Registered Charity No. 105565 NEWSLETTER 142 October 2016 Registered220162016 Charity No. 1055654 Tregeseal Stone Circle, St Just. NG387324. The eastern circle of a line of 3 similar to the Hurlers, Liskeard. All that remains of the central circle are four stones incorporated into a hedge. The western circle disappeared centuries ago. September is a good month to visit the Penwith Moors. Photo AFR. The President’s piece from Nicholas Johnson. Professor Charles Thomas, founder member, former President, Vice- President, and Honorary Editor of our Society died 7 April this year, aged 87 and was buried in Gwithian Churchyard following a service in Gwithian Chapel. The Chapel had been bought by the Thomas family to prevent it closing, and it seems entirely appropriate that he should now rest in the village so closely associated with his family and archaeological roots. A very large audience gathered at St Mary’s Methodist Church, Truro in July to hear Professors Rosemary Cramp and Peter Fowler, the broadcaster Kate Adie, his son Martin Thomas and myself speak on many aspects of Charles’ very busy life. This was followed with a reception hosted by the Royal Institution of Cornwall, an organisation he held in very special regard. Over the summer I have been involved in the transfer of his archaeological excavation archives, books, and manuscripts to the Royal Institution of Cornwall at the Royal Cornwall Museum. I have been helping Angela Broome and Oliver Padel sort through many hundreds of books and journals, and Sara Chambers, Jacky Nowakowski and Carl Thorpe sort through the archives and finds from the Gwithian excavations as well as other material from Tean, Fenton –Ia, Merther-Uny and Tintagel in Cornwall, and further afield from the island of Lundy, and the Scottish islands of Ardwall, Whithorn, and Iona. This has been a privilege, a great sadness and also a revelation. The first two feelings need no further explanation, but some of the revelations are worth recording here. Without wishing to pre-empt the full tribute that will be published in the next Cornish Archaeology, I think it is worth giving a flavour of what an extraordinary man Charles Thomas was. Having had the pleasure of visiting Lambessow on many occasions I was aware that Charles had amassed a huge library. What I hadn’t appreciated was that he also had amassed a staggeringly large and nationally significant collection of military insignia consisting of over 100,000 items. He was a compulsive collector. Luckily for us he was also an inveterate cataloguer and as many of us remember he loved making lists. His library was fully catalogued, his archaeological collections were catalogued, his publications, no matter how small, were catalogued, his thousands of buttons, badges, shoulder flashes and his regiments of lead soldiers were all identified, described and catalogued, his many hundreds of slides and photographs were marked and identified, and the Thomas family archive has been catalogued. In fact every purchase he ever made was meticulously listed with its price and dealer. He had catalogues of lists and lists of catalogues and all were updated regularly. Everywhere were hundreds and hundreds of typed up labels stuck onto artefacts, files, and boxes whether boxes of photo negatives or boxes of spare arms, legs or ‘heads with turbans’ for his soldiers. We found sets of card indexes that record Early Christian Inscribed stones around the Britain and Ireland, and the place names of Scilly. His trusty portable typewriter cannot have ever been silent. He never moved on to computers and his catalogues and lists stand as a fascinating reminder of how research was carried out in the pre electronic age, and for this reason will now be absorbed into the RIC collections. Sorting out the archaeological material was relatively straightforward, even if the tobacco tins and wooden fruit crates containing many artefacts need re-packing! Whilst the militaria has now gone to auction, the sorting through the books and periodicals was a huge task and it was heartbreaking to see this great library broken up. However over 100 boxes of material are now with the RIC and will make a great addition to its library and collections. With the passing of time it is easy to forget just how active a member of CAS he was. I give a few examples here to illustrate this. Whilst a lecturer in Edinburgh and then Professor at Leicester he edited the West Cornwall Field Club Proceedings and then Cornish Archaeology from 1952 to 1975, a staggering 24 years. During that time he not only wrote the editorials, contributed articles, short notes, excavation news, and book reviews but also many of the Society’s field and site guides. In addition he was responsible for three important initiatives all published in the journals that indicate his ability to gather together and organise huge amounts of data. 1. In 1958 he encouraged the West Cornwall Field Club and later CAS, to be the first archaeological society in the country to publish parish checklists of archaeological sites and monuments and he himself went on to compile the checklists for Gwithian, Gwinear and Camborne. Parish Checklists were an important influence in the later development of Sites and Monuments Records (now Historic Environment Records) that underpin archaeology today. 