From Cornwall to the Crystal Palace: The Remarkable Ramblings of Mary Kelynack

I’m delighted to introduce my new work in progress - the story of Mary Kelynack, a 75-year-old Cornish fishwife who decided to do something that, even today, sounds astonishing. In the summer of 1851 she set out on foot from her fishing village at the far tip of Cornwall, bound for London and the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. That’s more than 300 miles on roads that were sometimes little more than a rutted track. 
A fish jouster from Newlyn
Mary was known in her community as a fish jouster - a word used in West Cornwall for the women who trudged miles inland with heavy baskets of fish balanced on their backs, selling door to door or at markets. It was gruelling work, and the women who did it were tough, wiry, and weathered. By 75, most would have slowed down. But Mary, it seems, still had both strength and curiosity to spare.
The lure of the Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, brainchild of Prince Albert, promised to showcase the wonders of the modern world. From machinery and inventions to exotic goods from across the globe, it was unlike anything seen before. For someone from Newlyn - a small, tight-knit fishing village - the idea of such a spectacle must have felt like an irresistible adventure. And so Mary, with little more than her determination, set out.
Fame in the capital
Mary’s arrival in London caused a sensation. The newspapers quickly took up her story: an elderly Cornish fishwife who had walked all the way from Penzance to see the marvels of the age. She became a celebrity overnight. Crowds gathered to see her, and journalists sketched her - a stout figure, apron tied firmly, black hat with its wide brim flopping down, and a basket never far from reach.
Her celebrity carried her into extraordinary places. She was presented to the Lord Mayor of London, and - most remarkable of all - to Queen Victoria herself, who was reportedly charmed by this determined old woman from the far west. In an age when class and respectability mattered so much, Mary broke through by sheer force of character.
Immortalised in art and music
Mary’s fame didn’t stop at a few newspaper columns. She was immortalised in several ways: a bust was sculpted of her by the gifted Cornish sculptor Neville Northy Burnard, who would go on to carve monuments to statesmen and aristocrats. Broadside ballads and poems celebrated her story. Even a polka was composed in her name, a piece of music that could be danced to in drawing rooms far removed from the narrow lanes of Newlyn.
For a brief moment, Mary was everywhere - a living curiosity, a symbol of Cornish grit, and a reminder that celebrity has never been limited to the rich and powerful.
More than a curiosity
From Cornwall to the Crystal Palace, is more than a colourful anecdote from Victorian England. It’s about how people like Mary - working-class women, elderly widows, those who lived lives of physical endurance - could capture the public imagination. It’s about the tension between how she saw herself (simply a woman determined to see the wonders of the world) and how society framed her (a quaint provincial oddity to be celebrated and, in some cases, laughed at).
In following Mary’s story, I also hope to capture the broader sweep of her world: the fishing communities of Cornwall, the roads and coaching inns of 19th-century England, and the teeming spectacle of London in 1851. Her “ramblings” - both the footsteps that took her to the Crystal Palace and the stories that others told about her - open a window into a moment when Britain was both deeply rooted in tradition and racing towards modernity.
Why Mary?
Because she is unforgettable. At once ordinary and extraordinary, Mary Kelynack embodies resilience, stubbornness, humour, and an appetite for life that leaps off the page. She reminds us that history isn’t only shaped by monarchs and ministers but also by women who sold fish in coastal towns, who walked impossible distances, who stood in front of the Queen and did not bow to anyone’s expectations.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be sharing extracts, illustrations, and reflections as this project unfolds. I hope you’ll join me in following Mary’s journey - step by step, From Cornwall to the Crystal Palace.