| Gary Tregidga |
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Gary Tregidga talks about his work as a Cornish historian at the Combined University of Cornwall.  Appointed as deputy director of the Institute of Cornish Studies in 1997, Gary has written a number of books on the progress and development of Liberalism and the rise of Mebyon Kernow. Interviewed at the Combined University of Cornwall at Tremough, he talks about his work on the Cornish Audio-Visual Archive (CAVA) unit that he directs to preserve recordings of family stories about the Cornish past.CW: How did your interest in History begin? My parents always took me around country houses and stately homes. As with their fascination with music and choirs, I simply took it up from them. I was also very lucky to be taught history in a very enthusiastic way at Bugle and Poltair, so I went on to concentrate more on the subject at St Austell 6th Form College and eventually at Exeter University. CW: Why has Liberalism always been so strong in Cornwall? Well, that is a really interesting question! It has much to do with the influence of Non-Conformism particularly Methodism in the Duchy. Here the religious movement was strongly against the dangerous effects alcohol; so people were strongly in favour of temperance and teetotalism also anti-metropolitan attitudes were influential, along with a feeling for the Celtic periphery. There was a feeling the importance of places on the margin. The rise of and interest in nationalism in Wales and Ireland and Scotland was an encouraging factor. The Labour Party found it more difficult to make headway in these circumstances. Unionism was difficult in an area where fishing and rural issues dominated and there was less industry. The breaking of the clay pit strikes in the early part of the 20th century was an influential factor. CW: What is the Cornwall Audio Visual Archive project? This grew out of the History Network established at the Institute of Cornish Studies, which has developed into a long-term programme that will build on the work of Cornish Braids, a project on folk memories in the Tamar Valley. Our present work, for which we are always in need of new volunteers, concerns making recordings of personal histories as a way of investigating changes in Cornish identities. The results are going to be available to the public as mp3 files on the Internet, in radio programmes and at the Cornish Studies Centre in Redruth. We will soon be making Audio-Tour guides available to accompany the mineral tramways field trips on Carn Brea. CW: Which figures in Cornish political history has your recent research focused upon? Well I have just finished editing the correspondence of Sir Francis Acland, a key figure in Cornish Liberalism with his wife who was active in the suffragette movement. Mind you, the whole period was very interesting when Lloyd George visited Cornwall and his dispute with the Asquith Liberals. There were large Whig landowners like the Robartes family. There were many fascinating figures in the Cornish past including Sir Isaac Foot and Walter Runciman, the latter being much involved with Czechoslovakia before Munich. How do you see History developing as a subject in Cornish schools? Well, of course, the whole experience of growing up in Cornwall gives children a unique opportunity. Where else are there such a collection of monuments from prehistoric times right up to Tudor times with coastal defences, like St Mawes and Pendennis? We have also been involved in developing the Sense of Place project in Primary Schools with Will Coleman and Claire White, restoring an appreciation for local historical studies. We have produced units on Richard Trevithick, the Giant of Steam, and “Lost your tongue” about Dolly Pentreath and the Cornish Language, Kernewek. |