2021-08 Newsletter

News
Feast Days
Newsletter – August 2021
August is a popular month to celebrate the feast days of several of our local saints, possibly
because in some cases the historic dates have been moved to take advantage of the better
weather! This month we will celebrate the feasts of St Anthony, St Gerrans, St Just and St
Symphorian (Veryan). So, we wish you: Gool Entenin Lowen, Gool Gerens Lowen, Gool Ust
Lowen & Gool Severyan Lowen!
Luxulyan Visit
On Wednesday 14 th July a group of our
members made a trip to Luxulyan Valley
where our visit was hosted by the Luxulyan Old
Cornwall Society.
Malcolm Gould and Ros Hayward led the walk
from Pontsmill up through the valley to Treffry
Viaduct and then back by way of the inclined
plane, taking in all of the industrial
archaeology on route.
Figure 1 St Gerrans & Porthscatho OCS at Trevanny Dry ©
Nev Meek 2021
The Luxulyan Valley with the Par River flowing
through it is very beautiful and packed full of
industrial archaeology.
Malcolm knows the clay industry inside out
and was able to take us through the details of
the clay production processes, whilst Ros
imparted a great deal of historical and local
knowledge.
The Treffry Viaduct constructed by Joseph
Treffry between 1839 and 1842 was the
highlight of the visit, but the wheel pit and
inclined plane were also spectacular.
Figure 2 Treffry Viaduct © Nev Meek 2021

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The large waterwheel was originally 30’ in
diameter and was driven by water from the
Carmears Leat. It was used to haul trucks up
the inclined plane from the valley floor. It was
almost 900 metres long.
In the 1870s the Cornwall Mineral Railway
was built through the valley and there was no
longer a need to haul trucks up the incline
which then fell out of use. The size of the
waterwheel was increased to 40’ diameter
and then used to grind china-stone.
After leaving the valley the Luxulyan OCS
hosted a visit to Luxulyan Church and St
Cyor’s Holy Well. The tea and banana cake
were excellent.
Figure 3 St Cyor's Holy Well © Nev Meek 2021
This was a fantastic day which everyone
enjoyed greatly. We look forward to receiving
Luxulyan OCS back to the Roseland at some
time in the future.
St Anthony Walk – Tuesday 10 th August
Our recorder extends an invitation to join him for a walk around St Anthony Head. Starting at
the headland car park at 10 am we will walk to Place and visit St Anthony Church and Monks
Well. Since this is the feast day of St. Anthony (and St. Gerrans) it will also be a sort of
pilgrimage too. We will walk to Bohortha before crossing over to the coast path at Porthbeor,
and returning to St Anthony along the coastal path.
Although this is an “informal” walk, we will of course explore all of the historic assets we
encounter on route. Please let Nev, our Recorder, know if you can attend.
This programme of outdoor visits and walks has been very successful in keeping our Society
active. Your continued support is much appreciated.
Committee News
Our Treasurer, Maggie George, intends to step down in the summer after having provided
valuable service over a number of years, we are therefore looking for a new Treasurer. In
addition, we would like to recruit some new general member to the committee to help us
take the organisation forward.
The programme of winter talks will always be a core part of our Society, but as you will see
from recent reports, we are also trying to expand our active work, including walks & visits,
and the recording & maintenance of historic assets.
Please contact our chairman if you feel able to contribute.

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St. Mawes Historic Walks
In August our committee member Alan
January, will be recommencing his historic
guided walks of St Mawes. The walks
commence at 1030 hrs every Wednesday,
meeting outside of the Roseland Visitors'
Centre.
The walks take about 1½ hours and will take
you through the history of the settlement
from when St. Maudit first arrive, to the
current day. The talk is also partially
illustrated by the showing of historic photos.
The cost is £5 per person, with under 16s free.
There is a 50p discount for OCS members.
Figure 4 St Mawes Holy Well © Nev Meek 2019
To ensure your place, you can book by telephoning Alan on 01326 270381, or alternatively
you can just attend on the day.
Gerrans Parish Heritage Centre
The current exhibition at the centre details the impact of WW2 on the parish and is well worth
a visit. An offer has been extended to OCS members to visit as a small group if they would
wish, so if you wish to visit outside of the normal hours, please let our Recorder know and we
will put arrangements in place.
Pam Case has announced her intention to stand down as manager of the Heritage Centre,
again after many years of outstanding service. If you are interested in the vacant post, details
can be obtained from Cynthia Calton, Secretary of Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall -
secretarygerranshall@gmail.com.
Additional information on our activities can be found on our website, Twitter and Facebook.
Local History
Memories of Jeffery Farnol
Last month we featured an article on the author Jeffery Farnol who visited Portscatho, and
came to live here for a period during WW2. Member and former OCS Secretary, Denise
Coomb has kindly sent us some of her memories of Jeffery: -
Before the war my mother kept a boarding house in Portscatho, initially at Porth Gate from
about 1920 and then in 1927 moved to Bridge House. In the earlier days Jeffery came and
stayed. I don’t know how frequently; he loved to chat and was very taken with the village. He
used the name or description of my father in a book he wrote – “Beltane the Smith” 1 .
1
Ed.: “Beltane The Smith” was first published in 1915. Thus, it seems likely that he may have visited Portscatho
before WW1. Denise’s grandmother ran a guesthouse at Treherne, and possibly he could have stayed there.

