeaconry of Cornwall]] within the Diocese of Exeter. From 1267 the archdeacons had a house at [[Glasney College|Glasney]] near Penryn. Their duties were to visit and inspect each parish annually and to execute the bishop's orders.<ref name="Orme, Nicholas 2007 p. 29">Orme, Nicholas (2007) ''Cornwall and the Cross''. Chichester: Phillimore; p. 29</ref> Archdeacon Roland is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having land holdings in Cornwall but he was not Archdeacon of Cornwall, just an archdeacon in the Diocese of Exeter.<ref>Thorn, Caroline, et al., eds. (1979) ''Cornwall''. Chichester: Phillimore</ref> In the episcopate of William Warelwast (1107–37) the first Archdeacon of Cornwall was appointed<ref name="Orme, Nicholas 2007 p. 29"/> (possibly Hugo de Auco). Most of the parish churches in Cornwall in Norman times were not in the larger settlements, and the medieval towns which developed thereafter usually had only a chapel of ease with the right of burial remaining at the ancient parish church.<ref>''Cornish Church Guide'' (1925) Truro: Blackford</ref> Over a hundred [[holy well]]s exist in Cornwall, each associated with a particular saint, though not always the same one as the dedication of the church.<ref>[[Henry Jenner|Jenner, Henry]] (1925) "The Holy Wells of Cornwall". In: ''Cornish Church Guide''. Truro: Blackford; pp. 249–257</ref><ref>[[Mabel Quiller-Couch|Quiller-Couch, M. & L.]] (1894) ''Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall''. London: Chas. J. Clark</ref>

Various kinds of religious houses existed in mediaeval Cornwall though none of them were nunneries; the benefices of the parishes were in many cases appropriated to religious houses within Cornwall or elsewhere in England or France.<ref>[[George Oliver (historian)|Oliver, George]] (1846) ''Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis: being a collection of records and instruments illustrating the ancient conventual, collegiate, and eleemosynary foundations, in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, with historical notices, and a supplement, comprising a list of the dedications of churches in the Diocese, an amended edition of the taxation of Pope Nicholas, and an abstract of the Chantry Rolls'' [with supplement and index]. Exeter: P. A. Hannaford, 1846, 1854, 1889</ref>

===From the Reformation to the Victorian period===
In the 16th century there was some violent resistance to the replacement of Catholicism with Protestantism in the [[Prayer Book Rebellion]].<ref>Orme, Nicholas (2007) ''Cornwall and the Cross''. Chichester: Phillimore; p. 147</ref> In 1548 the college at [[Glasney College|Glasney]], a centre of learning and study established by the Bishop of Exeter, had been closed and looted (many manuscripts and documents were destroyed) which aroused resentment among the Cornish. They, among other things, objected to the English language [[Book of Common Prayer]], protesting that the English language was still unknown to many at the time. The Prayer Book Rebellion was a cultural and social disaster for Cornwall; the reprisals taken by the forces of the Crown have been estimated to account for 10–11% of the civilian population of Cornwall. Culturally speaking, it saw the beginning of the slow decline of the [[Cornish language]].

From that time Christianity in Cornwall was in the main within the Church of England and subject to the national events which affected it in the next century and a half. Roman Catholicism never became extinct, though openly practised by very few; there were some converts to Puritanism, Anabaptism and Quakerism in certain areas though they suffered intermittent persecution which more or less came to an end in the reign of William and Mary. During the 18th century Cornish Anglicanism was very much in the same state as Anglicanism in most of England. Wesleyan Methodist missions began during [[John Wesley]]'s lifetime and had great success over a long period during which Methodism itself divided into a number of sects and established a definite separation from the Church of England.

[[File:Poughill Methodist Church - geograph.org.uk - 207036.jpg|thumb|Poughill Methodist Church]]

From the early 19th to the mid-20th century [[Methodism]] was the leading form of Christianity in Cornwall but it is now in decline.<ref>{{cite web |title =Methodism |publisher = Cornish-Mining.org.uk |url = http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/story/religion.htm |access-date = 11 May 2007 }}</ref><ref>Shaw, Thomas (1967) ''A History of Cornish Methodism''. Truro: Bradford Barton</ref> The Church of England was in the majority from the reign of Queen Elizabeth until the Methodist revival of the 19th century: before the Wesleyan missions dissenters were very few in Cornwall. The county remained within the [[Diocese of Exeter]] until 1876 when the Anglican [[Diocese of Truro]] was created<ref>{{cite web |title = Truro Cathedral website – History page |publisher = TruroCathedral.org.uk |url = http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/cathedral-story/story1.html |access-date = 11 May 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070701160507/http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/cathedral-story/story1.html |archive-date = 1 July 2007 |url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>Brown, H. Miles (1976) ''A Century for Cornwall''. Truro: Blackford</ref> (the first Bishop was appointed in 1877). Roman Catholicism was virtually extinct in Cornwall after the 17th century except for a few families such as the Arundells of [[Lanherne]]. From the mid-19th century the church reestablished episcopal sees in England, one of these being at [[Diocese of Plymouth|Plymouth]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.plymouth-diocese.org.uk/ |title = Diocese of Plymouth |access-date = 13 April 2009}}</ref> Since then immigration to Cornwall has brought more Roman Catholics into the population.

==Physical geography==
{{Main|Geography of Cornwall|Geology of Cornwall}}
[[File:Cw2.jpg|thumb|right|Satellite image of Cornwall]]

Cornwall forms the tip of the south-west peninsula of the island of [[Great Britain]], and is therefore exposed to the full force of the [[prevailing winds]] that blow in from the Atlantic Ocean. The coastline is composed mainly of [[resistance (geology)|resistant]] rocks that give rise in many places to tall cliffs. Cornwall has a border with only one other county, [[Devon]], which is formed almost entirely by the [[River Tamar]], and the remainder (to the north) by the [[Marsland Valley]].

===Coastal areas===
The north and south coasts have different characteristics. The north coast on the [[Celtic Sea]], part of the Atlantic Ocean, is more exposed and therefore has a wilder nature. The ''High Cliff'', between [[Boscastle]] and [[St Gennys]], is the highest sheer-drop cliff in Cornwall at {{convert|223|m|ft}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/main/sections/index.cfm?fsa=dspSectionDetail&w_id=147 |title=The Official Guide to the South West Coast Path |publisher=Southwestcoastpath.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611114118/http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/main/sections/index.cfm?fsa=dspSectionDetail&w_id=147 |archive-date=11 June 2011 }}</ref> Beaches, which form an important part of the tourist industry, include [[Bude]], [[Polzeath]], [[Watergate Bay]], [[Perranporth]], [[Porthtowan]], [[Fistral Beach]], [[Newquay]], [[St Agnes, Cornwall|St Agnes]], [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]], and on the south coast [[Gyllyngvase]] beach in [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] and the large beach at [[Praa Sands]] further to the south-west. There are two river estuaries on the north coast: [[Hayle Estuary]] and the estuary of the [[River Camel]], which provides [[Padstow]] and [[Rock, Cornwall|Rock]] with a safe harbour. The seaside town of [[Newlyn]] is a popular holiday destination, as it is one of the last remaining traditional Cornish fishing ports, with views reaching over Mount's Bay.

[[File:St-Michael Mount.jpg|thumb|right|[[St Michael's Mount]] in Marazion]]
The south coast, dubbed the "Cornish Riviera", is more sheltered and there are several broad estuaries offering safe anchorages, such as at Falmouth and [[Fowey]]. Beaches on the south coast usually consist of coarser sand and shingle, interspersed with rocky sections of [[wave-cut platform]]. Also on the south coast, the picturesque fishing village of [[Polperro]], at the mouth of the Pol River, and the fishing port of [[Looe]] on the [[River Looe]] are both popular with tourists.

===Inland areas===
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2025}}
The interior of the county consists of a roughly east–west spine of infertile and exposed upland, with a series of [[granite]] intrusions, such as [[Bodmin Moor]], which contains the highest land within Cornwall. From east to west, and with approximately descending altitude, these are Bodmin Moor, [[Hensbarrow]] north of [[St Austell]], [[Carnmenellis]] to the south of [[Camborne]], and the [[Penwith]] or [[Land's End]] peninsula. These intrusions are the central part of the granite outcrops that form the exposed parts of the [[Cornubian batholith]] of south-west Britain, which also includes [[Dartmoor]] to the east in Devon and the [[Isles of Scilly]] to the west, the latter now being partially submerged.

[[File:Porthcurno beach.jpg|thumb|Cornwall is known for its beaches (Porthcurno Beach illustrated) and rugged coastline]]
The intrusion of the granite into the surrounding [[sedimentary]] rocks gave rise to extensive [[metamorphism]] and [[Mineralization (geology)|mineralisation]], and this led to Cornwall being one of the most important mining areas in Europe until the early 20th century. It is thought [[tin]] was mined here as early as the [[Bronze Age]], and copper, lead, [[zinc]] and silver have all been [[Mining in Cornwall|mined in Cornwall]]. Alteration of the granite also gave rise to extensive deposits of [[Kaolinite|China Clay]], especially in the area to the north of St Austell, and the extraction of this remains an important industry.

The uplands are surrounded by more fertile, mainly [[pasture|pastoral]] farmland. Near the south coast, deep wooded valleys provide sheltered conditions for flora that like shade and a moist, mild climate. These areas lie mainly on [[Devonian]] [[sandstone]] and [[slate]]. The north east of Cornwall lies on [[Carboniferous]] rocks known as the [[Culm Measures]]. In places these have been subjected to severe folding, as can be seen on the north coast near [[Crackington Haven]] and in several other locations.

===Lizard Peninsula===
{{Main|Lizard complex}}

The [[Geology of Lizard, Cornwall|geology of the Lizard peninsula]] is unusual, in that it is mainland Britain's only example of an [[ophiolite]], a section of oceanic crust now found on land.{{efn|Britain's only other example of an ophiolite, the Shetland ophiolite, is older, and linked to the Grampian [[Orogeny]].}} Much of the peninsula consists of the dark green and red [[Precambrian]] [[serpentinite]], which forms spectacular cliffs, notably at [[Kynance Cove]], and carved and polished serpentine ornaments are sold in local gift shops. This [[ultramafic rock]] also forms a very infertile soil which covers the flat and marshy heaths of the interior of the peninsula. This is home to rare plants, such as the [[Erica vagans|Cornish Heath]], which has been adopted as the [[county flower]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5430 |title=The Cornish Heath – County Flower |access-date=5 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080930154036/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5430 |archive-date=30 September 2008 }}</ref>

===Hills and high points===
{{main|List of hills of Cornwall}}

==Settlements and transport==
{{See also|List of settlements in Cornwall by population|Transport in Cornwall}}
[[File:Truro stmarysst.jpg|thumb|right|[[Truro]], Cornwall's administrative centre and only city.]]
Cornwall's only city, and the home of the [[Cornwall Council|council headquarters]], is Truro. Nearby [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] is notable as a port. [[St Just in Penwith]] is the westernmost town in England, though the same claim has been made for [[Penzance]], which is larger. [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]] and [[Padstow]] are today small vessel ports with a major tourism and leisure sector in their economies. [[Newquay]] on the north coast is another major urban settlement which is known for its beaches and is a popular surfing destination, as is [[Bude]] further north, but Newquay is now also becoming important for its aviation-related industries. [[Camborne]] is the county's largest town and more populous than the county town Truro. Together with the neighbouring town of [[Redruth]], it forms the largest urban area in Cornwall, and both towns were significant as centres of the global tin mining industry in the 19th century; nearby copper mines were also very productive during that period. [[St Austell]] is also larger than Truro and was the centre of the [[kaolin|china clay]] industry in Cornwall. Until four [[St Austell parishes|new parishes]] were created for the St Austell area on 1 April 2009 St Austell was the largest settlement in Cornwall.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/7766589.stm|title=Town and parishes to get councils|work=BBC News website|publisher=BBC|access-date=6 December 2008|date=5 December 2008|archive-date=6 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206171901/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/7766589.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Cornwall borders the county of [[Devon]] at the River Tamar. Major roads between Cornwall and the rest of Great Britain are the [[A38 road|A38]] which crosses the Tamar at [[Plymouth]] via the [[Tamar Bridge]] and the town of [[Saltash]], the [[A39 road]] (Atlantic Highway) from [[Barnstaple]], passing through [[North Cornwall]] to end in Falmouth, and the [[A30 road|A30]] which connects Cornwall to the [[M5 motorway]] at [[Exeter]], crosses the border south of [[Launceston, England|Launceston]], crosses Bodmin Moor and connects Bodmin, Truro, Redruth, Camborne, Hayle and Penzance. [[Torpoint Ferry]] links Plymouth with [[Torpoint]] on the opposite side of the [[Hamoaze]]. A rail bridge, the [[Royal Albert Bridge]] built by [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]] (1859), provides the other main land transport link. The city of Plymouth, a large urban centre in south west Devon, is an important location for services such as hospitals, department stores, road and rail transport, and cultural venues, particularly for people living in east Cornwall.

