Joel Griffett

I am a post-grad researcher born and raised in Perranporth and my topic of study is ‘the lost years’ of Richard Trevithick in Latin America 1816-27, the only part of the great Cornish inventor’s life that remains a mystery. I began this project in September 2022 with the first of many trips to Latin America on the trail of Trevithick, entirely unsure of what I’d find. Returning the following May after scouring the archives of countries like Peru and Costa Rica I found it would be possible to write the first in-depth study of his eleven-year adventure and I joined the Institute of Cornish Studies in January 2024 to continue this project in an academic manner. Alongside my studies, I published my first book last year, Long Road to Nowhere, a travelogue recounting my own adventures in the footsteps of Trevithick and other Cornish miners across the deserts and mountains of Chile and Bolivia.

https://thetrevithicktrailcouk.wordpress.com

Email: jg1014@exeter.ac.uk