Hayle Beach Live Cam

The Hayle Mail is a long forgotten newspaper which contained a full account of everything which happened in Hayle, the former Cornish industrial town. There was considerable correspondence from overseas related to local people who had left to seek their fortunes. A regular contributor was Sid Blake, an enterprising Cornishman who kept an hotel in New York to specialise in the passing trade to and from his homeland. All his letters contained a full list of his customers and their movements. The Hayle Mail sadly fell by the wayside and we don't know if Sid ever sent his letters to another paper. He certainly took matters into his own hands and started to produce news sheets of Cornish activities at his New York hotel. Called The Cornish Arms Hotel Bulletin the news of his Cornish guests accompanied many an anecdote in dialect, joke and poem from Cornwall. There were accounts of Cornish football matches with full lists of the team members and their homes in Cornwall. All the meetings of Cornish associations were recorded and a wedding was always on the front page. Sid put in every detail he knew of all the people he mentioned.

Sid says, in the Bulletin of October 5th, 1921, that when he conceived the Bulletin (probably early in 1920) he knew that he was letting himself in for a lot of work as he has to reconstruct all the matter and type it before it goes to the printer. His first order was for 500 copies but demand had pushed that up to 2,000 per monthly edition and he saw the time when it could well top 5,000. He speaks of the cost to him of printing and sending copies all over the world. He tells of his desire to provide a communication for Cornish people throughout the world and knew from the replies he had received that many people wanted just that. He also had a dream to list all the Cornish people in the United States. He then intended to send them all a copy of the Bulletin completely free of any charge. We don't know how far he got with his magnanimous gesture but copies of the Bulletin are very valuable today as a source of information for family history researchers and students of Cornish ethnology. If he ever collated a list of all the Cornish in the United States it would be almost priceless today. In a way Sid wanted to do what Cornish World and the Cornish - American Connection are trying to do today.

Copies of Sid Blake's Bulletin still turn up today (please look in your old files) and we are indebted to Doris Rule Bable for kindly forwarding some to Cornish World. They are so full of excellent information that we would like to print the lot but lack of space precludes such action. We re-print the front page of one Bulletin here.. Page three of the Bulletin number fifteen is devoted to the funeral of Mr Joseph Harvey, formerly of Paul near Penzance. There is a full list of mourners with their home towns and villages. No less than 65 came from Newlyn.

We suppose that Dorie Bable's father stayed at Sid's on his way to a new life after leaving H.T.P's mill in Hayle. Here's one of Sid's earlier letters to The Hayle Mail.

CORNISH FOLK IN NEW YORK Cornish Arms Hotel 443 West 23rd Street New York.

I am glad to inform our patrons that we are now finally settled, and that the majority of our patrons think we have done the right thing in moving more up town. It is an ideal spot and a splendid place, although, of course, a few old timers that have been making the Star Hotel their headquarters for the past twenty or thirty years find it kind of strange at first as they know that neighbourhood almost as well as I do, but they have to admit it is an ideal spot.

Mr. Richard Vingoe who came in from Akron, Ohio, to meet Miss Janie Wallis from Penzance, was married in Brooklyn on April 9th. It was a very nice wedding, and all the boys that were here en route to Cornwall or the west wished them all kinds of luck.

The Cornish Association meet on the 18th of April for their entertainment and at the present time over two hundred tickets have been sold. It will be a splendid affair, pasties, saffron cake, buttered buns, etc., all to be made by Cornish women, and my mouth waters now when I think of what a treat I am in for; and I know I am not the only one who thinks the same way. At home you don't appreciate these things so much, because you are able to have them almost any time, but when you get away from Cornwall and go a year or more without it is a treat when you find you can have as much as you like.

I wish our patrons would memorise our new address, as it is in the near future, I think, when we will give up the Star as the neighbourhood is getting worse all the time. Below is a list of the travellers going to and fro this last week. I will write a full list of Cornish dinner, held in the Cornish Arms in my next letter.

