2021-12 Newsletter v2

Newsletter – December 2021
Nadelik Lowen ~ Merry Christmas
News
Feast Days & Celebrations
No Roseland saints’ days fall in December, however, there are a host of national celebrations:
Thursday 16 th December - Chewidden Thursday when miners traditionally celebrate the discovery
of tin.
Tuesday 21st December – Montol Eve (winter solstice) when guise dancing and carol singing takes
place.
Tuesday 23rd December – Tom Bawcock’s Eve. Celebrated in Mousehole, to commemorate how
Tom Bawcock saved the village from famine by going fishing in a winter storm. Traditionally
celebrated by the eating of stargazy pie, and the singing of songs.
The 25th December is of course Christmas Day, and we wish all our members a “Nadelik Lowen”.
December Talk – An Introduction to Cornish Crosses
7.30 pm Wednesday 8 th December @ Gerrans Parish
Memorial Hall
We are fortunate to have Andrew Langdon speaking to
us about Cornish Crosses. Andrew is an acknowledged
expert has published a number of books on the subject.
Andrew will explore the distribution of medieval stone
crosses in Cornwall, their probable age, style,
decoration and function in the landscape.
Please note that this is a change to the previously
advertised talk which has had to be postponed due to
illness. It is hoped that the talk on Maritime Churches
will now take place next March.

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
Centenary Publication
The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies have just published
a superb book to celebrate the centenary of the Old Cornwall
movement, entitled, “A Uniquely Cornish Concept”. The book
is well illustrated throughout and traces the Old Cornwall
movement from its beginnings in 1920. It highlights the vast
amount of work completed by Societies over this time to
“gather the fragments” of Cornish culture and ensure that
they are recorded and promulgated for future generations.
Free copies will be distributed to our members at our
December meeting. Now would be a good time to renew your
membership, if you haven’t done so already, in order to
secure your copy!
Subscription Reminder
We realise that some members may not currently wish to attend meetings, or indeed may be unable
to for various reasons. This year we have put in place a system by which your membership forms
can be completed by post and your payment made by bank transfer or cheque. If you have not done
so already, please can you renew your subscription so that we can keep you on our circulation list.
Cornish Dialect
The subject of out November meeting was the Cornish Dialect. We were treated to not one, but two
excellent speakers on the subject. The first was Paul Phillips who is the Dialect Recorder for
Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, whilst the second was Trevor Smitherham, the Chairman of
Hayle Old Cornwall Society.
Paul traced the history of our dialect and how it has been influenced over the years by other
languages such as Saxon, Middle English and of course Kernewek (Cornish Language). He read
several dialect stories and poems before he and Trevor performed a dialogue together. Trevor
performed a number of “ripping” dialect yarns to much amusement.
At the conclusion we had the opportunity to discuss some of the dialect terms that we still use here
on the Roseland. It was a great evening.
It also transpired that Trevor Smitherham is a talented craftsman. He presented the Society with a
beautifully turned pen, made from 300-year-old oak, recovered from Mylor Creek. The pen will be
raffled at the next meeting, so don’t forget to bring a few shillings along!
Gerrans Parish Heritage Centre

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
The Heritage Centre held its Christmas Open Day on
Saturday 27 th November which coincided with the
Fairtrade Christmas Fair at Gerrans Church.
The WW2 – Gerrans Parish Home Front Exhibition had
been moved to the ground floor for the occasion which
enabled those with mobility issues to get a good look at
the exhibition.
A brisk trade was also done on the various gifts, books,
and cards stocked at the Heritage Centre. As usual, the
Centre was staffed by volunteers who have done a
terrific job throughout the season.
The Heritage Centre will now be closed until next year,
but that does not mean that work will stop. There is
much work to do on archiving and storage, and work
will soon start on the annual exhibition for 2022.
If you could spare a few hours to help out at the
Heritage Centre, please get in touch with our Recorder.
Spare Journals
We have a limited number of spare Journals - Autumn 2019,
Spring 2020, and Spring 2021.
These normally retail at £1.95 but may be had by members for
the special price of £1. Please let our Recorder know if you
would like to purchase a copy.
Kresen Kernow Visit
On
19 th
May
2022 we will be paying an afternoon visit
to Kresen Kernow. Numbers are limited,
so please let our Recorder know asap to
reserve your place.
Local History
Ranger Gull
Last month we featured the local connections of the author Ranger Gull. Member, Arthur Coomb,
has kindly been able to offer another snippet of information on him: -

