Qualla: Telegraph, Isles of Scilly

Telegraph, Isles of Scilly: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0. At 51 metres above sea level, this small settlement on the north-west of St Mary's is the highest point on the largest island of the Isles of Scilly - which, given how low and flat the archipelago is, makes it the roof of the whole place. The name has nothing to do with elevation, however. It comes from the Victorian telegraph tower that once stood on the summit, and from a single 30-mile copper-and-hemp cable that, in September 1869, was uncoiled from a Newcastle steamer and laid across the sea floor between Land's End and Deep Point on St Mary's. For the first time, news from London reached Scilly in minutes instead of days.

Image: Mike Knell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Telegraph, Isles of Scilly: Connecting a Distant Island

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0. Through most of the 19th century the Isles of Scilly were a week's news behind London. The mail packet boats from Penzance ran when the weather allowed and often did not. In the late 1860s a Mr Buxton, a local advocate, lobbied the Post Office to install a submarine telegraph. Th...

Image: Mike Knell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Telegraph, Isles of Scilly: Thirty Miles in One Piece

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0. The cable itself was a marvel of Victorian rope-making and electrical engineering. Three copper wires sheathed in India rubber sat at the core, manufactured by the Silvertown Company. Around them ran six strands of Manilla hemp, each strand encasing a galvanised iron wire for ten...

Image: Mike Knell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Telegraph, Isles of Scilly: Cable Day

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0. On Saturday 25 September 1869 the steamer Fusilier, under Captain Jacques, anchored off Mill Bay on the Cornish coast, a small cove about a mile and a half south of Land's End. The crew fired rockets carrying lines ashore; the lines were used to haul the heavy cable end onto the ...

Image: Mike Knell | CC BY-SA 2.0

Telegraph, Isles of Scilly: The Tower and the Golf Club

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0. The cable broke in mid-1870 and had to be repaired. A second cable was laid the same year, this one routed through the wider postal telegraph system so that messages could go to or from any Post Office in the United Kingdom for an extra shilling. A branch to Tresco was opened on ...

Image: Mike Knell | CC BY-SA 2.0