The C.P.R Tryptych
“Well Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too
But when the fish and tin are gone what are Cornish boys to do?”
(Graffiti written after closure of South Crofty mine, Pool, from the song Cornish Lads, Roger Bryant 1994)
(1)
C.P.R.
Camborne, Pool and Redruth
C.P.R.
Cornwall’s Poorest Region
Speeding down the A30
St Ives set in your sat-nav
Ignore the heartlands
Aim for the periphery
The effervescent white foam
Bordering the turquoise sea
Not the dark igneous rock
That gave it shape
Ignore the huge memorial
As you hurry on past
The gravestone on the hill
The burial mound of old money
Here lies old prosperity…
A long barrow with an inert wheel
Marks the Cornwall left behind
Cradle of innovation, ignition
The spark for industrial revolution
In the lands that betray it now
But come to play around its edge.
Home of The Great Flat Lode
Where mining tin became easy
Well, as easy as it could ever be.
And copper at nearby Gwennap
Made it the richest square mile
To be found in the Old World.
The money made in boardrooms
Would eventually trickle down
Dripping…dripping…dripping
Down the shafts, into the pockets
Of the miners who earned their tribute
At the cost of their health and lives.
gray lightfoot 