Our archive

Here we give details of some of the books we have pub­lished in the past which are now out of print.

Iconic Corn­wall

Sarah Chap­man and David Chap­man

Corn­wall has a unique cul­ture, her­it­age, beauty and atmo­sphere. Its char­ac­ter is defined to a large extent by the places, people, nat­ural fea­tures and build­ings that typify and rep­res­ent the best of the county. In words and pho­to­graphs, this book por­trays those iconic loc­a­tions that exem­plify Corn­wall – places that fas­cin­ate, intrigue and inspire. They range from ancient castles and defences, through nineteenth-​​​​century tin mines and bridges, to har­bours, gar­dens, churches, and some of Britain’s most spec­tac­u­lar moor­land and coast.

Iconic Corn­wall is reis­sued in our Pocket Corn­wall series. For full details, click here.

Sarah Chap­man was born in Corn­wall. She spent much of her child­hood in Truro, before read­ing Geo­graphy at Manchester Uni­ver­sity. Her love of the county encour­aged her to return to teach in Cam­borne, Hel­ston and finally in Truro, before leav­ing the pro­fes­sion to work with her hus­band, David, from their small­hold­ing near Hayle. Her pas­sion for the county of Corn­wall and her know­ledge of its char­ac­ter are reflec­ted in this, her first, book.

Author of Wild about Corn­wall (Alison Hodge, 2007) and numer­ous other books about the county, David Chap­man is a trustee of the Corn­wall Wild­life Trust, and is pas­sion­ate about the pro­tec­tion of our wild places. A pro­fes­sional pho­to­grapher and writer, his work is fea­tured reg­u­larly in magazines, and his pho­to­graphs are stocked by a num­ber of pho­to­graphic lib­rar­ies. David has twice won double awards from the Out­door Writers & Pho­to­graph­ers Guild for Pho­to­graphy and Excel­lence in Writ­ing, and his pho­to­graphs reg­u­larly win competitions.

ISBN: 9780906720578
Cased
128 pages
122 col­our pho­to­graphs
250 x 250 mm
25.09.08
£12.95

Iconic Corn­wall was the Editor’s Choice for Novem­ber 2008 in Corn­wall Today.

‘Iconic loc­a­tions are well chosen …
‘… cov­ers the whole county well. … few will dis­agree with the author’s final choice’ (The Cornish­man, 09.10.08)

‘… superb treat­ment from Sarah’s words and David’s lens.
‘… Iconic Corn­wall por­trays the won­der of our land­scape and people.’ (West Bri­ton, 16.10.08)

‘a book which lives up to its claim of reflect­ing the author’s pas­sion for her nat­ive Corn­wall and her know­ledge of its char­ac­ter’ (West­ern Morn­ing News, 12.11.08). You can read the full review here.

‘…homes in with words and views on fairytale set­tings… And the details of each scene are often as fas­cin­at­ing as the accom­pa­ny­ing pic­ture cap­tur­ing light and mood.’ (Tav­is­tock Times Gaz­ette, 18.12.08)

‘will appeal widely … it is very attract­ively pack­aged, and the price is very fair for such a nicely pro­duced, abund­antly illus­trated hard­back volume.’ (Old Corn­wall, vol. XIII, no. 12, Spring 2009)

**

Coast

Bob Berry, intro­duc­tion by Frank Ruhr­mund

This book includes some of the finest, iconic views of the coast of Corn­wall – where land meets sea, meets sky.

Bob Berry is an award-​​winning pho­to­grapher, with a pas­sion for coastal land­scapes. Frank Ruhr­mund writes reg­u­larly on the arts for The Cornish­man and the West­ern Morn­ing News.

Coast is pub­lished in our Inspir­a­tions series.

ISBN: 0906720613
1st edi­tion
Cased
48 pages
65 col­our pho­tos
190 x 210mm
07.05.02

‘Renowned for his full col­our pho­to­graphs that cap­ture the spirit of Corn­wall, Bob Berry’s break­ing waves, big skies, sea-​​shaped boulders and foot­prints in the sand are, in every sense, magic moments.’ (West­ern Morn­ing News, 21.05.02)

‘His skil­ful use of light and the move­ment of tides pro­duce some magical col­oured pic­tures of the Cornish coast­line.… Indeed… magic.’ (West Bri­ton, 27.06.02)

