About

Lottie Fern (née Parnell), September 1912 © Past Recipes

On a stormy Christmas Eve in 1912 a young couple were married at St Mary's Chapel in Truro, Cornwall. They were John Benjamin Fern, a Mining Surveyor and Engineer, and Lottie Parnell, the daughter of a St Agnes coastguard. That Christmas, perhaps while setting up her new home, Lottie wrote out a notebook full of family recipes. Over one hundred years later, that notebook has come to me.

Past Recipes is a new blog exploring West Country heritage through cooking, walking and historical research. I'm Katie, an Architectural Conservation graduate from Cornwall, and I was inspired to start the project by the discovery of my great-great-grandmother Lottie's handwritten recipe book from 1912. I write about my research into Lottie's life in early 20th century Cornwall, my experiments with her traditional recipes, and the walks I take to burn off the resulting calories!

You can read more about the blog in my Welcome post.

Thank you for visiting Past Recipes, I hope you enjoy your time on the site!

I would love to hear from you, so please feel free to comment or to catch up with me on social media.

Katie