The Journal has been maintained since March 2005 to promote awareness and the conservation of the incomparable but often-threatened prehistoric sites of Britain, Ireland and beyond.
Another short article from the pen/keyboard of Myghal Map Serpren.
Trelissick House and gardens can be found at Feock near Truro in Cornwall.
Trelissick was recorded as ‘Trelesyk’ in 1275CE which translates from the Cornish ‘tre Lesyk’ as ‘Leidic’s farm’.
The property which is now managed by the National Trust incorporates the grand house which was designed in the 1750s and its surrounding grounds.
A round-headed, granite cross can be found standing approximately 300 yards to the South East of the house.
Dating from the Medieval Period (1066CE to 1539CE) and set on a steep bank in woodland, this is not the original home of the cross which is thought to have been brought from its true site of Tredrea in St. Erth where it was in the higher corner of the orchard in 1844CE.
Trelissick Cross – note the figure of Christ in relief and the damage at the top right of the cross.
As noted by Preston-Jones, Langdon and Okasha in their ‘Ancient and High Crosses of Cornwall’ (University of Exeter Press, 2021), “Many wayside crosses were ‘rescued’ by local gentry and moved to their estates and gardens to act as landscape or garden features.’” Thus it appears that the cross at Trelissick joined many others being uprooted from their original sites around Cornwall and repurposed as garden ‘ornaments’.
Now scheduled and protected, the cross which is constructed of a coarse-grained granite, has one side of the head cut off and stands at approximately 3 feet 7 inches in height.
The front of the cross bears a figure of Christ in relief. Meanwhile, the back has traces of a very defaced long shafted cross with incised outlines.
References:
Placenames in Cornwall and Scilly – Craig Weatherhill, Wessex Books in association with Westcountry Books, Launceston, Cornwall 2005
“To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plow”. Burns apologises with stunning sincerity:
I’m truly sorry man’s dominion, Has broken nature’s social union, An’ justifies that ill opinion, Which makes thee startle At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, An’ fellow-mortal!
But it’s not just the natural world we need to apologise to. It’s our own History. Imagine if a Government somewhere allowed an army of forty thousand mercenaries to hunt it down and mostly destroy it by keeping shtum?
“The Council will not grant permission to speculative metal detecting on their land, they will consider requests for archaeologist or educational projects or for location of underground services or recovery of lost personal objects.”
Bravo! You won’t find that phrase, “speculative metal detecting” used anywhere else by anyone ever yet that’s what 99% of metal detecting consists of! Random and object-centred rather than targeted, scientific and purely in pursuit of knowledge. There is nothing “responsible” about that. That’s why the Council only consider requests for archaeologist or educational projects on their land. They owe it to their ratepayers and the public whose knowledge it is.
I think it’s time the new phrase was adopted by other landowners as well as archaeologists and PAS. Speculative metal detecting: just three words that are owed to the public.
A granite wayside cross stands at the roadside passing Gwealavellan Farm on the inland side of Reskajeage Downs, one of several such items of historical and archaeological interest in the area between Illogan Parish, Camborne Parish and the rugged North Cliffs of Cornwall.
Measuring some 5 feet 10 inches in height, it was one of 13 crosses marking the church route from Gwithian to Camborne Church although it has had something of a chequered history before coming to eventual rest during August 1999 in an ancient landscape which is also rich in the Cornish language.
Reskajeague Cross from the NE (taken by the author). Note the missing projection on the left.
This Medieval (1066CE to 1539CE) monument has a wheel head containing a broad cross below which were two projections, one on each side of the shaft. Sadly, one of these has been lost due to damage. It languished as a gatepost for many years, buried head down and defaced by having holes bored into it (and the projection removed) to allow for gate hanging.
It was again uprooted in 1995, then to rest in a field at nearby Butney Corner just north of Menadarva until 1998 at which time it was taken to Gwealavellan Farm, along the road by the farmer, Mr Ernest Bowden, who knew of the stone since 1966 but until recent times and as it was upended, was unaware of its historic significance.
Thankfully, following negotiations between Mr Bowden and Camborne Old Cornwall Society, it was on 24th August 1999, that the stone was re-erected on a new base set near the old Reskajeage, Gwealavellan, Menadarva, Kehelland to Camborne church route. Being adjacent to fields recorded in 1737CE as being named Parc an Grouse and Parken Grown, alongside the minor road between Carlenno and Gwealavellan where it is joined by the church path route, this seemed a most suitable location with toponymic precedent for the decision, although searches for the original base stone have proven fruitless.
