Royal Cornwall Gazette

The media in Cornwall has a long and distinct history. The county has a wide range of different types and quality of media.

Cornwall's geography, a long, narrowing peninsula, pointing into the Atlantic, made travel by land (Cornwall is only joined to Devon by a short four-mile stretch of land—the River Tamar divides the rest) slow, unreliable and poor. (Crossing the Tamar was by a few ancient stone bridges and two ferries to Plymouth). Selling and distribution of market goods used the sea and major rivers. However, improved telecommunications stimulated growth in the ports of Cornwall and the exchange of goods, particularly of mining products, like copper and tin. It also led to previously unexplored markets being discovered, for example arsenic, a by-product of tin production, was exported to the USA, where it was used in the production of pesticides in the cotton fields.

Before the arrival of mass media in Cornwall and telegraphy, since 1688, Falmouth was the hub of the Packet ships Post Office mail system. Newspapers were slow to develop in Cornwall. Despite the first British newspaper (London Gazette) starting in 1665, due to poor roads, and long distances, distribution of national newspapers did not start fully until the coming of the railways in the 1840s. Outside key urban areas like Truro and Falmouth, national news travelled slowly, and unreliably, by word of mouth.

Mines used cork bulletin boards displayed in "the dry", a building used for miners to change in and out of work clothes. The information displayed included: employment, tin output, rates of pay (for piece workers) and new Resource extractions. Little information was passed on concerning news from the neighbouring village, or the next market town along the road.

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