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I remember being told that when Jeffery stayed with my parents at Porth Gate in the early
twenties (1920s) my elder sister Charmian was a very small toddler. He was so taken with her
name, Charmian, that he asked my parents if they would mind if he used the name in one of
his books 2 . It turned up as a book entitled, “Charmian, Lady Vibart” 3 , one of his historical
romances. In addition, his daughter’s full name was Charmian Jane.
In the summer of 1939 he and his second wife Phyllis 4 , rented The Anchorage, the upper half
where the entrance is next to Pencabe. The lower half belonged to Gordon Oliver, (whose
sister Mrs Voss owned the Roseland House Hotel. I have the impression they were Welsh.)
and their front door faces up to the village with the name of the house on the front door.
Jeffery took to coming into our house after supper in the evening and chatted extensively to
my father who regaled him with stories about the village. One evening my mother was
preparing mushrooms for pickling. It must have been a good year for them! He was so
interested that he asked for the recipe and on a further visit brought some that he had done
...in exchange for one from Mother!
When the war began, every man in the village, it seemed, rallied to guard the village against
the feared invasion, how they did it is amazing. Before the Home Guard began, a rushed band
of all the able-bodied men in the village volunteered to guard vulnerable sites, this was the
Local Defence Volunteers (LDV).
Their weapons were anything that could be remotely considered suitable. Imagine my 42 yr.
old father disabled with a stiff leg, standing guard over the slipway and telephone box with
Jeffery Farnol, our local author, overweight and over 60. Their weapons were 2 Pikes from
Jeffery’s collection of old weapons. Not much defence against a tank! As the days went by,
the area was filled with service personnel of one sort or another, tank traps, and gun
emplacements and batteries all around. By this time the local men became auxiliary
coastguards, observer corps, home guard etc.
Jeffery also like to lean on the Lugger wall chatting to all the fishermen. Later it would appear
that he used this acquaintance as a background for his novel “Murder By Nail” 5 . In it, if I
remember rightly the parson reels off most of the beach names. His books are very old
fashioned for today’s taste, but then people enjoyed ‘rollicking yarns’. He actually gave my
brother 2 sets of all his books, 1 for Charles’ own use at home and one to take back for the
Mess when he returned from leave. It did not include Murder by Nail, as that was published
later.
2
Ed.: Charmian is a female personal name of Greek origin, meaning “joy”. The name is recorded in the writings
of Plutarch, and was used by Shakespeare in Anthony & Cleopatra (c.1607). Farnol used the name in "The
Broad Highway" published in 1910.
3
Ed: “Charmian, Lady Vibart” was first published in 1932.
4
Ed.: In 1938 Jeffery divorced his first wife, Blanche nee Hawley, and in the same year married Phyllis Clarke.
He adopted Phyllis’ daughter, Charmian “Jane”. Sources do not state whether he was her natural father.
5
Ed.: “Murder by Nail” was first published in 1942.

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Carwarthen
The round at Carwarthen is situated on an eastern slope, above the stream at the head of St
Just Creek. It measures 78 metres by 71 metres across, and is roughly oval in shape.
Figure 5 LIDAR Image Faintly Showing Carwarthen Round
The round was surrounded by a bank with a stone revetment on the inside. There was a ditch
outside of the bank, which was at least 1.5 metres wide and 1.8 to 3 metres deep. There was
an entrance through the bank on the western side.
It is believed to have been occupied from later prehistoric period through to the early
medieval. These rounds are usually interpreted as agricultural settlements.
In 1939 S. A. Opie conducted an excavation on the site. Finds included: -
1. Pottery dating from the Bronze Age.
2. Roman coins.
3. Pottery dating from C1 AD to C4 AD, including Samian ware and New Forest ware.
4. Pottery sherd dating from the early medieval period.
Figure 6 LIDAR Image with Position of Carwarthen Round Marked
Carwarthen now enjoys statutory protection, and is a scheduled monument It is situated on
private land with no public rights of way.

