In this interview with Jack Morrison, he opens up about his experiences of living in Cornwall, touching on everything from community, tradition, and poverty, to the surprising little moments of everyday life. Jack reminisces about when his children were young, and he would push them in a pram through the backstreets of Redruth, becoming intimately familiar with the area, including places like Kresen Kernow, which was once a brewery site with no roof. He remembers about how, on one early morning, he managed to sneak through a fence to retrieve a barrel trolley he had noticed while walking by. In a quirky encounter, he crossed paths with another person carrying a Tesco trolley full of copper piping, and they both nodded at each other as they went on their way—a moment that speaks to the odd sense of shared understanding in the community.
Jack also shares his experience of living in poverty with two young children in 2009. For two years, he found himself below the poverty line, and when he finally received a pay rise of £250, it only pushed him £200 above the line, which meant a reduction in benefits he was entitled to. He reflects on how difficult it was during this time—money was tight, and school expenses like shopping bills over £45 could be a real struggle. It was, he notes, a familiar experience to many of the other parents at the school gates.
Beyond personal hardships, Jack touches on the sometimes frustrating perceptions about Cornwall. The notion that southerners have a luxurious lifestyle and the idea that Cornwall is a “holiday paradise” with palm trees and lovely beaches doesn’t always align with the reality of life there. He points out that the beauty of places like Battery Rocks is often free, as tourists don’t tend to swim there, but living in Cornwall still comes with its own costs. Despite this, Jack takes pride in the strength of the local community and the resilience of the people living there.
Finally, Jack speaks about the “jam and cream” debate—how people often focus on trivial matters, like the proper way to enjoy a Cornish cream tea, while the bigger issues like poverty are swept aside. He reflects on how some people are scraping by simply because they need to, and how quickly people can slip back into that world, no matter how far they’ve come.