[[Cardiff]] and [[Swansea]], across the Bristol Channel, have at some times in the past been connected to Cornwall by ferry, but these do not operate now.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.severnlink.com/ |title=Fast Ferries connecting Wales & the South West – Severn Link, Fast Ferries Connecting Wales and the South West |publisher=Severnlink.com |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106161135/http://www.severnlink.com/ |archive-date=6 November 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Isles of Scilly]] are served by ferry (from Penzance) and by aeroplane, having its own airport: [[St Mary's Airport (Isles of Scilly)|St Mary's Airport]]. There are regular flights between St Mary's and [[Land's End Airport]], near St Just, and [[Newquay Airport]]; during the summer season, a service is also provided between St Mary's and [[Exeter Airport]], in Devon.

==Ecology==
===Flora and fauna===
{{See also|Flora and fauna of Cornwall}}
Cornwall has varied habitats including terrestrial and marine ecosystems. One noted species in decline locally is the [[Reindeer lichen]], which species has been made a priority for protection under the national UK [[Biodiversity Action Plan]].<ref>Price, J. H., Hepton, C. E. L. and Honey, S. I. (1979). ''The Inshore Benthic Biota of the Lizard Peninsula'', south west Cornwall: the marine algae – History; Chlorophyta; Phaeophyta. ''Cornish Studies''; no. 7: pp. 7–37</ref><ref>Bere, Rennie (1982) ''The Nature of Cornwall''. Buckingham: Barracuda Books</ref>

[[File:Choughfly816.jpg|thumb|The [[red-billed chough]] (''Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax''), once commonly seen throughout Cornwall, experienced a severe decline in its population in the 20th century.]]

Botanists divide Cornwall and Scilly into two vice-counties: West (1) and East (2). The standard flora is by [[F. H. Davey]] ''Flora of Cornwall'' (1909). Davey was assisted by [[A. O. Hume]] and he thanks Hume, his companion on excursions in Cornwall and Devon, and for help in the compilation of that Flora, publication of which was financed by him.

===Climate===
{{Main|Geography of Cornwall#Climate}}
Cornwall has a [[temperate]] [[Oceanic climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification]]: ''Cfb''), with mild winters and cool summers. Cornwall has the mildest and one of the sunniest climates of the United Kingdom, as a result of its oceanic setting and the influence of the [[Gulf Stream]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/tmean/17.gif |title=UK climate information |publisher=Met Office |date=1 May 2014 |access-date=2 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304032708/http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/tmean/17.gif |archive-date=4 March 2010 }}</ref> The average annual temperature in Cornwall ranges from {{cvt|11.6|C|F}} on the [[Isles of Scilly]] to {{cvt|9.8|C|F}} in the central uplands. Winters are among the warmest in the country due to the moderating effects of the warm ocean currents, and frost and snow are very rare at the coast and are also rare in the central upland areas. Summers are, however, not as warm as in other parts of southern England.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/regional-climates/sw|title=South West England: climate|website=Met Office|language=en|access-date=18 March 2019|archive-date=11 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211145822/https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/regional-climates/sw|url-status=live}}</ref> The surrounding sea and its southwesterly position mean that Cornwall's weather can be relatively changeable.

Cornwall is one of the sunniest areas in the UK. It has more than 1,541 hours of sunshine per year, with the highest average of 7.6 hours of sunshine per day in July.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/ss/17.gif |title=UK climate information |publisher=Met Office |date=1 May 2014 |access-date=2 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304032747/http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/ss/17.gif |archive-date=4 March 2010 }}</ref> The moist, mild air coming from the southwest brings higher amounts of rainfall than in eastern Great Britain, at {{cvt|1051|to|1290|mm|in}} per year. However, this is not as much as in more northern areas of the west coast.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif |title=UK climate information |publisher=Met Office |date=1 May 2014 |access-date=2 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304032633/http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages/19712000/rr/17.gif |archive-date=4 March 2010 }}</ref> The Isles of Scilly, for example, where there are on average fewer than two days of air frost per year, is the only area in the UK to be in the [[Hardiness zone]] 10. The islands have, on average, less than one day of air temperature exceeding 30&nbsp;°C per year and are in the AHS Heat Zone 1. Extreme temperatures in Cornwall are particularly rare; however, extreme weather in the form of storms and floods is common. Due to [[climate change]] Cornwall faces more heatwaves and severe droughts, faster coastal erosion, stronger storms and higher wind speeds as well as the possibility of more high-impact flooding.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The impact of climate change - Cornwall Council |url=https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/environment/climate-emergency/the-impact-of-climate-change/ |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=www.cornwall.gov.uk}}</ref>

==Culture==
{{Main|Culture of Cornwall}}

===Language===
{{further|Languages of England}}
{{see also|Languages of the United Kingdom#Cornwall}}

====Cornish language====
{{main|Cornish language}}

[[File:Penzansagasdynerghcrop.jpeg|right|thumb|A [[welcome sign]] to [[Penzance]], in the English and [[Cornish language|Cornish]] languages]] 
Cornish, a member of the [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic branch]] of the [[Celtic languages|Celtic language family]], died out as a first language in the late 18th century. In the 20th and 21st centuries, it has been [[List of revived languages|revived]] by a small number of speakers. It is closely related to the other Brythonic languages ([[Breton language|Breton]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]]), and less so to the [[Goidelic languages]]. Cornish has no legal status in the UK.

There has been a revival of the language by academics and optimistic enthusiasts since the mid-19th century that gained momentum from the publication in 1904 of [[Henry Jenner]]'s ''Handbook of the Cornish Language''. It is a social networking community language rather than a social community group language.<ref>{{cite web | title = Cornish in United Kingdom | publisher = European Commission | url = http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/uk1_en.html | access-date = 11 May 2007 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071012160028/http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/uk1_en.html | archive-date = 12 October 2007}}</ref> Cornwall Council encourages and facilitates language classes within the county, in schools and within the wider community.<ref>{{cite web |title=Learning Cornish |url=https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/the-cornish-language/cornish-language/learning-cornish/ |publisher=Cornwall Council |access-date=30 May 2020 |date=24 April 2020 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728233300/https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/the-cornish-language/cornish-language/learning-cornish/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2002, Cornish was named as a UK regional language in the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2410383.stm |title=November 2002 – Cornish gains official recognition |work=BBC News |date=6 November 2002 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010134459/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2410383.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> As a result, in 2005 its promoters received limited government funding.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4092664.stm |title=June 2005 – Cash boost for Cornish language |work=BBC News |date=14 June 2005 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=28 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628145437/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4092664.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Several words originating in Cornish are used in the mining terminology of English, such as [[costean]], [[gossan]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gossan |title=gossan – definition of gossan by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia |publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |date=21 September 2009 |access-date=24 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102123948/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gossan |archive-date=2 November 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[gunnies]], kibbal,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/kibbal |title=kibbal - Definition of kibbal - Online Dictionary from Datasegment.com |publisher=Onlinedictionary.datasegment.com |access-date=24 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903214005/http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/kibbal |archive-date=3 September 2015 }}</ref> [[wikt:keeve|kieve]]<ref>{{cite book|title=British Mining: A Treatise on the History, Discovery, Practical Development|last=Hunt|first=Robert|location=London|publisher=E. & F. N. Spon|date=1887|page=778|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQU55QQHRGcC&pg=PA778|access-date=8 November 2016|quote=The tin stuff is put into a "kieve" about 3{{citefrac|1|2}} feet diameter and 2{{citefrac|1|2}} feet deep, and with an equal volume of water is continually stirred with a shovel in one direction until the tin stuff is in a state of suspended motion.|archive-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525044655/https://books.google.com/books?id=MQU55QQHRGcC&pg=PA778|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[vug]].<ref>''Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'' by American Geological Institute and U S Bureau of Mines; pp. 128, 249 & 613</ref>

====English dialect====
{{Main|Cornish dialect|West Country English}}
The Cornish language and culture influenced the emergence of particular pronunciations and grammar not used elsewhere in England. The Cornish dialect is spoken to varying degrees; however, someone speaking in broad Cornish may be practically unintelligible to one not accustomed to it. Cornish dialect has generally declined, as in most places it is now little more than a regional accent and grammatical differences have been eroded over time. Marked differences in vocabulary and usage still exist between the eastern and western parts of Cornwall.

===Flag===
{{Main|Saint Piran's Flag}}
[[File:Flag of Cornwall.svg|thumb|The flag of Cornwall]]
[[Saint Piran]]'s Flag is the national flag and ancient banner of Cornwall,<ref name="auto">Payton (2004), p. 262.</ref><ref name="Rendle">{{cite web|url=http://www.flaginstitute.org/pdfs/Phil%20Rendle.pdf|title=Cornwall – The Mysteries of St Piran|last=Rendle|first=Phil|work=Proceedings of the XIX International Congress of Vexillology|publisher=The Flag Institute|access-date=17 January 2010|archive-date=30 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430082113/http://www.flaginstitute.org/pdfs/Phil%20Rendle.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="fotw">{{cite web|url=https://www.fotw.info/flags/gb-corn.html |title=Cross of Saint Piran |publisher=Flags of the World (FOTW) |access-date=17 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117170419/https://www.fotw.info/flags/gb-corn.html |archive-date=17 January 2007 }}</ref> and an emblem of the Cornish people. The banner of Saint Piran is a white cross on a black background (in terms of [[heraldry]] 'sable, a cross argent'). According to legend Saint Piran adopted these colours from seeing the white tin in the black coals and ashes during his discovery of tin.<ref name="auto" /><ref>[[Davies Gilbert]] in 1826 described it as anciently the flag of St Piran and the banner of Cornwall, and another history of 1880 said that: "The white cross of St. Piran was the ancient banner of the Cornish people."</ref> The Cornish flag is an exact reverse of the former [[Brittany|Breton]] black cross [[Flag of Brittany|national flag]] and is known by the same name "[[Kroaz Du]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb-corn.html |title=Cornwall (United Kingdom) |publisher=Crwflags.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=15 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100715174513/http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/FLAGS/gb-corn.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flags.net/UNKG12.htm#UNKG7400 |title=British Flags (United Kingdom) from The World Flag Database |publisher=Flags.net |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=5 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105165552/http://flags.net/UNKG12.htm#UNKG7400 |url-status=live }}</ref>[[File:Pamiatka z Kornwalii.jpg|thumb|right|Souvenir flags outside a Cornish café]]

