Building Regional Identity: Social and Cultural Significance of Railways for Cornwall in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

Railways have contributed to the complex mosaic of Cornish identity in three ways. First, as a holiday destination promoted from late Victorian times until the Second World War by companies such as the Great Western Railway, London and South Western Railway and Southern. Initially marketing its mild climate and health benefits as an alternative to holidaying abroad evolved, from the 1920s, into an enduring tourist gaze of romantic landscapes, myth and legend. Second, structural changes in the Cornish economy in association with a decline in metal mining precipitated large-scale emigration which continued until the start of the First World War. Railways represented the initial phase of the emigrant journey and the volume of migration was such that their role has become part of a cultural text signifying both loss and opportunity. Lastly, their physical presence and contribution to the landscape adds a further layer of social and cultural significance to Cornish identity.