A patchwork landscape
Look at Cornwall from a hilltop or a flight path and the countryside often appears as a patchwork of small, irregular fields divided by dark lines of bank and scrub. This pattern is one of the clearest marks that farming has left on the county, and it reflects a combination of terrain, climate, land ownership and history rather than a single decision made at one time.
Cornish farming has always been varied. The high, exposed ground on the moors suits rough grazing. Sheltered valleys and the milder coastal strips allow more arable land and early growing. Between them lies a great deal of mixed country, where the soil is thinner or heavier than it looks and where farmers learned to work with what they had.
Why the fields are small
There is no single answer to why fields are so small, and any tidy explanation should be treated with caution. Several factors are commonly discussed:
- Terrain. Many fields follow the shape of hillsides, streams and rocky ground, so they are rarely square.
- Clearing the land. Stones removed from the soil had to go somewhere, and they were often built into boundaries.
- Inheritance and tenure. Holdings were often small, and land divided among heirs or let in modest parcels tends to produce small enclosures.
- Age. Some boundaries are thought to be medieval, and a few field systems may be considerably older. Dating individual boundaries is difficult, and specialists often disagree.
The boundaries themselves are usually Cornish hedges, which are not like the planted hawthorn hedges of other regions. They are stone-faced earth banks, often topped with shrubs, grass and wildflowers, and they provide shelter for stock and wildlife. They also affect how a farm is worked: small gateways limit the size of machinery, and maintenance of the banks is skilled, continuing work.
Mixed holdings and the mining connection
In the nineteenth century, when mining employed large numbers of people, many families are said to have combined wage work with a smallholding. A miner might keep a cow, a pig and a garden plot, and the family might work the land around the shift pattern. The extent of this varied from place to place, and historians do not agree on how typical it was, but the picture of the miner-smallholder is a frequent theme in accounts of Cornish life.
When mines closed and families left, some small farms were abandoned or merged. Others continued on a reduced scale, or were reorganized as larger units. This history helps explain why the countryside contains many ruined cottages and old farm buildings, often granite cottages and barns, beside working farms.
Dairy and livestock
Dairying has been closely associated with Cornwall for a long time. The county’s mild, damp climate encourages grass growth for much of the year, which supports cattle. Milk has been turned into butter, cheese and the clotted cream now familiar from the cream tea. The exact origin of clotted cream is debated, and several places in southwest England have claimed it, so it is better to say the practice is long established than to name an inventor.
Sheep are kept on higher or poorer ground, and on parts of the moors grazing is shaped by long-standing rights and customs; the pattern of moorland grazing is a separate subject with its own rules. Beef cattle, pigs and poultry are also part of the picture, though the balance has shifted over time with changes in markets and farm policy.
Market gardening and arable crops
The same mild conditions that help grass also help vegetables. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, market gardening grew in sheltered, frost-free areas, with crops sent to distant towns once railways made faster delivery possible. Broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes and soft fruit such as strawberries are among the crops commonly associated with Cornwall, and many farms grow cereals and fodder alongside them. The particular story of early crops and cut blooms deserves its own treatment, but it grew out of the same mixture of climate, soil and transport.
Pressures and change
Farming across the county has faced pressures that will be familiar elsewhere: fluctuating prices, rising costs, changing regulations, competition from larger producers and the difficulty of making a small farm pay. Housing demand, the sale of farm buildings and the loss of local abattoirs and processors are often raised in local discussion, though views differ and it is best not to oversimplify.
At the same time, many farms have diversified. Some sell directly to visitors, run holiday accommodation or campsites, grow specialty products or combine farming with conservation work. Such changes are part of the wider picture of the modern Cornish economy, in which agriculture remains important to the look and feel of the county even where it no longer employs as many people as it once did.
Visiting farmland
Much of the farmland is crossed by public footpaths, and walking them is one of the best ways to see the field pattern. Keep to the marked route, close gates, keep dogs under control near livestock and avoid damaging banks by climbing them. Farmland is a workplace, and weather, calving and harvest can change conditions quickly. Local guidance on access and any temporary closures should always be followed.