===Arts and media===
{{See also|Media in Cornwall}}
[[File:Tate gallery St-Ives.jpg|thumb|Tate Gallery at [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]]]]
[[File:Sphere With Inner Form.jpg|thumb|upright|Artwork in the [[Barbara Hepworth]] Museum in St Ives]]
Since the 19th century, Cornwall, with its unspoilt maritime scenery and strong light, has sustained a vibrant visual art scene of international renown. Artistic activity within Cornwall was initially centred on the art-colony of [[Newlyn]], most active at the turn of the 20th century. This [[Newlyn School]] is associated with the names of [[Stanhope Forbes]], [[Elizabeth Forbes (artist)|Elizabeth Forbes]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Elizabeth Adela Forbes | publisher=PenleeHouse.org.uk | url=http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/artists/elizabeth-forbes.htm | access-date=11 May 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070513054831/http://www.penleehouse.org.uk/artists/elizabeth-forbes.htm | archive-date=13 May 2007 | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Norman Garstin]] and [[Lamorna Birch]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Samuel John Lamorna Birch |publisher=HayleGallery.co.uk |url=http://www.haylegallery.co.uk/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=59 |access-date=11 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004723/http://www.haylegallery.co.uk/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=59 |archive-date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> Modernist writers such as [[D. H. Lawrence]] and [[Virginia Woolf]] lived in Cornwall between the wars,<ref>{{Cite news | title=Virginia Woolf | work=The New York Times | url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/n/nicolson-woolf.html | access-date=11 May 2007 | archive-date=9 December 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209175353/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/n/nicolson-woolf.html | url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Ben Nicholson]], the painter, having visited in the 1920s came to live in St Ives with his then wife, the sculptor [[Barbara Hepworth]], at the outbreak of the [[Second World War]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Ben Nicholson |publisher=StormFineArts.com |url=http://www.stormfinearts.com/images/gallery_b/b-nicholson/b-nicholson.html |access-date=11 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230035209/http://www.stormfinearts.com/images/gallery_b/b-nicholson/b-nicholson.html |archive-date=30 December 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> They were later joined by the Russian emigrant [[Naum Gabo]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Naum Gabo | publisher=Artnet.com | url=http://www.artnet.com/artist/660735/naum-gabo.html | access-date=11 May 2007 | archive-date=13 April 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070413003422/http://www.artnet.com/artist/660735/naum-gabo.html | url-status=live }}</ref> and other artists. These included [[Peter Lanyon]], [[Terry Frost]], [[Patrick Heron]], [[Bryan Wynter]] and [[Roger Hilton]]. St Ives also houses the Leach Pottery, where [[Bernard Leach]], and his followers championed Japanese inspired studio pottery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bernard Leach and the Leach Pottery |publisher=Studio-Pots.com |url=http://www.studio-pots.com/leach.htm |access-date=11 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403031403/http://www.studio-pots.com/leach.htm |archive-date=3 April 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Much of this modernist work can be seen in [[Tate St Ives]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Tate St Ives | publisher=Tate.org.uk | url=http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/ | access-date=11 May 2007 | archive-date=5 May 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505124143/http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/ | url-status=live }}</ref> The Newlyn Society and [[Penwith Society of Arts]] continue to be active, and contemporary visual art is documented in a dedicated online journal.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.artcornwall.org |title=art and artists in Cornwall including Cornish galleries |publisher=art cornwall .org |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100704182708/http://www.artcornwall.org/ |archive-date=4 July 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Local television programmes are provided by [[BBC Spotlight|BBC South West]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006pfr1|title=BBC One - Spotlight|website=BBC|accessdate=6 December 2022}}</ref> & [[ITV West Country]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/topic/cornwall|title=ITV West Country Cornwall news for Bristol and the West Country|website=ITV News|accessdate=6 December 2022}}</ref> Radio programmes are produced by [[BBC Radio Cornwall]] in Truro for the entire county, [[Heart West]], [[Source FM]] for the Falmouth and Penryn areas, [[Coast FM (West Cornwall)|Coast FM]] for west Cornwall, [[Radio St Austell Bay]] for the St Austell area, [[NCB Radio]] for north Cornwall & [[Pirate FM]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://radio-live-uk.com/england/cornwall|title=List of radio stations in the Cornwall|website=radio-live-uk.com|accessdate=6 December 2022|archive-date=6 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206024419/https://radio-live-uk.com/england/cornwall|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Music===
{{Main|Music of Cornwall}}
Cornwall has a [[folk music]] tradition that has survived into the present and is well known for its unusual folk survivals such as [[Mummers Play]]s, the [[Furry Dance]] in [[Helston]] played by the famous [[Helston Town Band]], and [[Obby Oss]] in [[Padstow]].

[[Newlyn]] is home to a food and music festival<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newlynfishfestival.org.uk/|title=Newlyn fish festival|publisher=Newlynfishfestival.org.uk|access-date=2 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015212211/http://www.newlynfishfestival.org.uk/|archive-date=15 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> that hosts live music, cooking demonstrations, and displays of locally caught fish.

As in other former mining districts of Britain, male voice choirs and [[Brass band (British style)|brass band]]s, such as ''Brass on the Grass'' concerts during the summer at [[Constantine, Kerrier|Constantine]], are still very popular in Cornwall. Cornwall also has around 40 brass bands, including the six-times National Champions of Great Britain, Camborne Youth Band, and the bands of [[Lanner, Cornwall|Lanner]] and St Dennis.

Cornish players are regular participants in inter-Celtic festivals, and Cornwall itself has several inter-Celtic festivals such as [[Perranporth]]'s Lowender Peran folk festival.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.an-daras.com |title=An Daras Cornish Folk Tradition |publisher=An-daras.com |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109201945/http://an-daras.com/ |archive-date=9 January 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Contemporary musician [[Aphex Twin|Richard D. James]] (also known as Aphex Twin) grew up in Cornwall, as did [[Luke Vibert]] and [[Alex Parks]], winner of [[Fame Academy]] 2003. [[Roger Taylor (Queen drummer)|Roger Taylor]], the drummer from the band [[Queen (band)|Queen]] was also raised in the county, and currently lives not far from [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]]. The American singer-songwriter [[Tori Amos]] now resides predominantly in North Cornwall not far from Bude with her family.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/Music/The-whole-Tori/2005/05/05/1115092621001.html |title=The whole Tori – Music – Entertainment |work=The Age |location=Melbourne |date=8 May 2005 |access-date=25 September 2010 |first=Guy |last=Blackman |archive-date=13 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113175205/http://www.theage.com.au/news/Music/The-whole-Tori/2005/05/05/1115092621001.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[lute]]nist, composer and festival director [[Ben Salfield]] lives in Truro. [[Mick Fleetwood]] of [[Fleetwood Mac]] was born in [[Redruth]].

===Literature===
Cornwall's rich heritage and dramatic landscape have inspired numerous writers.

====Fiction====
{{see also|Poldark|Winston Graham}}
[[Arthur Quiller-Couch|Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch]], author of many novels and works of literary criticism, lived in Fowey: his novels are mainly set in Cornwall. [[Daphne du Maurier]] lived at [[Menabilly]] near Fowey and many of her novels had Cornish settings: ''[[The Loving Spirit]]'', ''[[Jamaica Inn (novel)|Jamaica Inn]]'', ''[[Rebecca (novel)|Rebecca]]'', ''[[Frenchman's Creek (novel)|Frenchman's Creek]]'', ''[[The King's General]]'' (partially), ''[[My Cousin Rachel]]'', ''[[The House on the Strand]]'' and ''[[Rule Britannia (novel)|Rule Britannia]]''.<ref>{{cite web | title =Daphne du Maurier | publisher =DuMaurier.org | url =http://www.DuMaurier.org/ | access-date =11 May 2007 | archive-date =6 February 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120206075140/http://www.dumaurier.org/ | url-status =live }}</ref> She is also noted for writing ''Vanishing Cornwall''. Cornwall provided the inspiration for ''[[The Birds (story)|The Birds]]'', one of her terrifying series of short stories, made famous as a film by [[Alfred Hitchcock]].<ref>{{cite web | title =The Birds | publisher =MovieDiva.com | url =http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDBirds.htm | access-date =11 May 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070809044041/http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDBirds.htm | archive-date =9 August 2007 | url-status =dead }}</ref> [[File:RemainsofTintagel.jpg|thumb|right|Remains of [[Tintagel Castle]], reputedly [[King Arthur]]'s birthplace]]

[[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Adventure of the Devil's Foot]]'' featuring [[Sherlock Holmes]] is set in Cornwall.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Adventure of the Devil's Foot |publisher=WorldwideSchool.org |url=http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/detective/TheAdventureoftheDevilsFoot/Chap1.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130113113313/http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/detective/TheAdventureoftheDevilsFoot/Chap1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 January 2013 |access-date=11 May 2007 }}</ref> [[Winston Graham]]'s series ''[[Poldark]]'', [[Kate Tremayne]]'s [[Adam Loveday]] series, [[Susan Cooper]]'s novels ''[[Over Sea, Under Stone]]''<ref>{{cite web | title =Over Sea, Under Stone | publisher =Powell's Books | url =http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780689840357 | access-date =11 May 2007 | archive-date =20 February 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070220015103/http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780689840357 | url-status =live }}</ref> and ''Greenwitch'', and [[Mary Wesley]]'s ''[[The Camomile Lawn]]'' are all set in Cornwall. Writing under the pseudonym of Alexander Kent, [[Douglas Reeman]] sets parts of his [[Richard Bolitho]] and Adam Bolitho series in the Cornwall of the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, particularly in Falmouth. [[Gilbert K. Chesterton]] placed the action of many of his stories there.

Medieval Cornwall is the setting of the trilogy by [[Monica Furlong]], ''Wise Child'', ''Juniper'' and ''Colman'', as well as part of Charles Kingsley's ''[[Hereward the Wake (novel)|Hereward the Wake]]''.

[[Hammond Innes]]'s novel, ''The Killer Mine'';<ref>{{cite web|title=The Killer Mine |publisher=BoekBesprekingen.nl |url=http://www.boekbesprekingen.nl/cgi-bin/boek.cgi?boek=588391 |access-date=11 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008090759/http://www.boekbesprekingen.nl/cgi-bin/boek.cgi?boek=588391 |archive-date=8 October 2007 }}</ref> [[Charles de Lint]]'s novel ''The Little Country'';<ref>{{Cite book| title =The Little Country | isbn=0312876491| last1=Lint| first1=Charles de| date=7 April 2001| publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> and Chapters 24–25 of [[J. K. Rowling]]'s ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]'' take place in Cornwall (Shell Cottage, on the beach outside the fictional village of Tinworth).<ref>{{cite web| title =Shell Cottage| publisher =hp-lexicon.org| url =http://www.hp-lexicon.org/atlas/gazetteer/gazetteer-s.html| access-date =11 January 2008| archive-date =30 December 2007| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20071230065826/http://www.hp-lexicon.org/atlas/gazetteer/gazetteer-s.html| url-status =live}}</ref>

David Cornwell, who wrote espionage novels under the name [[John le Carré]], lived and worked in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.channel4.com/news/le-carr-betrayed-by-bad-lot-spy-kim-philby |title=Le Carré betrayed by 'bad lot' spy Kim Philby |work=Channel 4 News |publisher=Channel 4 |date=12 September 2010 |location=London |access-date=26 May 2011 |archive-date=8 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708101836/https://www.channel4.com/news/le-carr-betrayed-by-bad-lot-spy-kim-philby |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize-winning]] novelist [[William Golding]] was born in [[St Columb Minor]] in 1911, and returned to live near Truro from 1985 until his death in 1993.<ref>{{cite web|title=Biography of William Golding |publisher=William-Golding.co.uk |url=http://www.william-golding.co.uk/p_biography.html |access-date=11 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070317193534/http://www.william-golding.co.uk/p_biography.html |archive-date=17 March 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[D. H. Lawrence]] spent a short time living in Cornwall. [[Rosamunde Pilcher]] grew up in Cornwall, and several of her books take place there.

