Paper short abstract:

The Cornish Revivalists' early twentieth century efforts to recover and maintain "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall” highlight the motivating yet complex forces of cultural identity and nostalgia - as well as the challenge of authenticity - in revitalising lost crops.

Paper long abstract:

In exploring the story of 'pillas', it is impossible to ignore the Cornish Revivalists. Pillas is a naked-grained diploid oat once cultivated across the British Isles, becoming largely restricted to Cornwall by the 1700s-1800s. Cornish Revivalism - which took off in the early twentieth century as part of a wider assertion of Celticity - sought to instil pride in Cornish identity, in part through the nostalgic work of the Old Cornwall Societies, which aimed to recover and maintain "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall”; particularly the Cornish language. Although its local cultivation had ceased during the mid-1800s, several revivalists expressed an interest in pillas, and one acquired seed of ‘Avoine nue grosse’ from a French catalogue believing it to be the same naked oat; subsequently cultivating, exhibiting, and sharing it.

Although Cornish Revivalism has been vital to sustaining ethnobotanical engagement with pillas across generations, it now seems that this seed was misidentified, and was in fact the commoner hexaploid naked oat. Consequently, this case stresses the challenge of authenticity in the revitalisation of lost crops - as well as highlighting cultural identity and nostalgia as motivating albeit complex forces - echoing questions raised over ‘Middle’ versus ‘Late’ texts as the basis for revived a Cornish language. Remarkably - thanks to its reputation as a collectors’ curiosity - the diploid naked oat has survived ex-situ, offering the chance to apply these lessons to a renewed attempt at in-situ revitalisation.