2. He initiated the Cumulative Index of Cornish Archaeology annual Index in 1952 with a retrospective list of all archaeological publications since 1932. This continued for 20 years amounting to an astonishing 1118 archaeological references. His lists of published material from 1932-72 give us a real insight into the width and depth of his interests and the access he had to libraries in Edinburgh, Leicester, at the Royal Institution of Cornwall and of course at his various homes. It is easy to forget that in a pre- computer age these bibliographic reference lists were an essential part of research. 3. In addition, when he took on the editorship of Cornish Archaeology he began to compile an annual Digest of Cornish Periodicals from 1960 to 1974. These 12 lists comprised a summary of each periodical for that year and the range usually covered more than a dozen periodicals and reflected his eclectic yet broad interest in Cornish history, culture and natural history. His library contained a battered leather-bound book with hand-written yearly lists of everything he had ever published since 1948. Whilst the number of articles, books, pamphlets, guides and reviews are prodigious it is the breadth of subject that is particularly striking. Whilst much of the subject matter is well enough known- prehistoric archaeology, Post-Roman and Early Christian archaeology, and Inscriptions; what is less well known are his many articles concerning the development of professional archaeology, military insignia and military units in Cornwall and elsewhere, local folk-lore and dialect studies, nationalism and politics in Cornwall, the history of Methodism, the importance of local history studies and last but not least poetry and fiction. As well as being editor of our journal he also excavated with the Society during the summers at St Dennis Hillfort, and Castilly Henge. In 1962 he rediscovered St Ia’s Chapel and Holy Well, Troon and partially excavated the site in 1966 using his Early Christian Archaeology extra mural class from Truro. He also used students and CAS members to investigate the Medieval chapel built inside an Iron Age Round at Merther Uny, Wendron in 1968. He never quite lost his interest in megalithic tombs and was very pleased to be able excavate the Early Bronze Age entrance grave at Bosiliack, Madron in 1984.(See Picture) Typically in the months before he died he was actively involved in our project to re visit the Mesolithic site on North Cliffs, Camborne where he had first started collecting flint tools over 50 years ago. He was also looking forward to examining the 7th century inscription on a newly discovered Inscribed Stone in West Cornwall and was excited about the upcoming excavations at Tintagel. One way of cherishing his memory is to keep our Society active and looking forwards. It is particularly heartening that the Society has been organising work at North Cliffs, Camborne, at the Iron Lode near Restormel Roman Fort, at Carvossa, and members are also involved at the excavations at Tintagel and The Hurlers. This has been a very busy summer. Lastly I would like to congratulate Adrian on producing our Newsletter over so many years, and in acknowledging this great contribution, we must recognise that he now wishes to pass on the baton. So please, if you wish or you know of anyone who might be keen to take on this interesting and vital part of our work, then contact Adrian to have a chat. Pip Richards Pip sadly passed away on Saturday 7th May and was buried within view of Carwynnen Quoit on Saturday 14th May. It was a private ceremony, but on 3rd July Pip’s Field, as it is now known, was a scene for a celebration of her life by many people whom she had inspired and influenced. Pip was known to CAS members for her heroic efforts to raise money from HLF and other charities, including CAS, to raise Carwynnen Quoit which had fallen in the 1960s. Her charity, “The Sustainable Trust” commissioned CAU to excavate the area around the quoit while she acted as project manager. To Pip there were no limits to the possibilities of such a project. Her own interests ranged across dowsing, Cornish language studies, all aspects of the natural world, music, poetry and storytelling. She showed us what could be done to involve schoolchildren and adults in the mystery and romance of archaeology.