Blocking the bridge……'dreckly'

Blocking the bridge……

The routes in to Cornwall have been blocked several times down the years and perhaps surprisingly, in recent times.

A rally involving 500 Cornish people and their supporters occurred in 2010 at Saltash and in a sea of St Piran flags, Cornish people marched along the River Tamar showing their disdain for a proposed blurring of the ancient border between Cornwall and England.

As recently as 2016, Cornish folks and their supporters took to Polson Bridge protesting about the possibility of ‘Devonwall’ and the A388 was blocked for a time as dancing and singing occurred. This was very symbolic as bridge is featured in the famous painting depicting the Cornish army departing the Duchy during the 1497 uprising lead amongst others by Michael Joseph An Gof and Thomas Flamank.

The local police drove on by. They always seem to realise that the Cornish are a peaceful people.

A little further back, in 1998, a 20 car convoy, including miners, farmers, fishermen and councillors, caused a six mile traffic jam when they drove at a snail's pace on the main A30 road, half the length of Cornwall to the Devon border to protest about the Cornish economy.

This was followed a month later by hundreds of campaigners demanding help for Cornwall's economy staging a protest on the Tamar Bridge.

The demonstration was organised ‘Cornish Solidarity’ which was formed following the closure of Europe and Cornwall’s last tin mine, South Crofty.

The convoy of protesters, many waving black and white Cornish flags from their vehicles, drove to the Tamar Bridge using pennies to pay the £1 toll to enter Devon at Plymouth.

The organisers were demanding special status for Cornwall, which would give the Duchy the same benefits as South Wales and Merseyside in terms of development grants to businesses.

The Anglocentric press always becomes rather excitable about the mere mention of such protests and this is always great fun to watch. Cornish people always talk of blocking the bridge of course and it is a very common remark.

Perhaps it reminds the media and their political affiliates of where true democracy lays and that is not in the hands of politicians or Westminster.

The Cornish rebels cross the River Tamar into England in 1497 on a journey that would take them to Deptford Bridge in South London. The now famous painting by Donald Macleod and entitled 'Crossing the Tamar - The Cornish Rebellion' is available in print form and is extremely popular amongst Cornish folks