[[St Michael's Mount|St. Michael's Mount]] in Cornwall (under the fictional name of Mount Polbearne) is the setting of the Little Beach Street Bakery series by [[Jenny Colgan]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Author Jenny Colgan reveals how Cornwall kick starts her creativity |url=https://www.visitcornwall.com/about-cornwall/blogging-cornwall/author-jenny-colgan-reveals-how-cornwall-kick-starts-her-creativity |access-date=11 July 2022 |website=www.visitcornwall.com |archive-date=11 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711115858/https://www.visitcornwall.com/about-cornwall/blogging-cornwall/author-jenny-colgan-reveals-how-cornwall-kick-starts-her-creativity |url-status=dead }}</ref> who spent holidays in Cornwall as a child.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McDonald |first=Sally |title=Bestselling author Jenny Colgan: I grew up by the sea, so it has always been part of my life and seems such a natural place to be |url=https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/jenny-colgan-interview/ |access-date=11 July 2022 |website=The Sunday Post |date=13 June 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> The book series includes ''Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2014), ''Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2015), ''Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery'' (2016), and ''Sunrise by the Sea'' (2021).

In the ''[[Paddington Bear]]'' novels by [[Michael Bond]] the title character is said to have landed at an unspecified port in Cornwall having travelled in a [[Lifeboat (shipboard)|lifeboat]] aboard a [[cargo ship]] from darkest [[Peru]]. From here he travels to [[London]] on a train and eventually arrives at [[Paddington Station]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.paddington.com/global/home-page/|title=Paddington|website=Paddington|accessdate=24 November 2022|archive-date=24 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221124064329/https://www.paddington.com/global/home-page/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Enid Blyton]]'s 1953 novel ''[[Five Go Down to the Sea]]'' (the twelfth book in ''[[The Famous Five]]'' series) is set in Cornwall, near the fictional coastal village of Tremannon.

====Poetry====
[[File:ForTheFallenPlaqueCornwall.jpg|thumb|"FOR THE FALLEN" plaque with [[the Rumps]] promontory beyond]]
The late [[Poet Laureate]] [[John Betjeman|Sir John Betjeman]] was famously fond of Cornwall and it featured prominently in his poetry. He is buried in the churchyard at [[St Enodoc's Church, Trebetherick]].<ref>{{cite web|title=St Enodoc Church |publisher=RockInfo.co.uk |url=http://www.rockinfo.co.uk/daymer/stenochc.html |access-date=11 May 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613142651/http://www.rockinfo.co.uk/daymer/stenochc.html |archive-date=13 June 2007 }}</ref>
[[Charles Causley]], the poet, was born in Launceston and is perhaps the best known of Cornish poets. [[Jack Clemo]] and the scholar [[A. L. Rowse]] were also notable Cornishmen known for their poetry; The Rev. [[Robert Stephen Hawker|R. S. Hawker]] of Morwenstow wrote some poetry which was very popular in the Victorian period.<ref>Woolf, Cecil (1965)."Hawker of Morwenstow, 1803–1875." ''[[The Book Collector]]''; 14, no. 1 (spring): 62–71; 14, no. 2 (summer): 202–211.</ref> The Scottish poet [[W. S. Graham]] lived in West Cornwall from 1944 until his death in 1986.<ref>{{cite web | title =William Sydney Graham | publisher =CPRW.com | url =http://www.cprw.com/Drexel/graham.htm | access-date =11 May 2007 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070927215803/http://www.cprw.com/Drexel/graham.htm | archive-date =27 September 2007 | url-status =dead }}</ref>

The poet [[Laurence Binyon]] wrote "For the Fallen" (first published in 1914) while sitting on the cliffs between [[Pentire Head|Pentire Point]] and The Rumps and a stone plaque was erected in 2001 to commemorate the fact. The plaque bears the inscription "FOR THE FALLEN / Composed on these cliffs, 1914". The plaque also bears below this the fourth stanza (sometimes referred to as [[Ode of Remembrance|"The Ode"]]) of the poem:
:They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn<!-- "Condemn" is in fact the correct word. See the talk page for more. -->
:At the going down of the sun and in the morning
:We will remember them

====Other literary works====
Cornwall produced a substantial number of [[passion play]]s such as the [[Ordinalia]] during the Middle Ages. Many are still extant, and provide valuable information about the Cornish language. See also [[Cornish literature]]

[[Colin Wilson]], a prolific writer who is best known for his debut work ''[[The Outsider (Colin Wilson)|The Outsider]]'' (1956) and for ''[[The Mind Parasites]]'' (1967), lived in [[Gorran Haven]], a small village on the southern Cornish coast. The writer [[D. M. Thomas]] was born in Redruth but lived and worked in Australia and the United States before returning to his native Cornwall. He has written novels, poetry, and other works, including translations from Russian.

[[Thomas Hardy]]'s drama ''[[The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall|The Queen of Cornwall]]'' (1923) is a version of the Tristan story; the second act of [[Richard Wagner]]'s opera ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' takes place in Cornwall, as do [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s operettas ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'' and ''[[Ruddigore]]''.

[[Clara Vyvyan]] was the author of various books about many aspects of Cornish life such as ''Our Cornwall''. She once wrote: "The Loneliness of Cornwall is a loneliness unchanged by the presence of men, its freedoms a freedom inexpressible by description or epitaph. Your cannot say Cornwall is this or that. Your cannot describe it in a word or visualise it in a second. You may know the country from east to west and sea to sea, but if you close your eyes and think about it no clear-cut image rises before you. In this quality of changefulness have we possibly surprised the secret of Cornwall's wild spirit—in this intimacy the essence of its charm? Cornwall!".<ref>Quoted in Croxford, Bob (1993) ''From Cornwall with Love''. Mullion: Atmosphere; p. 22</ref>
A level of ''[[Tomb Raider: Legend]]'', a game dealing with Arthurian Legend, takes place in Cornwall at a museum above King Arthur's tomb. The adventure game ''The Lost Crown'' is set in the fictional town of Saxton, which uses the Cornish settlements of Polperro, Talland and Looe as its model.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.darklingroom.co.uk/thelostcrown/realsaxton/|title=The 'Real' World of Saxton: From The Lost Crown|website=Darklingroom.co.uk|access-date=5 January 2019|archive-date=23 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110423065722/http://www.darklingroom.co.uk/thelostcrown/realsaxton/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The fairy tale [[Jack the Giant Killer]] takes place in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite web|title=English Fairy Tales – Jack the Giant-Killer (by Joseph Jacobs)|url=http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-21.html|access-date=24 January 2022|website=www.authorama.com}}</ref>

''[[The Mousehole Cat]]'', a children's book written by [[Antonia Barber]] and illustrated by [[Nicola Bayley]], is set in the Cornish village [[Mousehole]] and based on the legend of [[Tom Bawcock]] and the continuing tradition of [[Tom Bawcock's Eve]].

===Sports===
{{Main|Sport in Cornwall}}
[[File:Gerry and Ashley Cawley.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Cornish wrestling]]]]
The main sports played in Cornwall are [[Rugby union|rugby]], [[Association football|football]] and [[cricket]]. Athletes from Truro have done well in [[Olympic Games|Olympic]] and [[Commonwealth Games]] fencing, winning several medals. [[Surfing]] is popular, particularly with tourists, thousands of whom take to the water throughout the summer months. Some towns and villages have bowling clubs, and a wide variety of British sports are played throughout Cornwall. Cornwall is also one of the few [[Cornwall Shinty Club|places]] in England where [[shinty]] is played; the [[English Shinty Association]] is based in [[Penryn, Cornwall|Penryn]].

The [[Cornwall County Cricket Club]] plays as one of the [[National Counties of English and Welsh cricket]].<ref name="Clegg10"/>

Truro, and all of the towns and some villages have [[Association football|football]] clubs belonging to the [[Cornwall County Football Association]], and some clubs have teams competing higher within the [[English football league pyramid]].<ref name=NLM>"[https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/divisions/16/ Western League Premier Division (Step 5)]", ''Non-League Matters'', 7 May 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.</ref> Of these, the highest ranked — by two flights — is [[Truro City F.C.]], who played in the [[National League South]] in the 2023–24 season.<ref>"[https://www.trurocityfc.net/news/truro-promoted-after-dramatic-play-off-final-victory-2777961.html Truro Promoted after dramatic play-off trophy final victory]", ''Truro FC official site'', 4 May 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2023.</ref> Other notable Cornish teams include [[Mousehole A.F.C.]], [[Helston Athletic F.C.]], and [[Falmouth Town F.C.]]<ref name=NLM/>

====Rugby football====
{{main|Rugby union in Cornwall|Rugby league in Cornwall}}
[[File:Olympic Rugby 1908.jpg|thumb|At the 1908 Olympic Games Cornwall's rugby football team represented England (against Australia)]]
Viewed as an "important identifier of ethnic affiliation", [[rugby union]] has become a sport strongly tied to notions of Cornishness.<ref name="Harv221">{{cite book |author=Harvey, David |year= 2002 |title=Celtic Geographies: Old Culture, New Times |url=https://archive.org/details/celticgeographie00harv |url-access=limited |location=London |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-0-415-22396-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/celticgeographie00harv/page/n235 221]}}</ref> and since the 20th century, [[rugby union in Cornwall|rugby union]] has emerged as one of the most popular spectator and team sports in Cornwall (perhaps the most popular), with professional Cornish rugby footballers being described as a "formidable force",<ref name="Clegg10"/> "naturally independent, both in thought and deed, yet paradoxically staunch English patriots whose top players have represented England with pride and passion".<ref name="CornishRug">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/3247717/Cornish-rugby-union-celebrate-125-years-of-pride-and-passion---but-are-they-the-lost-tribe-Rugby.html|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=UK|title=Cornish rugby union celebrate 125 years of pride and passion – but are they the lost tribe?|first=Brendan|last=Gallagher|date=23 October 2008|access-date=7 September 2009|archive-date=27 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027084935/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/3247717/Cornish-rugby-union-celebrate-125-years-of-pride-and-passion---but-are-they-the-lost-tribe-Rugby.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1985, sports journalist [[Alan Gibson]] made a direct connection between the love of rugby in Cornwall and the ancient parish games of hurling and wrestling that existed for centuries before rugby officially began.<ref name="CornishRug"/> Among Cornwall's native sports are a distinctive form of Celtic wrestling related to [[Brittany|Breton]] wrestling, and [[Hurling the Silver Ball|Cornish hurling]], a kind of mediaeval football played with a silver ball (distinct from [[Hurling|Irish Hurling]]). [[Cornish wrestling]] is Cornwall's oldest sport and as Cornwall's native tradition it has travelled the world to places like [[Victoria, Australia]] and [[Grass Valley, California]] following the miners and [[gold rushes]]. Cornish hurling now takes place at [[St. Columb Major]], [[St Ives, Cornwall|St Ives]], and less frequently at [[Bodmin]].{{efn|The Bodmin hurl is held whenever the ceremony of [[beating the bounds]] takes place: each occasion must be five years or more after the last one.}}

In [[rugby league]], [[Cornwall R.L.F.C.]], founded in 2021, will represent the county in the professional league system. The semi-pro club will start in the third tier [[RFL League 1]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/59120702|title=Cornwall to host new rugby league team|work=BBC Sport |accessdate=24 November 2022}}</ref> At an amateur level, the county is represented by [[Cornish Rebels]].