Reskajeague Cross from the SW (taken by the author). Note the holes used for gate hinges.
‘Parc an Grouse’ and ‘Parken Grown’ both translate from the Cornish as ‘the cross field’, and join other local fields with names recorded in the 1840CE Tithe Survey and which together share fragments of ancient field systems together with the remains of an oval-shaped Iron Age round.
The farm settlement’s name of ‘Gwealavellan’ is again Cornish, derived from ‘gwel an velyn’ translating as ‘the mill field’ according to Craig Weatherhill’s research rather than the alternative ‘view of the mill’ suggested by others.
The nearby parish boundary dividing Illogan and Camborne is, in the main, delineated by field hedges which extend to the cliffs. Interestingly, in 1601CE, this boundary was recorded as ‘Keasek Vres’ translating from the Cornish ‘ke segh uras’ or ‘great dry hedge’.
Of Reskajeage itself, recorded as Roscadaek in 1317CE, Reskaseak Downs in 1673CE, Riskejeake Downs in 1723CE and finally Reskajeage Downs in 1888CE, the name translates from the Cornish ‘ros Cajek’ as ‘Cadoc’s hillspur’. The downs themselves are named after the settlement of Ruschedek recorded in 1235CE.
Reskajeage abounds in archaeological sites, Bronze Age (2,500 – 800BCE) barrows and there have been numerous finds of implements from the Mesolithic (8,000 – 4,000BCE) and Neolithic (4,000 – 2,500BCE) eras. The area also boasts numerous settlement names which have direct Cornish language roots.
A further Medieval cross is recorded at Callean, not far from the site of the current one. Records show that this was uprooted by the Basset family and relocated to Tehidy House where it stood between the conservatory and the nursery. It remained there until the great fire at Tehidy in 1919CE and thereafter, sadly, disappeared.
Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of Reskajeage though is the possibility that it was the site of a great battle which occurred back in the mists of time.
Indeed, in 1926CE, Dr T. F. G. Dexter B.A., B.Sc., Royal Institution of Cornwall, wrote that Reskajeage derived from ‘’Roskedek’ recorded in 1236CE as ‘heath of many battles’.
This battle is commemorated by a one-time menhir later repurposed as a Christian Cross which now stands in the churchyard of St Martin & St Meriadoc in Camborne following a rather laborious journey.
Intriguingly called ‘Meane Cadoarth’ and also ‘Meane Cadoacor‘ and ‘Maen Cadoar’, and with ‘Meane’ and others deriving from the Cornish ‘men’ meaning ‘stone’ with a descriptor, this long stone is believed to date from the Bronze Age but was subject to extensive alterations in order to convert it into a Christian Cross in the Early Medieval to Medieval period.
Maen Cadoar (Connor Downs Cross)
It was initially situated on the boundary of the Gwithian and Gwinear Parishes and recorded in the Gwinear parish bounds of 1613CE as “Maen Cadoarth” and “the Battle Stone” and in 1651CE recorded as “the long stone called Meane Cadoarth”. By 1755CE it was said to be laying at a roadside between Camborne and Redruth and by 1896CE it had become a gate post. Finally, the landowner of the Rosewarne Estate, Mr Van Grutten allowed the stone to be moved to its current position on 1st November, 1904CE.
At the head of the former menhir, standing to a height of around six feet, Medieval alterations caused a cross to be formed by four rounded triangular sinkings. The shaft of the stone is beaded and the decoration consists of a panel with lines of shallow holes.
Local tradition now recorded informs that each hole represents the life of a man killed at the great battle at Reskajeage Downs.
Of this battle, nothing is currently known. Some have speculated that the Cadoc included in toponymical research of Reskajeage is in the Cornish Royal lineage of King Doniert and that the spur and battle were named for him. Cadoc, also known as Condor, Candorus and other names, was a legendary Cornish nobleman and 16th Century antiquarians recorded him as Earl of Cornwall during the Norman conquest.
However, as with the menhirs, ancient sites, relics and stone crosses of Reskajeage and elsewhere, history moves irrevocably on and more has been forgotten than will ever be known.
Placenames in Cornwall and Scilly – Craig Weatherhill, Wessex Books in association with Westcountry Books, Launceston, Cornwall 2005
Cornish Names – Dr. T.F.G. Dexter B.A., B.Sc., Royal Institution of Cornwall, Longman Green and Co. Ltd. 1926 with a reprint D. Bradford Barton Ltd, Truro 1968
Unpublished notes of the late Craig Weatherhill
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His study found that rerouting traffic through a new 2-mile tunnel below the World Heritage site would have negligible impact on improving tranquillity and visitor experience at the site, contradicting key claims made by project sponsor, Highways England.