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Arthur Edward R Gull as born in the Bolton Registration District in the December quarter of 1875.
The Sad Death of Charles Henry Seager
Recently the following newspaper article came to light: -
Cornishman - Thursday 15 June 1899
SINGULAR DEATH THROUGH EATING SLOES
C. H. Seager, a child of two, the son of Mr. W 1 . Seager, labourer, was put to bed at the
home, Curgurell, Gerrans. The mother having to go out for a message left the house in
charge of an elder brother. The youngest child being restless the elder gave his brother
some sloes to play with. These he must have eaten, as, on the mother's return, she noticed
that the little one looked very ill, and asked the elder boy what he had given him. He replied,
"I gave him some sloes."
Immediately afterwards she sent for Dr. Fryer, of Trewithian, who on his arrival,
administered an emetic, which had no effect. The child died at 8 a.m. on Wednesday
morning.
An inquest was held on Thursday. It was presided over by Mr. E. L. Carlyon, coroner, of
Truro. Mr. R. E. Gay was foreman of jury. The verdict was that the child died through eating
sloes and some of them going down the wrong passage, which choked the child, so that he
died of a misadventure.
The foreman proposed that the fees of the jury be given to the parents, who are in very
poor circumstances and have a family of eight; the eldest only 10 years, and the youngest
only 14 days, old.
A little research shows that in about 1863 Selina Peters Cregoe was born in Portscatho to a local
family. How she met him we do not know, but she met and married Joseph “George” Seager. They
married at Otterton in East Devon. George had been born in 1862 at Hawkchurch in Dorset, just
over the Devon border near Axminster.
In 1891 the family were living at Littleham near Bideford in North Devon. By this time, they had 3
children, Albert (born 1888), Edith (born 1890) and Clara (born 1891). However, by 1892 they had
returned to Gerrans and were living at Curgurrel by the time of their 4 th child’s baptism in the July
of that year. He was also named Joseph George after his father. The family continued to live at
Curgurrel and over the next few years had a further 3 children, Arthur John 1893, Selina “Annie”
1894, and William Frederick 1895, all of whom were baptised at Gerrans.
In the second quarter of 1897 Charles Henry Seager was born, and on 29 th August 1899 he was
baptised at Gerrans. George was employed as a labourer.
The 14-day old child referred to in the article above was Bertie Seager who was born on 17 th May
1899, just before the sad events recorded.
Following the death of Charles Henry, he was buried at Gerrans on 10 th June 1899. His mother Selina
sadly did not survive him much longer, because she died on 19 th December the same year at Bodmin.
Selina had given birth to 9 children in just 11 years.
1
Ed. Evidently a typo, since we know the father was Joseph George Seager.

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
By 1901 George and the youngest child, Bertie were the only members of the family living at
Curgurrel. However, George did not stay single for long, since he married Jessie COLLETT in
November 1902.
In 1911 the family were living at Curgurrel, including the children: Joseph, Arthur, Annie, and
William. The males were all working as market gardeners.
It is not known what happened to all of the children, but Joseph George Seager jnr. served in the 1 st
Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry during WW1. Sadly, the official war history tends
to only mention the officers. However, the entry commencing 15 th August 1917, regarding the Battle
of Ypres reads: “Wet weather and working parties sum up the life of the 1 st D.C.L.I. until 15 th August
when the Battalion again took over front-line trenches from the Gloucesters. The line was still very
quiet and remained so until the 19 th , when the Battalion on the left of the Cornwalls discharged gas
into the enemy’s trenches at about 12.30 a.m. The enemy’s guns then opened a heavy bombardment
all along the line, which lasted an hour and a half: 2/Lieut. Willis and four other ranks wounded.” It
is presumed that Joseph was one of the “other ranks wounded”, since on 22 nd August 1917 he died
of his wounds. He was just 20 years old!
Joseph George Seager is buried at Duisans British Cemetery, at Etrun in the Pay-de-Calais. He was
eligible for the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. He is commemorated on the war memorial
in Gerrans Church. He also features in the book, “Lives of the First World War” compiled by Ros
Brown, Pam Case & Elizabeth Tozer.
Jessie and George continued to reside at Curgurrel until their deaths in 1938 and 1942 respectively;
they are both buried at Gerrans. Four of the siblings; Edith, Clara, Arthur and Will continued to live
at Curgurrel. They lived in two joined cottages and none of them married. They are still remembered
by senior members of our community since they lived into the 1960s and 1970s.
Selina “Annie” Seager did marry. She married Leslie William Vincent on 17th November 1917, and
the family lived in the thatched cottage next to the former Trewithian Inn. Descendants of Leslie
and Annie still live in the parish and general area.
The two-detached cottages occupied by the Seager family were converted into a single dwelling in
the 1970s, and have recently undergone further remodelling and extension. The stone barn used by
the Seager family for agricultural purposes has also been converted to a dwelling and extended, but
still bear traces of its original use. The building still bears the name “Seagers Barn”.