====Surfing and watersports====
[[File:Pilot Gigs St Mary's.jpg|thumb|The world [[Cornish pilot gig|pilot gig]] rowing championships take place annually in the [[Isles of Scilly]]]]
[[File:GwithianSurfing.jpg|thumb|right|Cornwall's north coast is known as a centre for [[surfing]]]]
Due to its long coastline, various maritime sports are popular in Cornwall, notably sailing and [[surfing]]. International events in both are held in Cornwall. Cornwall hosted the Inter-Celtic [[Watersports]] Festival in 2006. Surfing in particular is very popular, as locations such as [[Bude]] and [[Newquay]] offer some of the best surf in the UK. [[Cornish pilot gig|Pilot gig]] rowing has been popular for many years and the [[World Pilot Gig Championships|world championships]] take place annually on the [[Isles of Scilly]]. On 2 September 2007, 300 surfers at [[Polzeath]] beach set a new world record for the highest number of surfers riding the same wave as part of the Global Surf Challenge and part of a project called Earthwave to raise awareness about [[global warming]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6974667.stm |title=Surfers aim to break world record |work=BBC News |date=2 September 2007 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=2 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202113433/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6974667.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Fencing====
As its population is comparatively small, and largely rural, Cornwall's contribution to [[sport in the United Kingdom|British national sport]] has been limited;<ref name="Clegg10">{{harvnb|Clegg|2005|p=10}}.</ref> the county's greatest successes have come in fencing. In 2014, half of the men's GB team fenced for Truro Fencing Club, and three Truro fencers appeared at the 2012 Olympics.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pilnick |first=Brent |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fencing/18296910 |title=London 2012: Truro fencers dominate GB Olympic team |work=[[BBC Sport]] |date=1 June 2012 |access-date=28 July 2016 |archive-date=1 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701002151/http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/fencing/18296910 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Cuisine===
{{Main|Cornish cuisine}}
Cornwall has a strong culinary heritage. Surrounded on three sides by the sea amid fertile fishing grounds, Cornwall naturally has fresh seafood readily available; [[Newlyn]] is the largest fishing port in the UK by value of fish landed, and is known for its wide range of restaurants.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.objectiveone.com/client/media/media-611.htm |title=Objective One media release |publisher=Objectiveone.com |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714223641/http://www.objectiveone.com/client/media/media-611.htm |archive-date=14 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Television chef [[Rick Stein]] has long operated a fish restaurant in [[Padstow]] for this reason, and [[Jamie Oliver]] chose to open his second restaurant, [[Fifteen (restaurant)|Fifteen]], in [[Watergate Bay]] near [[Newquay]]. [[MasterChef (UK TV series)|''MasterChef'']] host and founder of Smiths of Smithfield, [[John Torode]], in 2007 purchased Seiners in [[Perranporth]]. One famous local fish dish is [[Stargazy pie]], a fish-based pie in which the heads of the fish stick through the piecrust, as though "star-gazing". The pie is cooked as part of traditional celebrations for [[Tom Bawcock's Eve]], but is not generally eaten at any other time.

[[File:Cornish pasty - cut.jpeg|thumb|right|A Cornish [[pasty]]]]
Cornwall is perhaps best known though for its [[pasty|pasties]], a savoury dish made with pastry. Today's pasties usually contain a filling of beef steak, onion, potato and [[Swedish turnip|swede]] with salt and white pepper, but historically pasties had a variety of different fillings. "Turmut, 'tates and mate" (i.e. "Turnip, potatoes and meat", turnip being the Cornish and Scottish term for swede, itself an abbreviation of 'Swedish Turnip', the British term for [[rutabaga]]) describes a filling once very common. For instance, the licky pasty contained mostly leeks, and the herb pasty contained watercress, parsley, and shallots.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alanrichards.org/cornish3.htm |title=Cornish recipe site |publisher=Alanrichards.org |date=25 February 2008 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011061411/http://www.alanrichards.org/cornish3.htm |archive-date=11 October 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pasties are often locally referred to as ''oggies''. Historically, pasties were also often made with sweet fillings such as jam, apple and blackberry, plums or cherries.<ref name=Martin>{{Cite book| last=Martin | first=Edith | title=Cornish Recipes, Ancient & Modern. 22nd edition, 1965|year=1929 }}</ref>
The wet climate and relatively poor soil of Cornwall make it unsuitable for growing many arable crops. However, it is ideal for growing the rich grass required for dairying, leading to the production of Cornwall's other famous export, [[clotted cream]]. This forms the basis for many local specialities including Cornish [[fudge]] and Cornish [[ice cream]]. Cornish clotted cream has [[Geographical indications and traditional specialities in the European Union|Protected Geographical Status]] under EU law,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/qual/en/uk_en.htm |title=Official list of British protected foods |publisher=Europa.eu.int |date=23 February 2009 |access-date=25 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050602042239/http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/qual/en/uk_en.htm |archive-date=2 June 2005 }}</ref> and cannot be made anywhere else. Its principal manufacturer is [[A. E. Rodda & Son]] of Scorrier.

Local cakes and desserts include [[Saffron bun|Saffron cake]], [[Heavy cake|Cornish heavy (''hevva'') cake]], [[Cornish fairings]] biscuits, figgy 'obbin, [[Cream tea]] and whortleberry pie.<ref>Mason, Laura; Brown, Catherine (1999) ''From Bath Chaps to Bara Brith''. Totnes: Prospect Books</ref><ref>Pettigrew, Jane (2004) ''Afternoon Tea''. Andover: Jarrold</ref><ref>Fitzgibbon, Theodora (1972) ''A Taste of England: the West Country''. London: J. M. Dent</ref>

There are also many types of beers brewed in Cornwall—those produced by [[Sharp's Brewery]], [[Skinner's Brewery]], Keltek Brewery and [[St Austell Brewery]] are the best known—including [[stout]]s, [[ale]]s and other beer types. There is some small scale production of wine, [[mead]] and [[cider]].

==Politics and administration==
{{Main|Politics of Cornwall}}

===Cornish national identity===
{{Further|Cornish nationalism}}
[[File:Cornish National Identity 2011 Census.png|thumb|The percentage of respondents who gave "Cornish" as an answer to the National Identity question in the 2011 census]] Cornwall is recognised by Cornish and Celtic political groups as one of six Celtic nations, alongside [[Brittany]], Ireland, the [[Isle of Man]], Scotland and Wales.<ref name="Teverson">{{cite web |title=Lords Hansard Text for 25 Jan 2011 (pt002) |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110125-0002.htm#11012574000133 |access-date=8 February 2011 |publisher=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] |date=25 January 2011 |quote=Cornwall sees itself as the fourth Celtic nation of the United Kingdom; [[Robin Teverson, Baron Teverson|Lord Teverson]] |work=[[Hansard]] |archive-date=21 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121214151/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110125-0002.htm#11012574000133 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mebyon Kernow 1">{{cite web |title=Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall – BETA |url=http://www.mebyonkernow.org/?q=policies_historic_celtic_nation |access-date=8 February 2011 |publisher=[[Mebyon Kernow]] |year=2007 |work=[[Mebyon Kernow]] website |archive-date=28 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928063542/https://www.mebyonkernow.org/?q=policies_historic_celtic_nation |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="League 1">{{cite web |title=The Celtic League |url=http://www.celticleague.net/ |access-date=8 February 2011 |publisher=[[Celtic League (political organisation)|Celtic League]] |year=2011 |work=[[Celtic League (political organisation)|Celtic League]] website |archive-date=21 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421234455/https://www.celticleague.net/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Celtic Congress 1">{{cite web |url=http://www.celtic-congress.org/cc-home-en.html |title=The International Celtic Congress |publisher=[[Celtic Congress|International Celtic Congress]] |year=2009 |access-date=16 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725152111/http://www.celtic-congress.org/cc-home-en.html |archive-date=25 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> (The [[Isle of Man Government]] and the [[Welsh Government]] also recognise [[Asturias]] and [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]].<ref name="Welsh Government 1">{{cite web|title=Welsh Government: Minister in Paris for launch of Celtic festival |url=http://wales.gov.uk/newsroom/localgovernment/2002/4038001/?lang=en |date=14 March 2002 |publisher=[[Welsh Government]] |access-date=8 February 2011 |work=[[Welsh Government]] website |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310213206/https://wales.gov.uk/newsroom/localgovernment/2002/4038001/?lang=en |archive-date=10 March 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Vannin 1">{{cite web |title=Isle of Man Post Office Website |url=http://www.gov.im/post/stamps/FutureIssue.aspx?categoryid=164 |access-date=8 February 2011 |publisher=[[Isle of Man Government]] |year=2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100802020158/http://www.gov.im/post/stamps/FutureIssue.aspx?categoryid=164 |archive-date=2 August 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>) Cornwall is represented, as one of the Celtic nations, at the ''[[Festival Interceltique de Lorient]]'', an annual celebration of Celtic culture held in Brittany.<ref name="Festival 1">{{cite web
 |title=Site Officiel du Festival Interceltique de Lorient
 |url=http://www.festival-interceltique.com/le-monde-des-celtes-et-de-la-celtie.php
 |access-date=8 February 2011
|publisher=[[Festival Interceltique de Lorient]]
 |date=4 February 2011
|work=[[Festival Interceltique de Lorient]] website
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305062016/http://www.festival-interceltique.com/le-monde-des-celtes-et-de-la-celtie.php
 |archive-date=5 March 2010
}}</ref>

[[Cornwall Council]] consider Cornwall's unique cultural heritage and distinctiveness to be one of the area's major assets. They see Cornwall's language, landscape, Celtic identity, political history, patterns of settlement, maritime tradition, industrial heritage, and non-conformist tradition, to be among the features making up its "distinctive" culture.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cornwall Council – part three |url=http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=14923 |access-date=10 February 2011 |publisher=[[Cornwall Council]] |date=18 March 2010 |work=[[Cornwall Council]] website |archive-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528145208/https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=14923 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2025, the council passed a motion calling for the recognition of Cornwall as the UK's fifth [[Countries of the United Kingdom|constituent country]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 July 2025 |title=Cornwall Council passes motion calling for Cornwall to be recognised as the UK's fifth nation |url=https://nation.cymru/news/cornwall-council-passes-motion-calling-for-cornwall-to-be-recognised-as-the-uks-fifth-nation/ |access-date=23 July 2025 |work=Nation.Cymru}}</ref>

It is uncertain exactly how many of the people living in Cornwall consider themselves to be Cornish; results from different surveys (including the national census) have varied. In the [[2001 United Kingdom census|2001 census]], 7 per cent of people in Cornwall identified themselves as Cornish, rather than British or English. However, activists have argued that this underestimated the true number as there was no explicit "Cornish" option included in the official census form.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-cornish-they-revolted-in-1497-now-theyre-at-it-again-1782535.html |title=The Cornish: they revolted in 1497, now they're at it again |last=Dugan |first=Emily |date=6 September 2009 |publisher=Independent (The) |access-date=14 July 2010 |location=London |archive-date=19 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819072618/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-cornish-they-revolted-in-1497-now-theyre-at-it-again-1782535.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Subsequent surveys have suggested that as many as 44 per cent identify as Cornish.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3527673.stm|title=Welsh are more patriotic|date=3 March 2004|publisher=BBC|access-date=14 July 2010|archive-date=14 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314051604/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3527673.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Many people in Cornwall say that this issue would be resolved if a Cornish option became available on the census.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/recommended-questions---national-identity.pdf|title=Information paper: Recommended questions for the 2009 Census Rehearsal and 2011 Census: National Identity|publisher=Office for National Statistics|page=32|date=December 2008|access-date=13 May 2009|archive-date=2 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090302152351/http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/recommended-questions---national-identity.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The question and content recommendations for the [[2011 United Kingdom census|2011 census]] provided an explanation of the process of selecting an ethnic identity which is relevant to the understanding of the often quoted figure of 37,000 who claimed Cornish identity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for-2011/ethnic-group-prioritisation-tool.pdf|title=2011 Census; 2011 census questionnaire content; question and content recommendations for 2011; ethnic group prioritisation tool|pages=20–22|publisher=Office for National Statistics|access-date=15 July 2010|archive-date=10 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110152326/http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for-2011/ethnic-group-prioritisation-tool.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[2021 United Kingdom census|2021 census]] found that 17% of people in Cornwall identified as being Cornish (89,000), with 14% of people in Cornwall identifying as Cornish-only (80,000).<ref name="Over 100,000 people identify as Cornish in latest census">{{Cite news |date=2022-11-30 |title=Over 100,000 people identify as Cornish in latest census |language=en-GB |work=Cornwall Live |url=https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/nearly-100000-people-identify-cornish-7875032 |access-date=2022-12-06}}</ref> Again there was no tick-box provided, and "Cornish" had to be written-in as "Other".<ref name="Over 100,000 people identify as Cornish in latest census" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-12-02 |title=ONS update: 108,860 wrote "Cornish" on 2021 census |language=en-GB |work=[[Mebyon Kernow]] website |url=https://mebyonkernow.org/news/ons-update-108860-wrote-cornish-on-2021-census/|access-date=2022-12-08}}</ref>

