britishacademy

Climate histories of Cornwall 1700-1950



gwithian  

Michèle Clarke1, Georgina Endfield1, Alison Edgley2 & Mandy Morris3

1 School of Geography, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD. 
2School of Nursing, B Floor Queens Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD.
3 Cornish Audio Visual Archive (CAVA), Institute of Cornish Studies, University of Exeter in Cornwall

Coastal regions are particularly susceptible to changes in Atlantic climate conditions with flooding, storms (Lamb & Freydendahl, 1992), sand invasion (Lamb, 1995), droughts and intense frosts (Le Roy Ladurie, 1971) causing problems for human settlement and agriculture. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a large scale pattern of natural climate variability which has important impacts on the climate and weather of the North Atlantic region, and particularly Europe (Hurrell, 1995). The NAO controls the location and intensity (number of depressions) of storm tracks that impact upon the coastal areas of western Europe and it also controls spatial temperature and precipitation variability. Historical records of the NAO span the period from the present back to 1429 years AD. Through this time it is clear that the NAO has shown significant variability (Hurrell, 1995). The impact of these changes on society and livelihoods has been explored in Europe through records of Spanish shipwrecks (Garcia et al., 2000), storm records from lighthouse keepers in NW Scotland (Dawson et al., 2002) and through storm-driven sand drift causing village relocation and abandonment in Portugal (Clarke & Rendell, 2006) Spain (Borja et al., 1999) and France (Clarke et al., 2002). At present, little is known of the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of these climate changes on Britain.

This proposal seeks to address this gap in our understanding focusing on one area of Atlantic Britain, Cornwall, where a rich source of archive material remains unexploited for this purpose. The coastal areas of Cornwall have a long history of association with the Atlantic reflected in a cultural heritage of storm impacts involving shipwrecks, building damage, floods and sand invasion burying farmsteads, fields and churches (Murray, 1859; Lewis, 1992). Northwest facing coastal embayments are highly vulnerable to the full force of Atlantic climate extremes. This research will focus on three such localities: the Hayle Estuary and St Ives Bay (8 parishes); Perranporth to Newquay (6 parishes); and the Camel Estuary around Padstow (10 parishes) where parochial accounts suggest climate extremes were known to prove problematic to settlements and livelihoods (Murray, 1859). The period 1700-1950 is chosen as it spans from the Little Ice period to the present climatic amelioration.

This research, which is funded by a grant from the British Academy, seeks to use archival sources and oral testimonies to:
•   determine the nature and scale of the impacts of extreme NAO winters on agricultural,    
    fishing and mining economies in communities occupying three Atlantic coastal embayments
•   investigate human responses to changes in status of the NAO in Cornwall, 1700-1950
•   assess the vulnerability of different groups of society in the area to climatic changes forced
    by decadal shifts in status and extremes in annual intensity of the NAO
•   explore the impact of these events on respondents sense of place and their local
    communities.

Oral testimonies will be faciliated through collaboration with CAVA who have existing contacts with community groups and potential interviewees. CAVA will also provide a permanent home for the recorded interviews once the research is finished and these will be made available for public use at the Cornwall Centre in Redruth


References

Borja et al. (1999) The Holocene, 9, 333-339;
Clarke, M.L, Rendell, H.M. (2006) The Holocene, 16  (3) in press; 
Clarke et al (2002) The Holocene, 12, 231-238;
Dawson et al. (2002) The Holocene, 12, 363-369;
García-Herrera et al (2000) Climate Research, 14, 147-151;
Hurrell, J.W. (2005) http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/jhurrell/indices.html;
Lamb, H.H. (1995) Climate, History and the Modern World. 2nd edition, Routledge, London;
Lamb, H.H., Frydendahl, K. (1991) Historic Storms of the North Sea, CUP;
Le Roy Ladurie, E. (1971) Times of feast, times of famine: a history of climate since year 1000;
Lewis, D. (1992) In: Coastal dunes: geomorphology, ecology and management for conservation;
Murray, J. (1859) Handbook for Travellers in Devon and Cornwall, J.Murray, London;