Bentley explained, “Highways England claims that removing and rerouting the A303 under the site would significantly improve tranquillity and people’s experience of the Stone Circle. However, we found that it would have a negligible impact on reducing overall noise levels. Tranquillity at the Henge is greatly affected by the noise, behaviour and sheer number of visitors each day, rather than traffic adjacent to the site.”
And of course, hiding the stones from the road will increase visitor numbers. English Heritage’s ambitions to increase gate receipts will DECREASE tranquillity not enhance it. Ironic and sad, isn’t it?
For years and years, we’ve been saying it (search yowling moggy): the pro-tunnel lobby keeps twisting reality and here’s the latest example: two images of different sections of the A303 carefully selected in time and space to suggest congestion is worse and more frequent than it is. So frankly, a visual fib.
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But this one’s worse: a LOCAL needs a satnav to drive along the road! Really? And that’s not all, he says his Satnav is always wrong, and his journey always takes longer than planned. Really?
Treslothan lays just to the south of Camborne in West Cornwall. The location was recorded as ‘Tresulwethan’ in 1319 which translates from the Cornish language ‘tre Sulwedhan’ as ‘Sulwethan’s farm’, with Sulwedhan being a personal name. The very fact that it has a Cornish name suggests that it dates from the times before the arrival of the Norman age. The place was mentioned in 1282.
A chapel in Treslothan was licensed in 1427 and dedicated to St. James. This is now no more but it is believed that it lay in the near vicinity of the current church.
The present church, which is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and which was constructed following the generous financial patronage of Edward William Wynne Pendarves M.P. to the designs of George Wightwick, was opened on 6th October 1841 and was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Exeter on 25th July 1842 as a chapel of ease to Camborne before the creation of its parish in 1845.
The mausoleum of the Pendarves family is in the churchyard and near to this may be found the final resting place of John Harris (born 14th October 1820, died 7th January 1884), that great Cornish miner, poet and Methodist lay preacher who from humble beginnings, later became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1879 for being ‘distinguished in letters’.
At the east external end of the church building stands a wheel headed cross which has travelled the parish before reaching this, its permanent home. Listed as being of medieval construction, i.e. the period 1066 CE to 1539 CE, this granite cross measures some 2 feet 7 inches in height, with the head being 1 foot 7 inches wide. One face bears a Latin Cross in relief and the other an unusual representation of Christ with an inverted horse-shoe shaped border.
Originally a wayside cross, it is not known where it originally stood before around 1880. Around that time, it was discovered in a ditch and reset on to a wall at the nearby Killivose.
A few years later, it suffered a further fall and was relocated to Pendarves House where it remained until about 1956 when it was moved again to where it now stands.
Referred to as ‘Pendarves No 1’ by T F G Dexter in his ‘Cornish Crosses Christian and Pagan’, the splayed leg design on the cross is compared to a Phoenician figure, itself based upon a Hittite design, possibly developed from the Egyptian Ankh. This was consecrated to Tanit and is thought of as a symbol of the Punic Trinity. Dexter is well known for ideas that are looked down upon by modern scholars, specifically his attempts to link Christianity and its symbology to much more ancient ‘pagan’ religious concepts.
In the book ‘Old Cornish Crosses’ published in 1896 by that great antiquarian, Arthur G. Langdon, there is some confusion as it is apparent that he thought there were two crosses, the one at Killivose and another at Pendarves.
However, in ‘Christian Antiquities of Camborne’ by Professor Charles Thomas published in 1967, the confusion is finally cleared and the two crosses earlier mentioned clarified as being one and the same.
All images provided by the author.
References:
Place Names in Cornwall and Scilly by Craig Weatherhill (Wessex Books, Westcountry Books, Launceston 2005)
Lake’s Parochial History of Cornwall by Joseph Polsue (John Camden Hotton, Piccadilly , 1872)
Cornish Church Guide and Parochial History of Cornwall by Charles Henderson (D. Bradford Barton Ltd. Truro 1925 reprinted 1964)
Cornish Crosses, Christian and Pagan by T F G and Henry Dexter (Longmans, Green & Co, London 1938)
Old Cornish Crosses by Arthur G. Langdon with an article by J. Romilly Allen FSA (Scot) (John Pollard, Truro 1896)
Christian Antiquities of Camborne by Professor Charles Thomas (Warne, St Austell 1967)
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