On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people have been granted minority status under the [[European Union|European]] [[Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities]].<ref name="bbc minority status">{{Cite news |title=Cornish people granted minority status within UK |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035 |url-status=live |access-date=24 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424071554/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-27132035 |archive-date=24 April 2014}}</ref>

===Local politics===
{{See also|List of electoral divisions and wards in Cornwall}}<!-- Commenting out image while there are questions about its accuracy [[File:Cornwall Council Electoral Divisions Map.PNG|thumb|Cornwall Council electoral divisions by political control, 2012{{clarify|which colour represents which party?|date=January 2013}}]] -->
[[File:New County Hall.jpg|thumb|[[Cornwall Council]]'s headquarters in [[Truro]]]]
[[File:CornwallConstituencies2010.gif|thumb|From the 2010 general election, Cornwall has had six parliamentary constituencies.]]
The [[ceremonial county]] of Cornwall is made up of two local government districts; mainland Cornwall, governed by [[Cornwall Council]], and the [[Isles of Scilly]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Cornwall Lieutenancy: Role and Responsibilities of the Lord-Lieutenant | url = https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/cornwall-lieutenancy/#roles | publisher = Cornwall Council | access-date = 12 September 2017 | archive-date = 12 September 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170912144626/https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/cornwall-lieutenancy/#roles | url-status = live }}</ref> Cornwall Council, formerly ''Cornwall County Council'' until 2009, is a [[unitary authority]] based at [[Lys Kernow]] in [[Truro]]. The Isles of Scilly are governed by the ''[[sui generis]]'' [[Council of the Isles of Scilly]] based in [[Hugh Town]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cornwall (Structural Change) Order 2008, part 2 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/491/part/2/made |access-date=21 June 2023 |website=legislation.gov.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Contact us {{!}} Council of the ISLES OF SCILLY |url=https://scilly.gov.uk/contact-us |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=scilly.gov.uk}}</ref> and have been administered by their own unitary authority since 1890. They are grouped with Cornwall for other administrative purposes, such as the [[National Health Service (England)|National Health Service]] and [[Devon and Cornwall Constabulary|Devon and Cornwall Police]].<ref name=iosuatt>{{cite web | title = Isles of Scilly; Cornwall through time | url = http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10076742&c_id=10171878 | publisher = visionofbritain.org.uk | access-date = 19 January 2007 | archive-date = 6 May 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070506230430/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit_page.jsp?u_id=10076742&c_id=10171878 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name=iosrdtt>{{cite web|title=Isles of Scilly RD; Cornwall through time |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10026210&c_id=10001043 |publisher=visionofbritain.org.uk |access-date=19 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506230150/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10026210&c_id=10001043 |archive-date=6 May 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/AboutUs/Pages/Aboutyourlocalpolice.aspx |title=About your local police |access-date=23 September 2009 |publisher=[[Devon and Cornwall Constabulary|Devon and Cornwall Police]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007202640/http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/AboutUs/Pages/Aboutyourlocalpolice.aspx |archive-date=7 October 2009 }}</ref> [[Truro Crown Court|The county's Crown Court]] is based at the Courts of Justice in Truro. Magistrates' Courts are found in Truro (but at a different location to the Crown Court) and at [[Bodmin]].

Cornwall County Council was established in 1889 under the [[Local Government Act 1888]], and the [[Local Government Act 1972]] reorganised the county's second tier of administration with the formation of six district councils: [[Caradon]], [[Carrick, Cornwall|Carrick]], [[Kerrier]], [[North Cornwall]], [[Penwith]], and [[Restormel]]. In 2009, [[2009 structural changes to local government in England|structural changes to local government in England]] resulted in the abolition of the six district councils and turned Cornwall Council into a unitary authority. While projected to streamline services, cut [[red tape]] and save around £17&nbsp;million a year, the reorganisation was met with wide opposition, with a poll in 2008 showing 89% disapproval from Cornish residents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=37570 |title=One Cornwall – A unified council for Cornwall |publisher=Cornwall County Council |access-date=22 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501144913/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=37570 |archive-date=1 May 2008 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.onecornwall.cornwall.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=44400] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011004253/http://www.onecornwall.cornwall.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=44400|date=11 October 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| publisher = BBC| title = Cornwall super-council go-ahead| date = 25 July 2007| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6914947.stm| access-date = 25 July 2007| archive-date = 19 May 2009| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090519214839/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6914947.stm| url-status = live}}</ref>

The [[2009 Cornwall Council election|first elections]] for the unitary authority were held on 4 June 2009. At the [[2021 Cornwall Council election|most recent council election in 2021]], the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] won 47 of the 87 seats. Also elected were 16 [[independent politician|independent]] councillors, 13 [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], five from the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], five from [[Mebyon Kernow]] and one [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]] representative. Before the creation of the unitary council, the former county council had 82 seats, the majority of which were held by the Liberal Democrats, elected at the [[2005 United Kingdom local elections|2005 county council elections]]. The six former districts had a total of 249 council seats, and the groups with greatest numbers of councillors were Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independents.

===Parliament and national politics===
{{Main|List of parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall}}
Until 1832, Cornwall was represented by 44 [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Members of Parliament]] (MPs) in the [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]]—more than any other county—reflecting the importance of tin mining to the Crown.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba31/ba31regs.html |title=British Archaeology, no 30, December 1997: Letters |publisher=Britarch.ac.uk |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=13 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213215034/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba31/ba31regs.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of the increase in numbers of MPs came between 1529 and 1584 after which there was no change until the [[Reform Act 1832]],<ref>[[A. L. Rowse|Rowse, A. L.]] (1941) ''Tudor Cornwall''. London: Cape; pp. 91–94</ref> which enacted widespread changes to the country's [[electoral system]] and reduced Cornwall's number of MPs to 14. This was reduced further in subsequent [[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|boundary commission]] reviews to better reflect Cornwall's population. The county is currently divided into [[List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall|six county constituencies]].

The [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] and its successor, the Liberal Democrats, have traditionally been popular in Cornwall; the Liberals won every Cornish seat in [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906]] and [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January 1910]], and again in [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] despite the party finishing third nationally. The Liberal Democrats won every seat in the county in [[2005 United Kingdom general election|2005]], but lost seats to the Conservatives in [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010]] before being wiped out in [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015]]. The Conservatives won all six Cornish seats in 2015, [[2017 United Kingdom general election|2017]] and [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019]]. Following expectation of a Conservative defeat at the [[2024 United Kingdom general election|2024 general election]], Cornwall was considered a three-party battleground.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-15 |title=Camborne and Redruth: Battle lines drawn in key Cornish seat |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crggdljwgrno |access-date=2024-06-16 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> The Conservatives lost all six seats and the county is currently represented by four Labour and two Liberal Democrat MPs.

Although Cornwall does not have a designated government department, in 2007 while [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]] David Cameron created a Shadow Secretary of State for Cornwall. The position was not made into a formal UK Cabinet position when Cameron entered government following the [[2010 United Kingdom general election]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7948984.stm|title='Fictional minister' prompts row|date=17 March 2009|via=BBC News }}</ref>

{{election table|title=UK general election results in Cornwall}}
|-
! rowspan=2 colspan=2 style=text-align:left; | Party
! colspan=5 | Votes (%)
|-
! 2010
! 2015
! 2017
! 2019
! 2024
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|Labour Party (UK)}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| 24,257 ''(8.6%)''
| 36,235 ''(12.3%)''
| 83,968 ''(26.7%)''
| 74,392 ''(23.1%)''
| '''77,517''' '''''(26.3%)'''''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|Conservative Party (UK)}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| 115,016 ''(40.9%)''
| '''127,079''' '''''(43.1%)'''''
| '''152,428''' '''''(48.4%)'''''
| '''173,117''' '''''(53.7%)'''''
| 76,817 ''(26.1%)''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|Liberal Democrats (UK)}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrat]]
| '''117,307''' '''''(41.8%)'''''
| 66,056 ''(22.4%)''
| 73,875 ''(23.5%)''
| 62,169 ''(19.3%)''
| 73,691 ''(25.0%)''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|Reform UK}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[Reform UK|Reform]]
|{{Tooltip|n/a|Did not yet exist}}
|{{Tooltip|n/a|Did not yet exist}}
|{{Tooltip|n/a|Did not yet exist}}
|{{Tooltip|n/a|Did not stand}}
| 48,574 ''(16.5%)''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|Green Party of England and Wales}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green]]
| 3,573 ''(1.3%)''
| 17,241 ''(5.8%)''
| 3,218 ''(1.0%)''
| 7,139 ''(2.2%)''
| 13,778 ''(4.7%)''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:{{party color|UKIP}}"|
| style="text-align:left;" | [[UKIP]]
| 13,763 ''(4.9%)''
| 40,785 ''(13.8%)''
| 897 ''(0.3%)''
| {{Tooltip|n/a|Did not stand}}
| 111 ''(0.0%)''
|-
| style="color:inherit;background:#e9e9e9"|
| style="text-align:left;" | Others
| 6,965 ''(2.5%)''
| 7,432 ''(2.5%)''
| 323 ''(0.1%)''
| 5,262 ''(1.6%)''
| 3,740 ''(1.3%)''
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" | Total
! 280,881
! 294,828
! 314,709
! 322,079
! 294,228
|}

===Devolution movement===
{{main|Cornish devolution}}
Cornish nationalists have organised into two political parties: [[Mebyon Kernow]], formed in 1951, and the [[Cornish Nationalist Party]]. In addition to the political parties, there are various interest groups such as the [[Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament]] and the [[Celtic League]]. The Cornish Constitutional Convention was formed in 2000 as a cross-party organisation including representatives from the private, public and voluntary sectors to campaign for the creation of a [[Cornish Assembly]],<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite news |date=11 December 2001 |title=Blair gets Cornish assembly call |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1704112.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080702115621/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1704112.stm |archive-date=2 July 2008}}</ref><ref name=ccc>{{cite web |author=Cornish Constitutional Convention |url=http://www.cornishassembly.org/about.htm |title=Campaign for a Cornish Assembly – Senedh Kernow |publisher=Cornishassembly.org |date=3 April 2005 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=23 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823151946/http://cornishassembly.org/about.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> along the lines of the [[National Assembly for Wales]], [[Northern Ireland Assembly]] and the [[Scottish Parliament]]. Between 5 March 2000 and December 2001, the campaign collected the signatures of 41,650 Cornish residents endorsing the call for a devolved assembly, along with 8,896 signatories from outside Cornwall. The resulting petition was presented to the Prime Minister, [[Tony Blair]].<ref name="autogenerated1" />

==Emergency services==
*[[Devon and Cornwall Police]]
*[[Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service]]
*[[South Western Ambulance Service]]
*[[Cornwall Air Ambulance]]
*[[HM Coastguard]]
*[[Cornwall Search & Rescue Team]]
*[[British Transport Police]]

