nellie slogGett aka Enys Tregarthen

Writer, Folklorist

1850-1923

Suggested by Sheona Grant

Sheona says, “Cornish folklore is epic with many of Cornwall’s leading ladies. Including her in the collection of plates would be a good way to commemorate all women related to Cornish Folklore.”

Here are some notes on Nellie made by me from an online talk by Dr Simon Young about her in 2023 for Kresen Kernow:

Nellie Sloggett born in Padstow in Dec 1950 to a very poor family, was an only child raised by her mother Sarah as her father was at sea. When she was 6 her father died and at 16 she suffered an event that left her paralysed for life. Fortunately Nellie and her mother were able to move in with Sarah’s sister Lavinia, married to Charles Rawle who had come from poor beginnings to be a wealthy shipyard owner in Padstow.

Physically confined, Nellie read, kept diaries about flowers, the changing seasons, the birds and other creatures, all observed from her bedside. This led to the publication, Daddy Longlegs (1885) under the name of Nellie Cornwall. She published many stories for young people all with a Christian message. Latterly she turned to folklore and legend. A friend writing about her at that time suggests she had experienced seeing faeries. This might account for her change in interest.

Nellie wrote 42 stories and published three volumes of Cornish folklore between 1905 & 1911 using the name Enys Tregarthen. These include Piskies Folklore & Legends, The Maid of the Storm, The Piskey-Purse, The House of the Sleeping Wind, and North Cornwall Fairies & Legends. The most lavishly produced of her books was “House of the Four Winds”, dedicated to the Bishop of Truro with a preface by Thurstan Peter an eminent historian. 

In 1938 an American writer Elizabeth Yates gained access to Nellie’s unpublished material, edited it and published Piskey Folk: A Book of Cornish Legends (1940), The Doll Who Came Alive (1940) and The White Ring (1949).