- The name Cornwall derives from the words “Cornovii”; and “Waelas,”; meaning hill dwellers and strangers.
- There's an argument out there that Cornwall is a country in its own right rather than a county of the UK. There are 20 UN nations which are actually smaller than Cornwall. It was certainly seen as a separate country in the past - it was portrayed on the famous Mappa Mundi as separate from England, and Henry VIII listed England and Cornwall separately in the list of his realms in his coronation address. It's even said that when Cornwall became a county in 1889, the imposition of county status wasn't lawful. Strictly speaking, if you accept this, it's a Duchy, and separate from England. Therefore, the Queen isn't the head of state in Cornwall - the head of state there should actually be Prince Charles, the Duke of Cornwall. As a Duchy, it's actually older than England.
- It has its own language, too. While the last native speaker of the language died in 1777 (or possibly 1914, depending on which source you're looking at) it has undergone a revival in recent years, and there are more than 550 people who can speak it now and UNESCO has declared it no longer extinct. Dydh da means "hello" in Cornish and the name of the county in Cornish is Kernow.
- Cornwall is famous for its pasties. The Cornish pasty was originally a lunch especially made for miners. It was half savoury and half sweet, and they didn't eat the crusts. The thick crust was part of the design - there for them to hold it with. They threw the crust away when they were finished because miners often had toxic chemicals on their hands, so for them, the crust was not good for you! While on the subject of Cornish pasties, the biggest Cornish pasty ever was baked in Bodmin. It weighed 1900 pounds and had 1,750,000 calories.
- In 936 the English King Athelstan fixed the boundary between England and Cornwall as the east bank of the river Tamar. The Tamar is the longest river in Cornwall and still forms the boundary between Cornwall and Devon today.
- Cornwall's patron saint, St Piran, was an Irish Catholic who was tied to a mill stone and pushed off a cliff. Luckily for him, or perhaps miraculously, he was carried safely by the tide to Cornwall. His feast day is celebrated with traditional music, dancing, and re-enactments of the saint's arrival on his mill stone. He gave his name to the Cornish flag, a white cross on a black background. The St Piran represents white lines of Tin between dark molten rocks.
- Talking of tin, in the 1900s half of the world's tin came from Cornwall. China clay is another significant export - it was discovered in Cornwall by William Cookworthy in 1745 and has overtaken tin as Cornwall's largest export.
- Tourism is another important part of the Cornish economy. As Britain’s most south-westerly county it tends to get better weather than the rest of Britain (having been there recently on an October day which felt like a sunny day in July I can vouch for that). As well as the weather, Cornwall has the longest coastline in Great Britain, extending 433 miles/697km, and over 300 beaches. It's also possible to visit the filming locations for several TV shows, including Poldark.
- Truro is the only city in Cornwall but St Austell has a bigger population.
- If Cornwall is a country then it's national sport would probably be Cornish wrestling which is said to have originated in 1139 when a warrior named Corineus wrestled the Cornish giant Gogmagog on a cliff top. The referee in Cornish wrestling is called the “stickler”.
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