**

The Parks and Gar­dens of Cornwall

Douglas Ellory Pett

The Parks and Gar­dens of Corn­wall is the most com­pre­hens­ive sur­vey of the sub­ject for any county in Eng­land. Some 440 sites are grouped into dis­tricts centred on the prin­cipal towns, and arranged to cor­res­pond with the Ord­nance Sur­vey Landranger maps. The descrip­tions will interest local and garden his­tor­i­ans, and all those who wish to know some­thing of the fam­il­ies, archi­tects and social back­ground, as well as the design­ers who cre­ated the gar­dens of Corn­wall. The sur­vey is richly illus­trated with his­toric prints – many never pre­vi­ously repro­duced – includ­ing sketches by Prideaux (1716–27); plates from the his­tor­ies of Bor­lase (1758) and Gil­bert (1820), and from Twycross’s exceed­ingly scarce Man­sions of Corn­wall.

Douglas Ellory Pett obtained his first exper­i­ence of large-​​scale garden­ing as Vicar of Gul­val, Pen­zance, from 1961 to 1966. Later, in the 1980s, he pur­sued geo­lo­gical and other field stud­ies in Corn­wall, and was invited to organ­ize the first pro­fes­sional and vol­un­tary sur­veys of his­toric gar­dens for the newly-​​formed Corn­wall Garden Trust. He was a mem­ber of the Garden His­tory Soci­ety; author of Cre­at­ive Garden­ers, The Corn­wall Gar­dens Guide (both pub­lished by Alison Hodge),and Hor­ti­cul­ture on the Isles of Scilly; editor of From A Cornish Bishop’s Garden (Alison Hodge, 2001); co-​​author of The His­toric Gar­dens of Corn­wall (1991), and a reg­u­lar con­trib­utor to The Cornish Garden.

ISBN: 0906720273
1st edi­tion
Cased
336 pages
121 b/​w draw­ings, pho­tos, plans and tables
280 x 216mm
30.11.98

‘ambi­tious, sub­stan­tial and well pro­duced … Douglas Pett is an accom­plished writer with an attract­ive style … It is hard to see how the book could be improved … It instantly becomes the stand­ard ref­er­ence on its sub­ject.’ (Gar­dens Illus­trated, June 1999)

‘Corn­wall has always been innov­at­ive and thor­ough in its garden his­tory pub­lic­a­tions and the latest sur­vey The Parks and Gar­dens of Corn­wall by Douglas Ellory Pett … is exem­plary. … This is an essen­tial book for any­one with an interest in garden his­tory, whether they have a dir­ect asso­ci­ation with Corn­wall or not.’ (Museum of Garden His­tory News­let­ter)

‘The book is vig­or­ous and exhaust­ive, yet always read­able and enga­ging. The most com­plete garden invent­ory for any Eng­lish county, this is a work of great schol­ar­ship. … So many guides tell you what you can see for your­self; this one will enrich many a visit by set­ting a garden in its phys­ical, his­tor­ical and hor­ti­cul­tural con­text … The book sets a new stand­ard for county sur­veys of parks and gar­dens and will remain for many years the stand­ard work for any­one ser­i­ously inter­ested in Cornish gar­dens.’ (Coun­try Life, 8.04.99)

‘This book is a tour de force, a most extraordin­ary achieve­ment and a gift to all those who love the Duchy of Corn­wall. … this book is about the planned land­scape of Corn­wall. … ‘The author’s know­ledge and exper­i­ence reveals the depth of Cornwall’s garden and plant his­tory and the reason why today … garden­ing activ­it­ies play such a large role in the attract­ive­ness and eco­nomy of Corn­wall … It is a real bench mark in the pub­lished works on Corn­wall …
‘Dr Pett man­ages to com­bine the dis­tin­guished ele­ments of schol­ar­ship with the eso­teric pleas­ure of “Dip­ping”, the book is both read­able and stim­u­lat­ing … The stand­ard of edit­ing, type­set­ting, design and choice of paper are all of the highest qual­ity and add greatly to the styl­ish feel of the book. … The Fore­word by His Royal High­ness the Prince of Wales is both gen­er­ous and encour­aging. In the most worthy way the book marks the state of the gardened land­scapes in the Duchy at the end of the second Mil­lenium.’ (Corn­wall Gar­dens Trust Journal, 1999)