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
Figure 1 Seagers Barn, Curgurrel - Nev Meek 2021
Figure 2 Name Plate on Seagers' Barn - Nev Meek 2021
Ed. The kind hearted foreman of the jury, Mr R. E. Gay, was Richard Edwin “Eddie” Gay (1854-1916),
who farmed at Rosevine; he was my 2x Great Grandfather. It also turns out that there is another
very tenuous family link since little Charles Henry Seager was the uncle, of the wife of my 2 nd Cousin
once removed! – We remember distant relationships around here!
Lost Locations – Raffel Point
In this section we highlight the names of some of the less well-known places around Roseland.

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
Percuil has always been a significant location for
Gerrans Parish, since historically it was the gateway
to the nearest town – Falmouth. As we found out in
the January Newsletter Percuil is the Cornish
Language <porth> ‘cove, gateway, landing place’ +
<kul> ‘narrow’. However, Percuil is on a peninsula,
or headland which the Percuil River winds around
from Polyn, round to Polingey Creek. The headland
is named Raffel Point.
The word “raffel” is a bit of a mystery; there are no
exact matches in Cornish or English. Without older
spellings any interpretation must be speculative.
One could speculate that the double “f” was a mistranscription
of double “s” which were often written
Figure 3 William Heather Map 1798 - Showing Raffel Point similarly. We know that this “s” sound occurs in the
local Cornish language dialect for the “j/dg” sound
found elsewhere. So, this is extremely speculative but the development could have been radgel ->
rassel -> raffel, where <radgel> means ‘rocky ground, clitter, or scree’.
If you are aware of any less well-known names please highlight with our Recorder.
Committee Spotlight – Jenny Keymer
In this section we highlight some of those who work so hard for our Society. In this article we will
focus on Jenny Keymer.
Jenny Keymer has a long line of Cornish ancestors. Living now in the same house where her mother was born
more than a century ago, and married in St Gerrans Church where her parents, grandparents and all the
great-greats as far as can be traced, she is truly ‘wedded’ to Gerrans.
On her mother’s side most came from the Gerrans area and have been traced back to the sixteenth century
when the earliest parish records began. We are particularly fortunate in Gerrans as the Church here
maintained birth, marriage and death records from such early times. Two records exist for her ninth greatgrandfathers:
John the Elder Paschow, who was buried in Gerrans on 22 September 1623, and Thomas
Criggow, who was born in Gerrans in 1566 and died here probably in 1642. Even further back, her twelfth
great-grandfather Walter Sawell, was recorded as being buried in Gerrans in 1557.
Some years later, her third great grandfather, Henry Pasco, was living at Percuil and is recorded on the 1841
census as a waterman at the age of 75. When he became too infirm to carry out the duties, the job passed
to Maria Pascoe, his unmarried daughter. She was the Ferrywoman at Percuil up until 1871. Family legend
has it that Maria became very rich and cast all gold sovereigns down a well. Sadly, she died in the workhouse
in 1879, aged 71.
Connections with Percuil continued after Maria’s time. Jenny’s great grandfather, Edwin Pascoe also lived at
Percuil and was a master mariner. He and his wife, Mary Jane Keast, had seven children at Percuil, before
moving to Trewince Quay around 1901 where Edwin was the Gamekeeper for the Thomas family at Trewince
Estate.