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Lost Locations – Gull Rock & Outer Stones
In this section we highlight the names of some of the less well-known places around Roseland.
This example is slightly unusual in that these names are very well known to the older
generation, yet not so well known to those in the younger generation. For those who
frequently view the rocks from Portscatho they appear to be in Gerrans Bay, however, this is
somewhat of an optical illusion since in actuality they are to the east of Nare Head and thus
in Veryan Bay.
Figure 7 O.S. Map Showing Gull Rock and Outer Stones 1906
Gull Rock was historically known as “Gref Islet” 6 or “The Gray” 7 and was still labelled as such
on the O.S. drawings of 1818 and the First Series O.S. map published in 1856. Speculatively,
this could have been a translation of the Cornish “Karrek Loos” ~ ‘Grey Rock’, “An Garrek
Loos” ~ ‘The Grey Rock’, or a corruption of “An Garrek” ~ ‘The Rock.” However, since the O.S.
Map of 1879 the main island has been consistently labelled as “Gull Rock” and this is the name
with which we are all now familiar.
There are also 3 further groups of rocks which extend in a line roughly south-west of Gull
Rock. We know these collectively as the “Outer Stones” although they do have another name
which is “The Whelps”. Whether this is a corruption of a former Cornish name one cannot
tell without historic examples. On the face of it, this is the English “whelp” meaning young
dog or puppy, from the Saxon “hwelp”.
6
Leland’s Itinerary of Cornwall c.1535
7
Map by Joel Gascoyne 1699 & Map of Thomas Martyn 1748

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The furthest away from Gull Rock is known as the “Outer Stone”, although back in 1818 and
1856 was labelled as “Outer Gull Rock”.
The centre rock seems to have been consistently known as the “Middle Stone”.
The rock nearest Gull Rock is the largest, and has been consistently labelled on maps as the
“Inner Stone”, but again this does have another name – “Lion Rock.” This name is not an
unusual name for coastal rocks in Cornwall, and some might conclude that it is so named
because it may be similar in shape to a lion lying down. However, the explanation again lies
with the Cornish Language, and it is probably a corruption and Anglicisation of the Cornish
“leghyon” meaning ‘slabs, ledges.’ Thus, probably the original name was “Karrek Leghyon” ~
‘Slabs Rock’.
Let’s make sure that these names stay alive on the tongues of our children and grandchildren.
If you are aware of any less well-known names, please highlight them with our Recorder.
Committee Spotlight – Arthur Coomb
In this section we highlight some of those who work so hard for our Society. In this article we
will look at the work of our committee member – Arthur Coomb.
Arthur Grenfell Coomb was born in Bedford on March 3rd 1929 the son of Arthur Arnold
Coomb and Irene Grenfell Warne, both of whom were born in Truro. Through Methodists
connection they knew each other as children and met again in 1918 when his father, who was
in the Royal Navy, docked in Portsmouth and his mother was teaching in Southsea. His father
later trained as a steam engineer although not in Cornwall.
Although not born in Cornwall Arthur has always been very proud of his Cornish heritage. His
paternal grandfather was Head teacher at the Wesleyan Boys Day School in Truro and his
maternal grandfather a Methodist minister at the Bible Christian chapel which is now a wine
merchant in Truro. The Coomb family had their summer holiday in Portscatho in 1913 and
according to The Cornish Echo Marjorie Coomb, Arthur’s aunt, gave a pianoforte solo at the
visitor’s concert.
Educated at Bedford Modern School he soon discovered that his interest was more devoted
to sport than academic studies! He left school in 1947 and did his National Service in the Royal
Navy without once going to sea but playing a lot of sport particularly cricket. As an opening
bowler he played Minor County cricket for Bedfordshire and Norfolk from 1947 to 1963 and
represented the Minor Counties XI against the South Africans, Indians and Australians in
1951/2/3. He also played Rugby for Bedford from 1949 to 1955.
Whilst still living in Bedford in 1952 he met Denise Elizabeth Over from Portscatho who had
taken a teaching post at a primary school in the town and they were married in October 1954.
After National Service his career was almost entirely in agriculture. He completed a 2-year
course specialising in Poultry Husbandry before working on the Unilever research farm in
Bedfordshire and then joining one of their animal feed manufacturing companies for 5 years
which took him from Bedfordshire to Norfolk. In 1959 he joined the Agricultural division of an
international chemical company and held various marketing positions in both the animal and

