|
| Spirit of Independence: Cornish women lead the field |
|
|
|
Page 3 of 3 Nonetheless, the balmaidens’ unusual way of life was far ahead of its time, and many contemporary writers preferred to fume about the immorality of women working at the mines. Yet while religious leaders offered salvation to ‘fallen women’ through the church, little was done to protect women from unwanted sexual attention or to support children born as a result. Yet there was an even darker side to this way of life that is only just beginning to be researched. Prostitution was rife and in an environment in which women worked closely alongside men, sexual attacks and predation were common. Local efforts centred around rest centres and homes such as those set up in Falmouth and Penzance. Seamen’s centres sometimes looked after women with no other support but there seem to have been little co-ordinated public attempt to address the problem. Women from the Cornish upper classes also made valuable contributions of which most, again, is not universally recognised. The women of independent means were wives and daughters of well-off merchants, ship-owners, bankers and professional men, who had the financial support to do as they wished – including voluntary charitable work amongst the poor and sick. Exemplars were the ladies of the Bassett family of Tehidy, so prominent in supporting hospitals for the welfare of the working population. In education, the Fox daughters of Falmouth and the Carne women of Penzance saw the needs and initiated remedies. These women were in a minority, and if they wrote books, following in their educated families’ traditions, they often published anonymously or under men’s names. Single women of education and refinement, who found themselves responsible for their own livelihood because of being unmarried, orphaned or widowed, formed part of these upper classes. Ann Bake took over the Delabole Slate Quarry in 1830 when her husband died. Mrs Louisa Gillett ran the Royal Cornwall Gazette after her husband died in 1835. Jemima Drown edited the Penzance Gazette in West Cornwall during the mid-19th century, and Elizabeth Heard managed the West Briton similarly. Elizabeth Carne took over the running of the Penzance bank of Batten, Carne and Carne from her illustrious father, Joseph Carne FRS, in 1858, until her own death in 1873. She used her great inheritance generously by endowing schools, bells at St Mary’s Parish Church, and a mineralogical museum in Penzance. These were unusual women for their time, but accepted and recognised as integral working members of the Cornish communities. These were not the common wage earners. Indeed, they were the women who, as leaders looking around themselves at the poverty and illiteracy in their communities, formed campaigning and devotional groups such as the bible-reading classes, the Women Liberals and the temperance movement. As the 19th century came to an end, women were active in the Salvation Army, the YWCA and various campaigns to vote. With the downturn in mining and fishing fortunes, from the 1830s through to the end of the century, more than half of the population of Cornwall left to work in other countries. Some men went alone, to return (or not) later, and women remained to take over their work on the land, in mills and in slaughtering. Edited by Nigel Pengelly with contributions from Melissa Hardie and Olivia Rowland. Links: Hypatia Trust: www.hypatia-trust.org.uk Balmaidens site: www.balmaiden.co.uk |
|||||