On May 16, 1857, under the headline ‘A Narrow Escape’, the Cornish Times reported that ‘On Monday last an apprentice of builder Mr James Godfrey, called Joseph James, while working on a new building for Mr J Philp at Great Place, Liskeard, missed his footing and fell through the joists of the third storey down to the second, when he was providentially prevented from falling further by a man who happened to be working there at the time; if it had not been for this circumstance, the boy’s life must have been greatly endangered.’

Joseph James was a common enough name in Liskeard at the time, but in the 1851 census for the Liskeard Union Workhouse there is an eight-year-old boy of that name who was born in Callington. At the time of the ‘Narrow Escape’ this lad would have been 14, the usual age for an apprenticeship to start. A Joseph James, who was born on Christmas Day 1845 in Callington, was a ‘Boy 2nd Class’ on the Royal Navy Ship ‘Wellington’ of Devonport, his service number was 15357A.

As Mr James Godfrey had an apprentice, Joseph James, he could describe himself as a ‘Master Builder’, which he did in the census of 1861. He was living in Barn Street with his wife Mary and their 16-year-old ‘House Maid’ Teresa Rowe.

Mr J Philp, Bookseller of Liskeard, and Mr E Philp, Bookseller of Callington, printed and published the first copy of The Cornish Times, which appeared on Saturday, January 3, 1857 and cost one penny. In that first issue it was reported that ‘the inmates of the Liskeard Union Workhouse were regaled with tea and cake on Christmas Day’ and ‘6d per head was given to all the permanent out-door paupers, in addition to their weekly pay’.

By Brian Oldham, Liskeard Museum volunteer and Bard of Gorsedh Kernow