When Drekly Made Time for Cornwall

You’ll hear the word ‘Dreckly’ all the time in Cornwall. If you’re not Cornish you might assume it stands for ‘Directly’, and in a way it does. But its true meaning is far more complex than most think. And behind it lies a tall-but-true tale that few have heard and fewer would believe.

There’s a common misconception that ‘Dreckly’ is the Cornish equivalent of ‘Manana’. It does refer to time, which may or may not be tomorrow, but more precisely it refers to a specific unit of time.[1] For example, if you were to ask Cornwall’s leading salmon descaler, Merryn Spargo of Praze-an-Beeble, ‘When will my delivery arrive?’ she might answer: ‘Your smooth-skinned migratory fish will be there dreckly.’ As a new customer of hers, you might not find this response particularly helpful. But it is, surprisingly, an accurate description of the due date.

How can that possibly be true?

It’s tricky to explain, but in over-the-Tamar[2] terms, it's because time in Cornwall passes at a different speed to everywhere else in the world. So we can’t say your delivery will be there in 30 minutes, because your 30 minutes is different to ours. And time in Cornwall has been different for more than 1500 years.

How can that possibly be true?

Well…