==Economy==
{{Main|Economy of Cornwall}}
[[File:FalmouthDocks.jpg|thumb|right|Falmouth Docks is the major port of Cornwall, and one of the largest [[natural harbour]]s in the world]]
[[File:Eden project1.JPG|thumb|right|The [[Eden Project]] near St Austell, Cornwall's largest tourist attraction in terms of visitor numbers]]
Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of the United Kingdom in terms of per capita GDP and average household incomes. At the same time, parts of the county, especially on the coast, have high house prices, driven up by demand from relatively wealthy retired people and second-home owners.<ref name=Indypoverty>{{cite news|last=Dugan|first=Emily|title=Cornwall: A land of haves, and have nots|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/cornwall-a-land-of-haves-and-have-nots-878274.html|access-date=15 May 2013|newspaper=The Independent|location=London|date=27 July 2008|archive-date=24 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224222419/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/cornwall-a-land-of-haves-and-have-nots-878274.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Gross value added|GVA]] per head was 65% of the UK average for 2004.<ref>ONS December 2006</ref> The GDP per head for Cornwall and the [[Isles of Scilly]] was 79.2% of the EU-27 average for 2004, the UK per head average was 123.0%.<ref>Eurostat</ref> In 2011, the latest available figures, Cornwall's (including the Isles of Scilly) measure of wealth was 64% of the European average per capita.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Cornwall-economy-slips-fight-Europe-s-poorest/story-21063726-detail/story.html |title=Cornwall economy slips back in fight with Europe's poorest |newspaper=Western Morning News |date=7 May 2014 |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140511212356/http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Cornwall-economy-slips-fight-Europe-s-poorest/story-21063726-detail/story.html |archive-date=11 May 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Historically [[Mining in Cornwall and Devon|mining of tin]] (and later also of copper) was important in the Cornish economy. The first reference to this appears to be by Pytheas: ''see above''. [[Julius Caesar]] was the last classical writer to mention the [[tin]] trade, which appears to have declined during the Roman occupation.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 69.</ref> The tin trade revived in the Middle Ages and its importance to the Kings of England resulted in certain privileges being granted to the tinners; the [[Cornish rebellion of 1497]] is attributed to grievances of the tin miners.<ref>Halliday (1959), p. 182.</ref> In the mid-19th century, however, the tin trade again fell into decline. Other [[primary sector]] [[Industry (economics)|industries]] that have declined since the 1960s include [[china clay]] production, fishing and farming.

Today, the Cornish economy depends heavily on its tourist industry, which makes up around a quarter of the economy. The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level show that there is great variation in poverty and prosperity in Cornwall with some areas among the poorest in England and others among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32,482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation (2006) ranged from 819th (part of Penzance East) to 30,899th (part of Saltash Burraton in Caradon), where the lower number represents the greater deprivation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cornwallstatistics.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=35740|title=cornwallstatistics.org.uk|date=5 November 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105002441/http://www.cornwallstatistics.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=35740|archive-date=5 November 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty/Regional%20poverty_files/cornw/02SPA.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808101058/http://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty/Regional%20poverty_files/cornw/02SPA.pdf|date=8 August 2007}}</ref>

Cornwall was one of two UK areas designated as 'less developed regions' by the [[European Union]], which, prior to [[Brexit]], meant the area qualified for EU Cohesion Policy grants.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/information/cohesion-policy-achievement-and-future-investment/factsheet/united_kingdom_en.pdf | title = Cohesion Policy and the United Kingdom | date = October 2014 | publisher = [[European Union]] | access-date = 28 March 2016 | quote = For 2014–2020, the UK has been allocated around €11.8&nbsp;billion (current prices) in total Cohesion Policy funding: €2.6&nbsp;billion for less developed regions (Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, West Wales and the Valleys). | archive-date = 8 April 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160408213235/http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/information/cohesion-policy-achievement-and-future-investment/factsheet/united_kingdom_en.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref> It was granted [[Regional policy of the European Union|Objective 1]] status by the [[European Commission]] for 2000 to 2006,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marchmont.ac.uk/Documents/Projects/objective-1_cornwall/evidence-base.pdf |title=Impact Analysis: ESF Objective 1 Programme Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, 2000–2006 |date=March 2008 |website=[[University of Exeter]] |publisher=[[South West of England Regional Development Agency]] |access-date=27 March 2016 |quote=Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (IoS) received Objective One status in 1999, primarily as a consequence of their low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head (70.3% of the EU average). This resulted from a myriad of underlying socio-economic problems including the large number of people with relatively low levels of qualifications; with lack of basic skills beyond Level two being a particular problem. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407160350/http://www.marchmont.ac.uk/Documents/Projects/objective-1_cornwall/evidence-base.pdf |archive-date=7 April 2016 }}</ref> followed by further rounds of funding known as 'Convergence Funding' from 2007 to 2013<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315870Cornwall___Isles_of_Scilly_Convergence_Operational_Programme_2007-14.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315870Cornwall___Isles_of_Scilly_Convergence_Operational_Programme_2007-14.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Operational Programme 2007–13 |publisher=[[Department for Communities and Local Government]] |access-date=28 March 2016 |quote=The Convergence Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will succeed the current Objective One Programme, which has been delivered with great effect by the key stakeholders. A total of €458.1&nbsp;million has been allocated to the new Programme for 2007–13, which will be complemented by €196&nbsp;million of Convergence ESF funding to support learning and skills related activities. }}{{dead link|date=September 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and 'Growth Programme' for 2014 to 2020.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/business/europe/ | title = Cornwall Council – Business – Europe | date = 18 December 2015 | publisher = [[Cornwall Council]] | access-date = 28 March 2016 | quote = The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Growth Programme is worth €603,706,863 (excluding technical assistance) and is made up of two main funding streams: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) -The ERDF Programme is worth €452,780,147 and makes up 75% of the Programme allocation and European Social Fund (ESF) – The ESF Programme is worth €150,926,716 and makes up 25% of the Programme allocation. | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160325225534/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/business/europe/ | archive-date = 25 March 2016}}</ref>

===Tourism===
[[File:Cliffs at Bedruthan.jpg|thumb|The cliffs at Bedruthan]]
Cornwall has a tourism-based seasonal economy which is estimated to contribute up to{{clarify|date=June 2018}} 24% of Cornwall's gross domestic product.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://db.cornwall.gov.uk/ltp/marchannex2/chapter_57.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615022352/http://db.cornwall.gov.uk/ltp/marchannex2/chapter_57.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 June 2008 |title=Home Page – Cornwall Council |publisher=Db.cornwall.gov.uk |access-date=2 November 2015 }}</ref> In 2011 tourism brought £1.85&nbsp;billion into the Cornish economy.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tourist-earnings-pound-9bn-Devon-Cornwall/story-17646443-detail/story.html |title=Tourist earnings top £9bn in Devon and Cornwall |newspaper=Western Morning News |date=21 December 2012 |access-date=2 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614184548/http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tourist-earnings-pound-9bn-Devon-Cornwall/story-17646443-detail/story.html |archive-date=14 June 2015 }}</ref> Cornwall's unique culture, spectacular landscape and mild climate make it a popular tourist destination, despite being somewhat distant from the United Kingdom's main centres of population. Surrounded on three sides by the [[English Channel]] and [[Celtic Sea]], Cornwall has many miles of beaches and cliffs; the [[South West Coast Path]] follows a complete circuit of both coasts. Other tourist attractions include moorland, country gardens, museums, historic and prehistoric sites, and wooded valleys. Five million tourists visit Cornwall each year, mostly drawn from within the UK.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visitcornwall.com/xsdbimgs/Tourism%20in%20Cornwall%202007.pdf |publisher=Visit Cornwall |date=2007 |title=Tourism in Cornwall 1992 to 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118012613/http://www.visitcornwall.com/xsdbimgs/Tourism%20in%20Cornwall%202007.pdf |archive-date=18 January 2012 }}. The total number of visitors to Cornwall includes those on business and visiting relatives.</ref> Visitors to Cornwall are served by the airport at [[Newquay]], whilst private jets, charters and helicopters are also served by [[Perranporth]] airfield; nightsleeper and daily rail services run between Cornwall, London and other regions of the UK.

Newquay and [[Porthtowan]] are popular destinations for surfers. In recent years, the [[Eden Project]] near [[St Austell]] has been a major financial success, drawing one in eight of Cornwall's visitors in 2004.<ref>Scottish Executive, 2004. ''[http://www.scottishexecutive.gov.uk/library5/education/lrcas-14.asp A literature review of the evidence base for culture, the arts and sport policy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051215135424/http://www.scottishexecutive.gov.uk/library5/education/lrcas-14.asp |date=15 December 2005 }}''.</ref>

In the summer of 2018, due to the recognition of its beaches and weather through social media and the marketing of travel companies, Cornwall received about 20 per cent more visitors than the usual 4.5&nbsp;million figure. The sudden rise and demand of tourism in Cornwall caused multiple traffic and safety issues in coastal areas.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cornwall-struggling-visitors-tourism-weather-heat-social-media-a8488211.html|title=Heatwave leaves Cornwall so overcrowded it stops promoting beaches|work=The Independent|access-date=29 August 2018|language=en-GB|archive-date=29 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829183926/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cornwall-struggling-visitors-tourism-weather-heat-social-media-a8488211.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 2021, Cornwall was longlisted for the [[UK City of Culture]] 2025, but failed to make the March 2022 shortlist.<ref>{{cite web |title=UK City of Culture 2025 Shortlist Revealed |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-city-of-culture-2025-shortlist-revealed/ |website=Gov.UK|access-date=8 November 2022 }}</ref>

===Fishing===
[[File:Tin-mining-cornwall-c1890.jpg|thumb|right|Tin mines between Camborne and Redruth, {{Circa|1890}}]]
Other industries include [[Fishing in Cornwall|fishing]], although this has been significantly re-structured by EU fishing policies ({{as of|2010|lc=y}} the Southwest Handline Fishermen's Association has started to revive the fishing industry).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linecaught.org.uk/links.htm |title=Line-caught wild bass from Cornwall – South West Handline Fishermen's Association |publisher=Linecaught.org.uk |access-date=25 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505130533/http://linecaught.org.uk/links.htm |archive-date=5 May 2009 }}</ref>

===Agriculture===
Agriculture, once an important part of the Cornish economy, has declined significantly relative to other industries. However, there is still a strong dairy industry, with products such as Cornish [[clotted cream]].

===Mining===
{{main|Mining in Cornwall}}
{{see also|Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape}}
[[File:Levant-Mine-by-John-Gibson.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Levant Mine and Beam Engine|Levant Mine]] in St&nbsp;Just Mining District]]
Mining of tin and copper was also an industry, but today the derelict mine workings survive only as a [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215 |title=Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape – UNESCO World Heritage Centre |publisher=Whc.unesco.org |access-date=2 November 2015 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802132748/http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1215 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the [[Camborne School of Mines]], which was relocated to [[Penryn Campus|Penryn]] in 2004, is still a world centre of excellence in the field of mining and applied geology<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uec.ac.uk/csm/ |title=The University of Exeter – Cornwall Campus – Camborne School of Mines |publisher=Uec.ac.uk |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704023815/http://www.uec.ac.uk/csm/ |archive-date=4 July 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the grant of World Heritage status has attracted funding for conservation and heritage tourism.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/ |title=Home |publisher=Cornish-mining.org.uk |date=14 September 2010 |access-date=25 September 2010 |archive-date=19 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419164032/http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Kaolinite|China clay]] extraction has also been an important industry in the St Austell area, but this sector has been in decline, and this, coupled with increased mechanisation, has led to a decrease in employment in this sector, although the industry still employs around 2,133 people in Cornwall, and generates over £80&nbsp;million to the local economy.<ref>Imerys Minerals Ltd (2003) ''Blueprint: Vision for the Future''</ref>

In March 2016, a Canadian company, Strongbow Exploration, had acquired, from administration, a 100% interest in the [[South Crofty]] tin mine and the associated mineral rights in Cornwall with the aim of reopening the mine and bringing it back to full production.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/strongbow-to-acquire-the-south-crofty-tin-project-cornwall-uk-tsx-venture-sbw-2107042.htm | title=Error | date=17 March 2016 | access-date=14 August 2019 | archive-date=21 June 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621143646/http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/strongbow-to-acquire-the-south-crofty-tin-project-cornwall-uk-tsx-venture-sbw-2107042.htm | url-status=live }}</ref> Work is currently ongoing to build a water filtration plant in order to dewater the mine.