Sincerely yours, SID BLAKE

Cornish people going to and fro from England and the United States who stopped at the Cornish Arms are: Hedley Mitchell, from Butte, Mon., to Sandy River, St Austell; Fred A Ernest, from Butte, Mom., to Polkyth, St. Austell; James H. Cocking, from Butte, Mon., to Penscrace Villa, Blackwater; Wm. Hawkey, from Butte, Mon., to Perranporth; Arch. Harris, from Mt. Charles, St Austell, to Virginia, Minn.; W.Job, from Gunnislake, to Butte; Sidney Pearce, from Camelford, to Meetutse, Wis.; Wm. Matthews, from St. Austell, to La Salle, Ill.; Walter S. Clemence, from Hayle to Painesdale; A. Gibson, from Hayle to Painesdale; Claude B. Doney, from Higher Tremar Coombe to Wardner, Idaho; Miss Janie, from Penzance to Akron, Ohio; M. Annear, from Redruth to Globe, Ariz.; Matt. Ham, from Lanner to Akron, Ohio; Bert Eley, from Redruth to Globe, Ariz.; Edwin Edyvean, from St. Austell to Bisbee, Ariz.; T.J. Richards, from Colorado to Breage, Helston; Mrs. C.G. Hoskings and daughter, from Truro to Miami, Ariz.; Mr. & Mrs. G. Leggo, Penzance to Akron; Mr. Wm Coad, from Carclaze, St Austell, to Virginia, Minn.; J.Ninnis, from St. Ives to Akron.; Louis J. Date, from St. Ives to Kearsarge, Mich.; Francis Peake & family, from Penzance to Negaunee; W.R. Endean, from St. Austell to Painesdale; Mrs. Anna Bolitho, from Penzance to Shelbino, Mo.; Mrs. Richard Burt, from Globe, Ariz. to Carne Cottage, St Blazey; W.E. Trevarthen, from Wilkes Barre, Pa., to Tehidy, Camborne; Emmanuel Hamlod, Camborne to Butte; James Semmens, from St. Just to Calumet, Mich.; Wm. Coad, from Callington to Ishpeming; Henry Blewett, from Camborne to Calumet; Paul Rosewarne, from New Westminster, Victoria, B.C., to Breage, Helston; Harry Eley, from Truro to Pittsburg; Lambert Williams, from Hedley, B.C. to Breage, Helston; W.C. Johns, from Hedley, B.C., to 2, Tavistock Road, Callington; Walter Johns, from Salt Lake City to Trevennen, nr. Helston; W.J. Stephens, Victoria B.C., to Red Lion Hotel, Truro; Wm. Bright, from Connecticut to Buller's Terrace, Reduth; Mr. & Mrs. John Taylor, from St. Just to Calumet; Bert Williams, from St. Day, Redruth, to Toronto; Matt Teague, from St. Day, Redruth, to Bisbee; Geo Mitchell, from St. Day, Redruth, to Bisbee; Tom Chapman, from St. Wenn, Bodmin, to Tremountain; Ernest Sleeman, from White Cross, Wadebridge, to Tremountain; Sam Cleave, St Wenn, Bodmin, to Tremountain; Mrs. L. Rowe, from Trescoe, nr Marazion, to Bakersfield; R. Hoskin, from Trescoe, nr. Marazion, to Bakersfield; Albert Richards, from St. Day to Calmut; Matthew Richards, from St. Day to Calmut; N.J.Webber, Hole Cottage, Duloe, to Detroit; James Stevens, from Detroit to Fish Street, St. Ives; Wm. Bailey, from Mullen, Idaho, to Tuckingmill, Camborne; Garfield Dudley, from Detroit to Treswithian, Camborne; Robert Collins, from White Horse, Alaska, and John Chynoweth. The Hayle Mail. May 1st 1914.

How you can help yourself

Readers wishing to know more about the movement of Cornish folk between their homeland and America can contact the Cornish - American Connection, at Murdoch House Adult Education Centre, Cross Street, Redruth TR15 2BU, Cornwall, U.K. Your helpful contact there is Moria Tangye. She would be pleased to help and equally delighted to receive whatever scrap of information you can send her.