• Knowing Our Boundaries • Keen Eyes at Old Kea
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
1 AN UPDATE FROM CORNWALL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY’S AREA REPRESENTATIVES Any opinions or errors in these articles are those of the authors and must not be assumed to be those of Cornwall Archaeological Society. JUNE 2019 Issue 31 This month: KNOWING OUR BOUNDARIES KEEN EYES AT OLD KEA PAINTING WHITECROSS NEWS FROM PENWITH DISPATCHES FROM VICE-ADMIRAL COLLINGWOOD KERDROYA BROADCAST FROM BODMIN STOP PRESS: APPEAL FOR INFORMATION!!!! KNOWING OUR BOUNDARIES Rosy Hanns has immersed herself in a massive endeavour to plot and record the numerous boundary stones in Cornwall. No doubt many of us have stumbled across (or even over) these mysterious objects while out and about and have wondered what the letters carved on them once signified. Though not the most impressive of features, they may indicate estate ownership or parish or other boundaries, and therefore help to tell the story of local land-use, social structures and power at the time of their placement. Rosy has sent in photographs of stones she has discovered around Treslea Downs in Cardinham and Warleggan parishes. The map below shows various stones plotted in 1881; now Rosy is recording these in order to inform Cornwall Council’s Historic Environment record (which can be found at https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/community-and-living/mapping/). 2 Treslea Downs from the 1881 Ordnance Survey Six- inch to the mile map XXVII.SW. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/copyright.html Spotting these stones on old maps is one thing; actually finding them on the ground is something else, as Rosy has found. Here are some of the 7 stones she has located on Treslea Downs: The stone at SX 14667 68808. More research is needed but Rosy has suggested that the ‘A’ indicates land owned by the Agar-Robartes family of Lanhydrock. Photo: Rosy Hanns 3 The boundary stone at SX 14160 68334. Photo: Rosy Hanns The stone at SX is somewhat different and would appear to mark the boundary between Cardinham and Warleggan parishes. Photo: Rosy Hanns It is only by such painstaking research of once commonplace features like this that historians and archaeologists can build an accurate understanding of the historic environment, so Rosy deserves great praise for undertaking the task. 4 KEEN EYES AT OLD KEA Area Rep Sheila James was alerted to work at Old Kea and has provided the following report of her investigations thus far: The 15th century tower of Old Kea Church Photo: Sheila James Old Kea churchyard is normally a quiet spot. Recently however it has been the site of considerable activity as volunteers have been clearing part of the churchyard, and a new disabled access and parking area are planned. In February CAS member Nigel Baker contacted the society to say that a number of trees in the churchyard had been felled, and the clearance work had exposed the old churchyard boundary wall. The wall appeared to contain a number of regular holes, perhaps indicating that it had been the wall of an old building. AR Sheila James visited the site and reported that the trees had been felled due to 5 disease. At that point the wall was still covered with ivy but it was possible to see that the holes do go right through, and there also appear to be similar holes in the wall in front of the chapel. Old Kea Churchyard wall Photo: Sheila James A follow-up visit was made in May to see how the work was progressing. By this time much of the area behind the chapel had been cleared and volunteers were busy tidying up the site. The ivy had been completely cleared exposing the whole length of the wall. The section immediately behind the chapel had at one time been plastered and painted, indicating it had been part of a small building. Judging from the rusty ironwork left behind, it was thought that this could have been the churchyard privy! Further up the wall there is a short section which appears to be the gable wall of a building on the far side, and beyond this the wall seems to be topped with cap stones. Whatever the history of this wall, it has certainly seen some changes. According to the record, there has been a church on the site since at least the 13th C. Population changes meant that by the start of the 19th C the church was no longer needed, and in 1803 it was pulled down, leaving only the 15th C tower. The mission chapel was built in 1862, replacing an old alms house which had been built on the same site following the demolition of the old church. The old tower still stands in the churchyard, and has been cleared of the ivy which was starting to affect the structure. Old Kea Chapel, from the rear 6 Photo: Sheila