===Internet===
Cornwall is the landing point for twenty-two of the world's fastest high-speed undersea and transatlantic fibre optic cables, making Cornwall an important hub within Europe's Internet infrastructure.<ref>{{cite web|title=Submarine Cable Map|url=https://www.submarinecablemap.com/|work=submarinecablemap.com|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-date=17 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017195838/https://www.submarinecablemap.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Fiber to the x|Superfast Cornwall]] project completed in 2015,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Curtis|first1=Sophie|title=Cornwall claims 'half' of UK's direct fibre broadband links|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/10987711/Cornwall-claims-half-of-UKs-direct-fibre-broadband-links.html|access-date=18 March 2016|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=24 July 2014|archive-date=27 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327151719/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/broadband/10987711/Cornwall-claims-half-of-UKs-direct-fibre-broadband-links.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and saw 95% of Cornish houses and businesses connected to a fibre-based broadband network, with over 90% of properties able to connect with speeds above 24&nbsp;Mbit/s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Superfast Cornwall Programme|url=http://www.superfastcornwall.org/programme|website=Superfast Cornwall|access-date=18 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321190026/http://www.superfastcornwall.org/programme|archive-date=21 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Aerospace===
The county's newest industry is aviation: [[Newquay Airport]] is the home of a growing business park with Enterprise Zone status, known as Aerohub. Also a space launch facility, [[Spaceport Cornwall]], has been established at Newquay, in partnership with Goonhilly satellite tracking station near Helston in south Cornwall.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rossiter |first=Keith |date=17 July 2018 |title=Aerohub to push ahead with satellite launches |newspaper=The Western Morning News |page=6 |quote=Backers of the Spaceport Cornwall project said they had reached an agreement with Virgin boss Richard Branson to launch from Newquay Airport. Virgin Orbit will use a modified Boeing 747 to put satellites into low Earth orbit ... A partnership involving Cornwall Airport Newquay, Goonhilly Earth Station and ... has been bidding for Government cash to create a spaceport ... Newquay has a very long runway, a growing airport with national and international connections and easy access to uncongested airspace over the Atlantic. Its Aerohub Enterprise Zone offers hundreds of acres for developing the business and manufacturing that will support the spaceport.}}</ref>

==Demographics==
{{main|Demographics of Cornwall|List of settlements in Cornwall by population}}
{{see also|Cornish diaspora}}
[[File:Cornwall population.png|thumb|Graph showing Cornwall's population from 1800 to 2000]]
Cornwall's population was 537,400 in the [[2011 United Kingdom census|2011 census]], with a population density of 144 people per square kilometre, ranking it 40th and 41st, respectively,{{clarify|date=June 2018}} among the 47 counties of England. Cornwall's population was 95.7% [[White British]] and has a relatively high rate of population growth. At 11.2% in the 1980s and 5.3% in the 1990s, it had the fifth-highest population growth rate of the counties of England.<ref>Office for National Statistics, 2001. [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Facts/fact2.htm Population Change in England by County 1981–2000] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630130839/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Facts/fact2.htm |date=30 June 2006 }}.</ref> The natural change has been a small population decline, and the population increase is due to inward migration into Cornwall.<ref>Office for National Statistics, 2001. [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Facts/fact74.htm Births, Deaths and Natural Change in Cornwall 1974&nbsp;– 2001] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029223503/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Facts/fact74.htm |date=29 October 2006 }}.</ref> According to the 1991 census, the population was 469,800.

Cornwall has a relatively high retired population, with 22.9% of pensionable age, compared with 20.3% for the United Kingdom as a whole.<ref>Office for National Statistics, 1996. [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Transport/Ltp/Tables/Table004.htm % of Population of Pension Age (1996)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630130904/http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/Transport/Ltp/Tables/Table004.htm |date=30 June 2006 }}.</ref> This may be due partly to Cornwall's rural and coastal geography increasing its popularity as a retirement location, and partly to outward migration of younger residents to more economically diverse areas.{{original research inline|date=December 2022}}

==Education==
{{see also|List of schools in Cornwall}}
[[File:Falmouth University.jpg|thumb|[[Falmouth University]], [[Penryn, Cornwall|Penryn]]]]
[[File:Lizard, Landewednack Primary School - geograph.org.uk - 1837825.jpg|thumb|Landewednack Primary School]]
<!-- needs expansion to show how students perform, and demographics of students -->
Over 10,000 students attend Cornwall's two universities, [[Falmouth University]] and the [[University of Exeter]] (including [[Camborne School of Mines]]). Falmouth University is a specialist [[public university]] for the creative industries and arts, while the University Of Exeter has two campuses in Cornwall, Truro and [[Penryn Campus|Penryn]], the latter shared with Falmouth. Penryn campus is home to educational departments such as the rapidly growing Centre for Ecology and [[Conservation biology|Conservation]] (CEC), the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI), and the [[Institute of Cornish Studies]].

Cornwall has a comprehensive education system, with 31 state and eight independent secondary schools. There are three further education colleges: [[Truro and Penwith College]], [[Cornwall College (England)|Cornwall College]] and [[Callywith College]] which opened in September 2017. The Isles of Scilly only has one school, while the former Restormel district has the highest school population, and school year sizes are around 200, with none above 270. Before the introduction of comprehensive schools there were a number of grammar schools and secondary modern schools, e.g. the schools that later became [[Sir James Smith's School]] and [[Wadebridge School]]. There are also primary schools in many villages and towns: e.g. [[St Mabyn Church of England Primary School]].

==See also==
*[[Christianity in Cornwall]]
* [[Index of Cornwall-related articles]]
* [[Outline of Cornwall]] – overview of the wide range of topics covered by this subject
* [[Tamar Valley AONB]]
*[[Duchy of Cornwall]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last = Clegg |first = David |title = Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly: the complete guide |publisher = Matador |location = Leicester |year = 2005 |edition = 2nd |isbn = 1-904744-99-0 }}
* {{cite book
|last = Halliday |first = Frank Ernest |author-link = F. E. Halliday
|title = A History of Cornwall
|publisher = Gerald Duckworth |location = London |year = 1959
|isbn = 0-7551-0817-5 }} A second edition was published in 2001 by the House of Stratus, Thirsk: the original text new illustrations and an afterword by Halliday's son
* {{cite book
|last = Payton |first = Philip |author-link = Philip Payton
|title = Cornwall: A History
|edition = 2nd |year = 2004
|publisher = Cornwall Editions Ltd |location = Fowey
|isbn = 1-904880-00-2}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book
|last=Balchin
|first=W. G. V. 
|author-link = W. G. V. Balchin
|title=Cornwall: an illustrated essay on the history of the landscape (The Making of the English Landscape)
|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton
|year=1954
|location=London
}}
* {{Cite book
|last=Berry
|first=Claude
|author-link =
|title=Cornwall (The [[County Books series]])
|publisher=Robert Hale
|year=1949
|location=London
}}
* {{Cite book
|last=Berry
|first=Claude
|author-link =
|title=Portrait of Cornwall (The [[Portrait of (book series)]])
|publisher=Robert Hale
|year=1963
|location=London
}}
* {{Cite book
|author-last1=Boase
|author-first1=George Clement
|author-last2=Courtney
|author-first2=William Prideaux
|author-link1=George Clement Boase
|author-link2 =William Prideaux Courtney
|title=Bibliotheca Cornubiensis: a catalogue of the writings, both manuscript and printed, of Cornishmen, and of works relating to the county of Cornwall, with biographical memoranda and copious literary references
|publisher=Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. 3 vols.
|year=1874–1882
|location=London
}}
* {{Cite book
|last=du Maurier
|first=Daphne
|author-link =Daphne du Maurier
|title=Vanishing Cornwall
|publisher=Doubleday
|year=1967
|location=London
}} (illustrated edition Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1981, {{ISBN|0-575-02844-0}}, photographs by Christian Browning)
* {{Cite book
|last= Ellis
|first=Peter Berresford
|author-link =Peter Berresford Ellis
|title=The Cornish Language and its Literature
|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul Books
|year=1974
|location=London
|isbn=0-7100-7928-1}} (Available online on [https://books.google.com/books?id=L709AAAAIAAJ Google Books]).
* {{Cite book
|last=Graves
|first=Alfred Perceval
|author-link =Alfred Perceval Graves
|title=The Celtic Song Book: Being Representative Folk Songs of the Six Celtic Nations
|publisher=Ernest Benn
|year=1928
|location=London}} (Available online on [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=genpub;view=toc;idno=ANC4559.0001.001 Digital Book Index])
* {{Cite book
|last=Koch
|first=John T.
|title=Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia
|publisher=ABC-CLIO
|year=2006
|location=London
|isbn=1-85109-440-7}} (Available online on [https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&q=Celtic+Culture+By+John+T.+Koch Google Books]).
* {{Cite book
|last=Payton
|first=Philip
|author-link =Philip Payton
|title=Cornwall
|publisher=Alexander Associates
|year=1996
|location=Fowey
|isbn=1-899526-60-9}}
* {{cite web
|title=BBC – History – The Cornish: A Neglected Nation?
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/cornish_nation_01.shtml
|access-date=25 May 2009
|author=Stoyle, Mark
|publisher=BBC
|year=2001
|work=BBC History website
}}
* {{cite book 
|last1=Stansfield-Cudworth 
|first1=R. E. 
|title=Political Elites in South-West England, 1450–1500: Politics, Governance, and the Wars of the Roses 
|date=2009 
|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] 
|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]
|isbn=978-0-77344-714-1 |language=en }}
* {{Citation 
|last=Stansfield-Cudworth 
|first=R. E. 
|title=The Duchy of Cornwall and the Wars of the Roses: Patronage, Politics, and Power, 1453–1502
|journal=Cornish Studies 
|series=2nd Series 
|volume=21 
|year=2013 
|pages=104–50 
|doi=10.17613/r6pf-3e17 
}}
* {{Cite book
|last=Stoyle
|first=Mark
|title=West Britons: Cornish Identities and the Early Modern British State
|publisher=University of Exeter Press
|year=2002
|location=Exeter
|isbn=0-85989-688-9}}
* {{Cite book
|editor-last=Williams
|editor-first=Michael
|title=My Cornwall
|publisher=Bossiney Books
|year=1973
|location=St Teath
|isbn=0-85989-688-9}} (eleven chapters by various hands, including three previously published essays)

==External links==
<!-- Please bear in mind that Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and not a directory. It may be that one or two links will add something to a page however they must only be placed on the relevant page and will always be subject to review by wikipedians.-->
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cornwall (England) |volume=7 |short=x}}
* [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/cornwall The History of Parliament: the House of Commons – Cornwall, County, 1386 to 1831] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930204212/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/constituencies/cornwall |date=30 September 2019 }}
*{{Library resources about|onlinebooks=yes}}

{{Geographic location
|title = '''Neighbouring counties'''
|Centre  = Cornwall
|North   = ''[[Celtic Sea]]''
|Northeast = [[Devon]]
|East   = [[Devon]]
|Southeast = ''[[English Channel]]''
|South   = ''[[English Channel]]''
|Southwest = ''[[Celtic Sea]]''
|West   = ''[[Celtic Sea]]''
|Northwest = ''[[Celtic Sea]]''
}}
{{Cornwall}}
{{Celts}}
{{England counties}}
{{SW England}}
{{Unitary authorities of England}}
{{AONBs in England}}
{{Subject bar|auto=1|Geography|Europe|United Kingdom|England|Cornwall}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornwall}}
[[Category:Cornwall| ]]
[[Category:Celtic nations]]
[[Category:English unitary authorities created in 2009]]
[[Category:Local government districts of South West England]]
[[Category:NUTS 2 statistical regions of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Peninsulas of England]]
[[Category:Unitary authority districts of England]]
[[Category:Counties in South West England]]
[[Category:Counties of England established in antiquity]]
[[Category:Former kingdoms]]
[[Category:Proposed countries]]