‘Rarely is one able, without reser­va­tion, not only to recom­mend but rave about a book, but this is an out­stand­ing pub­lic­a­tion.
‘Surely the defin­it­ive work on Cornish parks and gar­dens … The Parks and Gar­dens of Corn­wall is a monu­mental work. …
‘A social as much as it is a hor­ti­cul­tural his­tory of Corn­wall, a fund of fas­cin­at­ing inform­a­tion, above all else, it is immensely read­able: some­how Douglas Ellory Pett has struck just the right bal­ance to allow his book to appeal to garden expert and lay­man, vis­itor and res­id­ent alike. …
‘Con­tain­ing everything you ever wanted to know about Cornwall’s gar­dens and garden­ers, as rare and reward­ing as many of the plants found in the sheltered, sub-​​tropical, and often secret, gar­dens of the county, this is a tour de force if ever there was one. …
‘Excel­lent value, with no less than 121 black and white illus­tra­tions, many of them pre­vi­ously unpub­lished prints, plus a fore­word by HRH the Prince of Wales, it is a right royal pub­lic­a­tion in every sense.’ (The Cornish­man, 3.12.98).

‘one of the most import­ant books ever writ­ten on gar­dens in the county.’ (West Bri­ton, 03.03.05)

‘His Parks and Gar­dens of Corn­wall ranks along­side the works of Edgar Thur­ston and W. Arnold-​​Forster as one of the most import­ant books ever writ­ten on gar­dens in the county.’ (Roger Trenoweth, Editor, The Cornish Garden, in the West Bri­ton, 03.03.05)

**

The Cry of a Bird

Dorothy Yglesias

The world-​​famous Mouse­hole Wild Bird Hos­pital and Sanc­tu­ary was foun­ded in 1928 by Dorothy and Phyl­lis Yglesias. This is the story of how the sis­ters built it up and ran it, writ­ten to enlarge ‘human under­stand­ing of bird life, and espe­cially bird character’

Dorothy Yglesias and her sis­ter Phyl­lis (Pog) first came to Mouse­hole in 1912. Thir­teen years later they returned to live there – Dorothy to grow flowers for the mar­ket, Phyl­lis an artist and sculptress. They star­ted the Mouse­hole Wild Bird Hos­pital and Sanc­tu­ary in answer to ‘the cry of a bird’.

ISBN: 0906720184
2nd edi­tion
Paper­back
136 pages
194 x 128mm
1989

‘They made them­selves the ser­vants of the least of Creatures. One ends the book with a feel­ing of great humil­ity in the pres­ence of qual­it­ies not abund­ant in con­tem­por­ary life’ (Coun­try Life)

**

Kilvert’s Cornish Diary

Richard Maber and Angela Tre­gon­ing

This is the first com­plete edi­tion of the Cornish Diary, one of only three of Kilvert’s sur­viv­ing ori­ginal note­books. Copi­ously illus­trated with con­tem­por­ary pho­to­graphs and engrav­ings, it gives a fas­cin­at­ing pic­ture of Kil­vert, and of a Corn­wall bal­anced between the old and the new. Kilvert’s Diary is a clas­sic – beau­ti­fully writ­ten, a work of literature.

Richard Maber has pub­lished aca­demic art­icles on Old Cornish, and books and art­icles on seventeenth-​​century French lit­er­at­ure. Angela Tre­gon­ing comes from an old Cornish fam­ily. She is a spe­cial­ist in medi­eval travel literature.

ISBN: 0906720192
1st edi­tion
Paper­back
144 pages
75 b/​w pho­tos, 1 map
190 x 202mm
1989

‘Kilvert’s gos­sipy and lively account of travels in Corn­wall is enhanced by copi­ous notes, con­tem­por­ary pho­to­graphs and engrav­ings.’ (The Coun­try­man, Spring 1990)

**

A Week at the Land’s End

J.T. Blight

John Thomas Blight, FSA, was born in Pen­zance in 1835. He showed an extraordin­ary early tal­ent in draw­ing, bot­any and wood engrav­ing, and spent much of his youth sketch­ing the ancient stones and holy wells of west Pen­with, soon gain­ing the respect of schol­ars like Robert Stephen Hawker, James Orch­ard Hal­li­well and Sabine-​​Baring Gould. His work was in demand, and he pub­lished sev­eral books, includ­ing the delight­fully evoc­at­ive A Week at the Land’s End (1861), in which he illus­trated ‘the extreme west­ern point of Eng­land; its romantic scenery, its nat­ural pro­duc­tions, and its ancient legends’. In his intro­duc­tion, Charles Thomas shows the import­ance of Blight’s work in its time, and how it con­trib­utes to the his­tori­ography of Cornwall.