James New trees have been planted in the cleared area behind the chapel, and the intention is to create a quiet space here for reflection. The church is still fund raising for the new disabled parking space and access. This will require cutting through the wall in front of the chapel. The work will be carried out in conjunction with the CAU, and may be an opportunity to learn a bit more about this ancient site. Report and photographs by Sheila James PAINTING WHITECROSS Have you ever looked around the interior of a medieval church and wondered how different the experience would have been when the features were painted in a rich variety of colours? Some crosses were painted too, as their names testify. Andrew Langdon has been involved with a project in Illogan which has seen the cross being painted. Here is his report: Photo: Andrew Langdon In the Old Cornwall journal Spring 2017, I wrote an article on White Crosses, and mentioned all the crosses which have been painted over the years and how there are five villages in Cornwall called Whitecross. In April 2018, we received a report that someone had painted the cross on Whitcross Hill in Illogan parish. (Whitcross being a corruption of White cross) This wheel-headed cross was discovered in 1930, built horizontally into the foot of a hedge at the top of the hill and was later set up on the 7 hedge by Redruth Old Cornwall Society in 1947. The cross has a damaged head, with part of the relief cross missing on one face. It seems rather more than a coincidence that after mentioning Whitcross Hill cross in my article, the cross is painted, although poorly, as if someone was in a hurry to get the job done. The incident was reported to Historic England because the cross is scheduled. The first painting of the cross. Photo: Andrew Langdon Later Carn Brea parish council took an interest in the cross being within their civil parish and they applied for Scheduled Monument Consent to re-paint the cross properly; this was done on the 24th June this year. The work was carried out by Bob Drew the chairman of the council with the assistance of their maintenance/groundsman Chris Harper. Councillor Bob Drew painting the cross Photo: Andrew Langdon 8 [Type a quote from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the documdocument.ent. Use the Drawing Tools tab to change the formatting of the pull quote text box.] Councillor Bob Drew doing a ‘proper job’ of painting the cross Photo: Andrew Langdon Report and photographs by Andrew Langdon NEWS FROM PENWITH Great progress is being made by the Penwith Landscape Partnership with their project, First and Last- Our Living Working Landscape. If you haven’t already visited their website, it can be found at https://www.penwithlandscape.com/. There is a cornucopia of fascinating information, plus details of how to volunteer in numerous activities, such as vegetation clearance, archaeological surveying, restoring Cornish hedges, and helping improve biodiversity. 9 Laura Ratcliffe- Warren is Ancient Penwith Project Officer, as well as CAS Area Rep. She has sent in this report about what has been going on recently: After a successful few months surveying some of the sites that were cleared of vegetation over the 2018/19 winter and spring, the volunteers are taking a bit of a break whilst we await the autumn and can move onto clearing more sites. Bracken that has sprung up on cleared sites will be being well and truly bashed over the next few months and that is enough to keep us all busy out and about. In the meantime, it’s planning the next round of clearance and surveying to fill in gaps and update the records for our chosen sites over the 5 years of the project, and more immediately, looking into training sessions for the volunteers we can do later this year. Things like basic photogrammetry, some geophysics, dowsing, enriching the list and some graffiti recording to name but a few: so watch this space for more information in due course although I hope to pass along these opportunities via the CAS website. We are going to be doing some clearing and investigation at Tregaminion Chapel and Holy Well in Morvah in early August and opportunities to join in will be circulated for that as well. The picture below shows Matt, our access officer, in the field where the Holy Well is, so - plenty to do! (The cows are in the next field, there is a wall in there somewhere.) Report and photographs by Laura Ratcliffe-Warren 10 DISPATCHES FROM VICE-ADMIRAL COLLINGWOOD Readers of The London Gazette on Wednesday November 6, 1805 would have experienced mixed emotions on reading this announcement from the Admiralty-Offices, which began: ‘DISPATCHES, of which the following are Copies, were received at the Admiralty this Day, at One o’Clock A.M.