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
The Pascoe Family: Bessie, James, Beatrice, Ethel, Mary Jane, Edwin junior, Edwin senior, Ada, Katie (c1908)
Jenny’s mother, Peggy Pascoe, lived her young life in Bermuda Cottage, Gerrans and married Ian Maxwell,
whose family for a time owned Penhole on the corner of the New Road. They married during the war in St
Gerrans Church and some of their wedding memorabilia can be seen in this year’s Heritage Centre exhibition.
Some of Ian’s ancestors were farmers from Penhole, North Hill, near Launceston.
Ian was a founding member of St Gerrans and Porthscatho Old Cornwall Society and was actively involved in
it for many years. Jenny attended the inaugural OCS meeting with her father and Ronnie Greet, in 1976.
Jenny has done a marvellous job as our Events Secretary, arranging many engaging talks and enjoyable visits.
She has unfortunately had to step back from that role since the pandemic, but we hope that she can be
persuaded to return as circumstances change.
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.
Cornish Buildings Group – Buildings at Risk Project
Last month we reported that Nuns Well at Rosteague has several structural problems
and that information had been passed to the Cornish Buildings Group in the hope that
it would be included in their Buildings at Risk Register.
This month we can report that not only has the Nun Well been included on the Buildings at Risk
Register, but it is included in their latest Newsletter:
https://buildingsatrisk.wordpress.com/2021/10/18/newsletter-no-11/
Details of the project can be found: https://buildingsatrisk.wordpress.com.
Please notify our Recorder of any historic buildings at risk.
Place-name of the Month – Tolverne (Philleigh) ~ Talvronn
Tolverne is another beautiful local Cornish Language place-name. Again, we must look at the historic
spellings in order to understand it: -

Kowethas Kernow Goth - Gerens ha Porthskathow
Talvron 1275 (Gover, 1948) Talvron 1348 (Gover, 1948) Talvern 1451 (Gover, 1948)
Talvren 1280 (Gover, 1948) Talvern 1400 (Gover, 1948) Tolverne 1878 (O.S. 1878)
Talvren 1302 (Gover, 1948) Talvren 1404 (Gover, 1948) Tolvern 1884 (Symons, 1884)
Talvren 1303 (Gover, 1948) Talvren 1428 (Gover, 1948) Tolvern Passage 1884
(Symons, 1884)
Talvren 1346 (Gover, 1948) Talfern 1435 (Gover, 1948) Tolverne 1906 (O.S. 1906)
It is evident that there was originally two parts – tal ‘brow’ and bronn ‘hill’. However, both tal and
bronn are masculine, so the question arises – why has the b at the start of bronn mutated to v in
this word? One presumes that the explanation is that talvronn is actually a close-compound word,
since the second word mutates in close-compounds. So, this is a simplex place-name actually
consisting of one word.
Interestingly we see that by 1280 the name had become Talvren = Talvrenn, the second part having
become conflated with the related word brenn, also meaning ‘hill’.
By 1400 we see the letters ‘e’ and ‘r’ swapping places, thus Talvren -> Talvern. This is a linguistic
change known as “metathesis”.
Lastly, by 1878 we see that tal ‘brow’ became tol. We frequently see this change in “tal-names” due
to the influence of the better-known Cornish word toll ‘hole’.
Yet again we find that a local place-name encodes beautiful and complex Cornish Language and
grammar. After hundreds of years our language remains on the lips of local people!
Dialect of the Month – Jakee-ra (Jacky-ra)
Jackee-ra is the local name for a fish otherwise known as a wrasse. It is recorded in that great book
– “A Glossary of Cornish Sea-words” written by one of the founders of the Old Cornwall movement
– Robert Morton Nance.
Nance recorded that the form “jacky ralph” was used in Mount’s Bay whilst the form “jacky ra” was
used here at St Anthony in Roseland. He points out that the form used in Roseland comes from the
fact that the older pronunciation of “Ralph” as “Raaf” was often retained here in Cornwall.
What a great name; let’s keep these traditional names alive!
Note: The English name “wrasse” is believed to have originated from the Kernewek (Cornish
Language) word gwragh ‘witch, hag’. The word gwragh is feminine, so mutates when made definite
→ an wragh → wrasse.
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