Born in 1835, J.T. Blight’s interests embraced bot­any and nat­ural his­tory, eccle­si­ology and anti­quar­ian top­ics. A skilled draughts­man and engraver, as well as a writer, he was early elec­ted as a Fel­low of the Soci­ety of Anti­quar­ies. He was ‘the reflector and chron­icler of rural West Pen­with in the mid-​​Victorian era’ (Charles Thomas). Charles Thomas is a former Pro­fessor of Cornish Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Exeter, Pres­id­ent of the Soci­ety for Medi­eval Archae­ology and of the Corn­wall Archae­olo­gical Soci­ety, and a mem­ber of the Royal Com­mis­sion on His­tor­ical Monu­ments for Eng­land. He has a great fond­ness for nineteenth-​​century Cornwall.

ISBN: 0906720206
3rd edi­tion
Paper­back
272 pages
1 b/​w photo, 95 line draw­ings
194 x 128mm
1989

‘This is one of those books that deserve a place in the col­lec­tion of any­one with even the slight­est interest in the Land’s End dis­trict. Alison Hodge is to be com­pli­men­ted on mak­ing it avail­able to the present gen­er­a­tion.
‘J.T. Blight had an insa­ti­able curi­os­ity and in his book encom­passes everything – antiquit­ies, his­tory, church archi­tec­ture, nat­ural his­tory, min­ing, fish­ing… He was an accur­ate observer and often provides the only reli­able guide to some of the antiquit­ies that have dis­ap­peared or suffered “res­tor­a­tion” since his day.
‘The intro­duc­tion to this edi­tion by Charles Thomas, Pro­fessor of Cornish Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­sity of Exeter, places J.T. Blight in the con­text of mid Vic­torian Corn­wall. It reminds us of the wide circle of his acquaint­ances and friends, and of his con­sid­er­able accom­plish­ments.’ (Old Corn­wall, X, 10, Spring 1990)

‘Nous avons ainsi non seule­ment un guide d’un can­ton pit­tor­esque, mais un état présent, détaillé et pré­cis, pour l’agriculture, la pêche, les mines, les resources loc­ales, aussi bien que pour les méga­lithes et les monu­ments ou vestiges de diverse époques.…
‘Le curieux, l’érudit et le cher­ch­eur, trouveront sûre­ment profit et plaisir à suivre J.T. Blight dans son périple de sa petite patrie, au siècle dernier et à tra­vers les temps révolus. On ne peut que recom­mander la lec­ture de cette périégèse exem­plaire au pas­sager du Roscoff-​​Plymouth partant explorer la vie­ille terre celtique d’outre-mer. (Études Celtiques, XXVII, 1990)

**

Come and Listen to the Stars Singing – Pri­aulx Rain­ier: A Pictorial Biography

June Opie

Com­poser Pri­aulx Rain­ier was described by Sir Yehudi Menuhin as hav­ing ‘a musical ima­gin­a­tion of a col­our and vari­ety scarcely to be believed’. Born in South Africa, she was Pro­fessor of Com­pos­i­tion at the Royal Academy of Music. A con­tem­por­ary and close friend of St Ives artists Ben Nich­olson and Bar­bara Hep­worth, she spent much of her time in Corn­wall. This book includes Pri­aulx Rainier’s musical life, and brings out her enthu­si­asm, her warmth and her sense of humour.

June Opie wrote on a wide range of sub­jects, and knew Pri­aulx Rain­ier well for many years. Her other books include Over My Dead Body.

ISBN: 0906720176
1st edi­tion
Paper­back
96 pages
90 b/​w pho­tos, 5 line draw­ings
228 x 209mm
1988

**

Cornish Guern­seys and Knit-​​frocks

Mary Wright

In late nineteenth-​​century Corn­wall, hand-​​knitting was an import­ant cot­tage industry, and coastal vil­lages developed their own dis­tinct­ive pat­terns and names for the tra­di­tional navy blue guern­sey. By the 1920s con­tract knit­ting had died out and was almost for­got­ten until Mary Wright star­ted ask­ing old people about it. Her research res­ul­ted in ‘a remark­able pic­ture of social his­tory’ (The Guard­ian), ‘fas­cin­at­ing read­ing … beau­ti­fully pro­duced’ (West­ern Morn­ing News). There are many delight­ful con­tem­por­ary pho­to­graphs, and detailed instruc­tions and charts show how to knit a Cornish guern­sey incor­por­at­ing one of 30 local patterns.

