Will Coleman is a film-maker, author, musician and educational consultant. [1] Coleman is a former director and musician with Kneehigh Theatre [2] and founder and director of Golden Tree Productions, an organisation that develops cultural projects that promote Cornwall and its history.
In 2009 Coleman's Tales from Porth CD-ROM commissioned by the Cornish Language Partnership won a Media Innovation Award for best DVD/CD Design for a CD-Rom which introduces the Cornish language to children. [3] Coleman won the 2011 Govyn Kernewek film award. “The Govyn Kernewek is an annual £5,000 commission for a short film that uses the Cornish language in an interesting way”. [4]
Coleman's short film Horn of Plenty won an award in 2012, when MPs were invited to enter a film made by one of their constituents into a ‘Film the House’ competition. Dan Rogerson entered the film and it came second overall. [5]
Coleman has investigated the Cornish Plen-an-gwary, medieval Cornish amphitheatres and produced a book about them with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council of England. [6]
In 2014 Coleman toured Cornwall in GogMagog with Bec Appleby, Jenny Beare and Steven Kelly, a story rooted in Cornish culture. [7]
The Cornish folk song Black and Gold (Cornish Du an Owr) has English lyrics written by Coleman. [8]
In 2016 Coleman and his team created "The Man Engine" in the form of a Cornish miner, at 33 feet high, the largest puppet ever made in Britain. [9] [10] The project was commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape being added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites and was first unveiled in Tavistock on 25 July 2016. [11] The name references the man engine, a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to aid miners' journeys to and from the working levels. [12] The giant puppet travelled to each of the ten World Heritage Site mining areas accompanied by Bal maidens and miners who animated the puppet with ropes; [13] travelling 130 miles ending at the western tip of Cornwall on 6 August. [14] Coleman said “the figure was designed to be a reminder of thousands of years of mining history in Cornwall and the region’s geology”. [15]
Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, continued to be passed on within families and by individuals, and a revival began in the early 20th century. The language has a growing number of second language speakers, and a very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language. Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage.
A pasty is a British baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, South West England but has spread all over the British Isles. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetables, on one half of a flat shortcrust pastry circle, folding the pastry in half to wrap the filling in a semicircle and crimping the curved edge to form a seal before baking.
"Jack the Giant Killer" is a Cornish fairy tale and legend about a young adult who slays a number of bad giants during King Arthur's reign. The tale is characterised by violence, gore and blood-letting. Giants are prominent in Cornish folklore, Breton mythology and Welsh Bardic lore. Some parallels to elements and incidents in Norse mythology have been detected in the tale, and the trappings of Jack's last adventure with the Giant Galigantus suggest parallels with French and Breton fairy tales such as Bluebeard. Jack's belt is similar to the belt in "The Valiant Little Tailor", and his magical sword, shoes, cap, and cloak are similar to those owned by Tom Thumb or those found in Welsh and Norse mythology.
Cornish wrestling is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’" in the Cornish dialect of English; historically, this usage is attested by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Drayton.
The culture of Cornwall forms part of the culture of the United Kingdom, but has distinct customs, traditions and peculiarities. Cornwall has many strong local traditions. After many years of decline, Cornish culture has undergone a strong revival, and many groups exist to promote Cornwall's culture and language today.
The Cornish people or Cornish are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain before the Roman conquest. Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has been adopted by migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as an explicit option in the UK census, the numbers of those claiming Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.
Levant Mine and Beam Engine is a National Trust property at Trewellard, Pendeen, near St Just, Cornwall, England, UK. Its main attraction is that it has the world's only Cornish beam engine still operated by steam on its original site. There is also a visitor centre, a short underground tour, and the South West Coast Path leads to Botallack Mine, via a cliff-top footpath.
The Cornish diaspora consists of Cornish people and their descendants who emigrated from Cornwall, United Kingdom. The diaspora is found within the United Kingdom, and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Mexico, Panama, South Africa, the Samoas and Brazil.
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is about four miles (6.5 km) northwest of Falmouth and five miles (8 km) southwest of Truro. Perranarworthal parish is bordered on the north by Kea parish, on the east by Restronguet Creek and Mylor parish, on the south by St Gluvias and Stithians parishes and on the west by Gwennap parish. The parish population at the 2011 census was 1,496. The name derives from the Manor of Arworthal which has had a number of spellings in the past including Hareworthal (1187), Arwoethel and Arwythel. By the 18th-century two names appear on maps "Perran Arworthal" meaning St Piran's by the creek or estuary. William Penaluna described the settlement in 1838. Perranwell railway station is on the Maritime Line.
Gwennap is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth. Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Crofthandy, Cusgarne, Fernsplatt, Frogpool, Hick's Mill, Tresamble and United Downs lie in the parish, as does Little Beside country house.
William Copeland Borlase was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal.
Jago is a children's book illustrator based in Wadebridge, Cornwall, UK. He attended Falmouth College of Art from 2000 to 2003. He has produced digital illustrations for a variety of publishers: Barefoot Books, Oxford University Press, Mantra Lingua and Zondervan.
Michael Kenneth Paynter is a retired Cornish civil servant, trade union activist, and poet. Apart from a period of study at the University of Newcastle, he lives in St Ives.
John Harvey was a Cornishman whose career started as a blacksmith and engineer at Carnhell Green near Hayle, in west Cornwall. In 1779 he established a foundry and engineering works at Hayle called Harvey & Co. By 1800 the company employed more than 50 people and continued to grow as Harvey worked with many of the great Cornish engineers and entrepreneurs of the day. These included Richard Trevithick, William West, and, more importantly, Arthur Woolf. In 1797, Harvey's daughter, Jane, married Richard Trevithick.
Cornish Americans are Americans who describe themselves as having Cornish ancestry, an ethnic group of Brittonic Celts native to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, part of England in the United Kingdom.
Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia who are fully or partially of Cornish heritage or descent, an ethnic group native to Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
Wheal Coates is a former tin mine situated on the north coast of Cornwall, UK, on the cliff tops between Porthtowan and St Agnes. It is preserved and maintained by the National Trust.
Brett Harvey is a film writer and director based in Cornwall. His debut feature film Weekend Retreat (2011), which premièred at the Cornwall Film Festival won several awards.
Presented below is an alphabetical index of articles related to Cornwall:
A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.