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
crop product departments until he retired in 1991. Four days after retiring he and Denise
moved to Portscatho.
Now in Cornwall, he became very involved in village life being Secretary of the Horticultural
& Handicraft Show for 14 years and then President until this year. He was also a member of
the Memorial Hall committee for 14 years and was invited to join the committee of the St
Gerrans & Porthscatho Old Cornwall Society in the mid-1990’s and has remained so ever since
using his camera to record many of the events taking place during that period. He was a
founder committee member of the Gerrans Parish Heritage Centre and now manages the
website at http://www.gerransheritage.co.uk/index.html .
Living in Cornwall has also enabled him to extensively research the Grenfell name that he
carries. What began as research into his branch of the family starting with his
gt.gt.grandmother Avis Grenfell born in 1754 the daughter of a blacksmith in Marazion has
expanded over the years to become a One-Name Study covering worldwide references to the
name with a website at http://grenfell.one-name.net/index.php .
During the 50 or so years of holidaying and living to Portscatho he has had a boat in the Porth
or at Percuil mainly for fishing and it has to be said the competition between the angler and
the bass was comfortably won by the latter!
Arthur remains an active committee member of our OCS and has special responsibility for
maintaining our liaison with the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies.
If you feel that you could spare a little time to become more involved in our committee work,
please contact our chairman who will be pleased to discuss opportunities.
Projects
Rosteague
Over the last couple of months, the OCS has
corresponded with and met with Mrs. Jay Milton,
the owner of Rosteague. As a result, we have
been asked to advise and assist with the
maintenance of two important local historic
assets – Rosteague Culverhouse and Nun’s Well.
During July our Recorder visited the sites with
Ann Preston-Jones from Historic England and
Andrew Langdon from Cornwall Archaeological
Society and the Federation of Old Cornwall
Societies.
A preliminary examination was conducted.
Although ruined, the surviving walls of the
culverhouse were found to be primarily stable.
Our Recorder will return in August to cut some ivy
hanging in front of the inner walls and to take
Figure 8 Ann Preston-Jones at Nun's Well © Andrew
Langdon

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some additional measurements. A rhododendron, growing from the walls will need to be
dealt with in the winter.
The well-house however is in a little more serious condition. It is currently overgrown by ivy
and laurel, which will have to be cut back and dealt with in the winter. There will be an
opportunity for members to become involved in this, in due course. Structurally there are
unfortunately some more serious issues; an internal lintel has broken and there are signs of
some stone work starting to collapse on the inside. So longer term, action may be required to
stabilise the structure.
Place-name of the Month – Carwarthen (St. Just) ~ Karwennran
As with all these cases, it is first necessary to examine the historic forms: -
Carwenran juxta Tredrim c.1250 (Gover, 1948)
Carwaran 1302 (Gover, 1948)
Kaerwerran 1313 (Henderson C. G. MSS)
Carwenran 1314 (Weatherhill, 2009)
Karwarran 1321 (Gover, 1948)
Carwarryn 1428 (Gover, 1948)
Carwarthen 1592 (Gover, 1948)
Carwarthen 1634 (CRO, P96/4/1)
Carwarthen 1693 (CRO, T/753/1)
Carwarthen tenement 1842 (CRO, TA/96)
Carwarthen farm 1884 (Symons)
Carwarthen 2003 (OS, 1:25000)
The first element of the name is straightforward - <kar/ker> ‘hillfort’ which usually refers to
the ‘rounds’ which we frequently find in Cornwall. <kar> is feminine, so does, in certain
circumstances cause the first letter of the following word to mutate (change).
The second part of the name is more complex. It is most likely a Brittonic personal name of
the form Gwennran (Old Cornish – Uuenran). The name itself is in two parts. The first part is
<gwenn> ‘white, sacred, pure, blessed, fair’, and is the feminine form of the word. The second
part is more difficult still. There are other names ending in <-ran> c.f. Gafran (Old Welsh) or
even our own Perran, so this could be a suffix meaning something like ‘one’. Alternatively,
and very speculatively it could be a compound with <bran>’crow, raven’ giving Gwennvran
‘blessed raven’.
Thus, in current Cornish the name would be spelled as = Karwennran.
In addition, it gives us a rather nice local girl’s name, which could be spelled Gwennran,
Gwenran, or even Gwednran.

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Dialect of the Month - Cheeld
“cheeld” is the term we use to refer to a young child, often as a term of endearment, specially
when used as “dear cheeld”.
More often than not we use it to refer to a female child, and this reflects 16 th and 17 th Century
English usage. The origins of the word of course go right back to the Saxon <cild> meaning
‘child, infant’.
Elsewhere in Cornwall the term “cheeld-vean” is often used, where the dialect word <vean>
meaning ‘little, small’ has been added. “vean” has its origins in the Cornish Language word
<byghan> or later <bian> ‘little, small’. When used as a place-name suffix it was usually used
in its mutated form – “vian”, and we see this locally in Tregear Vean. It is this mutated form
which passed into dialectal use.
Contacts
Chairman: Ralph German - ralphgerman@outlook.com
Membership Secretary: Jean Rigley - jeanrigley@btinternet.com
Recorder: Nev Meek - nev.meek@sky.com
www.stgandpocs.co.uk
www.facebook.com/gerransoldcornwall
www.twitter.com/GerransSt
St Gerrans & Porthscatho Old Cornwall Society is affiliated to The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Registered Charity No: 247283