Ventonleague - Some History and the life of a Cornish Village

Review:

Some local history of this cornish village which played a large part in the Cornish Industrial Revolution which made Hayle a Great Outstanding Industrial town. Ventonleague first an Estate then later a village lies on the south-east end of the Parish of Phillack (Hale), has a very long history of its own, its first recorded appearance as an estate in the 13th century to mid-19th century when it could only boast of one house, probably Ventonleague Farmhouse, to the early 19th century when it could claim eighteen properties.

The book is divided into two sections:

The first section of village history includes; the arrival of the Cornish Copper Company, their relation and the impact made to Ventonleague, through the Cornish copper Company expansion how a new town was born which was named "Copperhouse". The tragic effects of a major cholera outbreak in 1849, the Mill (Ventonleague) Pond, how Ventonleague Village Green became common Land, the history of the Hayle Railway, the serious fire at Ventonleague in 1912.

The second section deals with village life which they shared as a very close community, times and events of the people in the village, the building of the United Methodist Free Church in 1875/1876, this chapel played a very important part in village life, the sunday School and annual tea treats, the Ventonleague Male Voice Choir, the annual children sports and carnival week, the bomb damage in 1940 to the village, the unveiling and dedication service of the war memorial tablet for the eight young men of the village who served their country during the 1939-1945 war and failed to return home.

A wonderful edition, the researched information is interspersed with the author, Philip Rutter's own recollections. (The St. Ives Times and Echo 25 June 2010.)

It is difficult to put the book down, so much information not to mention any number of fascinating archival photographs.

Excellent value, while it chronicles just about every thing of importance that has ever happened in Ventonleague (Hayle).

A tribute to those tremendous years which started very hard, to where my family lived, and to treasured memories of outstanding, caring hard working people, who lived as a very close community.

 - Frank Ruhumund book review: (The Western Morning News 17th August 2010)

Excerpt:

The first Census taken in 1841 on Sunday 6th June shows the people living at Ventonleague number 499 in population. No information is given as to which parish they were born in with every one listed as born in the County of Cornwall. By the 1851 Census Ventonleage had a population of 434, out of which, 110 were born outside the Parish of Phillack, including 11 outside the County of Cornwall. The 1861 Census shows 415 residents of Ventonleague. Out of which 90 were born outside the Parish of Phillack, including 6 from outside Cornwall.

With the Cornish Copper Company Foundry which finished in 1869 and the great depression of 1866 in the mining industry, men went to other areas in search of work. In the years of the 'Great Emigration' (1840 - 1880) many hundreds of families left Cornwall, emigrating to Australia, North and South America, South Africa and other countries. In 1849 there was the California Gold Rush, in 1851 the Victoria Gold Rush. Often the husband went first, then later the rest of the family went out to him. Sadly some never reached their destiny, dying on the ships that were taking them to what they thought was their new life.

Many Cornish hard rock miners, engineers, blacksmiths, shoe makers and others who had skilled and unskilled jobs, went to Yorke Peninsula, known as 'Little Cornwall' in South Australia, to where in 1844 an outbreak of what was known as 'Coppermania', created work in the mines at Moonta, Wallaroo and Burra Burra. But by the early 1900s the copper mines started to decline and, while some Cornish families stayed, others, mainly miners, left and went to South Africa where many found work in the Transvaal around Johannesburg which was built by the Cornish people.

In the late 1920s my uncles, Edward T. and George Rutter (both born at Guildford), went to South Africa to work in the mining industry in Northern Rhodesia, both died in South Africa.

There was also Terry Williams, who worked at Holman Bros of Camborne who with his wife Diane (nee Gregor) went out to South Africa working for Holman Bros, a firm greatly involved with mining industry.