Mary Wright is a spe­cial­ist knit­ting instructor and demon­strator. Her work has been exhib­ited extens­ively through­out the UK and in Japan. She is also the author of Cornish Treats (Alison Hodge, 1986).

ISBN: 0906720052
1st edi­tion
Paper­back
72 pages
67 b/​w pho­tos, 30 pat­terns, 30 charts
190 x 206mm
1979

‘Along with a remark­able pic­ture of social his­tory there are instruc­tions as to how to knit a gan­sey with thirty indi­vidual vil­lage or fam­ily pat­terns.’ (Guard­ian, 01.01.80)

A new edi­tion of Cornish Guern­seys and Knit-​​Focks was pub­lished by The Polp­erro Her­it­age Press in 2008.

**

The Rio Tinto Com­pany: An Eco­nomic His­tory of a Lead­ing Inter­na­tional Min­ing Con­cern, 1873–1954

Charles E. Harvey

Win­ner of the 1981 Wadsworth Prize for Busi­ness His­tory, Dr Harvey’s inde­pend­ent study of the Rio Tinto Com­pany is a valu­able addi­tion to the sparse empir­ical lit­er­at­ure on inter­na­tional busi­ness. It also enlight­ens aspects of mod­ern Span­ish history.

Charles Har­vey lec­tures in eco­nomic and busi­ness his­tory at the Uni­ver­sity of Lon­don, Royal Hol­lo­way and Bed­ford New College.

ISBN 0906720036
1st edi­tion
Cased
400 pages
26 tables, 10 fig­ures
220 x 140mm
1981

‘The Rio Tinto archive … provides the basis for his ana­lysis … (he) treats a wide range of sub­jects with soph­ist­ic­a­tion and expert­ise’ in ‘a model study of a major busi­ness con­cern’ (European His­tory Quarterly)

It ‘is at its best when it homes in on the way in which this large enter­prise… applied itself to the manip­u­la­tion of mar­kets’ (The Fin­an­cial Times)

**

Cornwall’s Cent­ral Mines: The South­ern Dis­trict, 1810–1895

T.A. Mor­rison

The com­pan­ion volume to Cornwall’s Cent­ral Mines: The North­ern Dis­trict, this book charts the boom and decline of the mines of the south-​​west out­skirts of Redruth.

The two books together are ‘the first work to treat this com­plex sub­ject in a truly com­pre­hens­ive way’, which ‘those who are inter­ested in metal min­ing … can­not fail to enjoy’ (IMM Bul­letin). They are ‘a must for ser­i­ous stu­dents of Cornish min­ing’ (Old Corn­wall), ‘an alto­gether hand­some work … a schol­arly study of true his­toric worth’ (West­ern Morn­ing News).

ISBN: 0906720117
1st edi­tion
Cased
500 pages
48 b/​w pho­tos, 16 maps and line draw­ings
200 x 135mm
1983

**

Cornwall’s Cent­ral Mines: The North­ern Dis­trict, 1810–1895

T.A. Mor­rison

In the mid-​​nineteenth cen­tury, Corn­wall led the world in the art and sci­ence of min­ing for metals. The Camborne-​​Redruth dis­trict con­tains some of the most intens­ively mined ground any­where in the world. This book charts the his­tory of the mines of Tol­gus Downs, Pool and Roskear-​​Roscroggan. It also raises the ques­tion of where use­ful depos­its may yet remain unmined.

T.A. Mor­rison is a gradu­ate of Cam­bridge Uni­ver­sity and Cam­borne School of Mines. He is a pro­fes­sional min­ing engin­eer and a min­ing historian.

ISBN: 0906720109
1st edi­tion
Cased
400 pages
42 b/​w pho­tos, 20 maps and line draw­ings
200 x 135mm
1980

‘It is rare and excit­ing these days to come across a book on Cornish min­ing of the cal­ibre of T.A. Morrison’s’ (West­ern Morn­ing News)

‘none can fail to admire the author’s immense enthu­si­asm for his topic and the depth to which it has been researched … it will cer­tainly become a stand­ard text … invalu­able doc­u­ment­a­tion for future devel­op­ment in Cornish min­ing’ (Cam­borne School of Mines Journal).

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