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Canon Diggens Archive
Antiquities
Earth Works. A.D. 735.
 Mr. Borlace relates that although
the Cornish were driven out of Devonshire about the
year 735 A.D. the warfare did not end until
Athelstan fixed the Tamar as the boundary between
the two races in 936.
These entrenchments and stockades are imprints
which two centuries of border warfare might well
leave on the face of the country. There are ancient
earth works at Arrowan, and Carrick Lug - Cliff
Castles they are termed.
There are also remains of Defensive Earth Works on
Goonhilly Downs and on the estate of Halwyn is a
circular Camp called The Round, containing about an
acre situated about a mile from Porthallow.
Organic remains are to be found in the rocks of
Nelby Cove, Porthallow.
Mr. Lawrence when 88 years old told me he
remembered soldiers being encamped in the Round
Camp at Halwyn to watch the smugglers.
These earthworks are doubtless of very ancient
construction, in view of the fact that an
engagement between Ivor, King of Wales, and the
Saxons, in the year 680, took place at Heyle, which
Whitaker supposes to have been situated near the
Mouth of the Helford. The Saxons were defeated by
the Cornish.
In 1735 at Condorrow, near the South Entrance to
the Helford River, were found 24 gallons of Roman
brass money, all of the age of Constantine and his
family from 259 to 284 A.D.
Earth Works roughly clarified.
|
| Defensive |
35 |
| Agricultural |
21 |
| Pastoral |
2 |
| Domestic |
7 |
| Sepulchral or Religious |
19 |
| Stone Remains |
6 |
| Uncertain |
27 |
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Romano-British Remains at Trelan
The Trelan Bahow (St Keverne) Mirror
Mr. John Rogers. Penrose
In the year 1833 Mr. Sam. James, the then
freeholder of the Estate of Trelan, had occasion to
cut a new road through a large field called The
Bahow - door or gate hinges. In the course of the
work he came upon several graves situated in a
sheltered place on a northern slope of the land
near the southern margin of Goonhilly Downs. They
were two or three feet below the surface of the
ground and lay in a group together.
Each grave was formed of six stones set on edge,
two at each side, and one at each end besides the
covering stones, and they lay in a direction nearly
east and west.
In one of them was found a very perfect mirror of
bronze, together with several beads of various
substance, some in a perfect state, others
fragmentary, with other bronze articles, such as
parts of fibulae etc., all apparently personal
ornaments, and probably indicating the interment of
a female. There were also several implements of
hand iron stone.
Several of these relics were dispersed at this
time and cannot now be traced. Mr. Edwards of
Helston generously placed those which survived at
my disposal, and I have since added them to the
antiquities in the British Museum.
The Trelan Bahow (St Keverne) mirror is an object of
great rarity. It is circular in form, 6 inches in diameter,
with a well formed handle which projects two and a half
inches from the edge. Mr. Edwards informs me that when it
was found one side was quite brightly polished. The
whole mirror is now richly covered with aerugo, but
a portion of the polished surface is still
discernible. Both front and back are perfectly
flat, and although the plate is very thin it has no
appearance of having been furnished with a
strengthening rim.
Two other distinct finds are recorded viz. one in
Scotland and four in England and although none of
the examples resemble this in every respect it can
scarcely be doubted that the Trelan mirror belongs
to the same period of art to which the rest are
assigned.
1. One was found at Gilton, a Saxon Cemetery near
Sandwich. Kent. 1763.
2. Specimen purchased in Paris, place of discovery
unknown.
3. In Museum at Redford, found in excavation for
Warden Tunnel of Midland Railway.
4. A bronze mirror and handles of two others found
in cemetery at Stamford near Plymouth.
The more perfect of these mirrors resembles that
of Trelan. The handle of the second mirror might
have been punched by the same tool.
Two only of the Trelan glass beads remain, each
about seven-eighth of an inch in diameter, the
perforation three-fifths of an inch. One is a deep
blue paste similar to that of which the celebrated
Portland ware is made, and the other a tinted black
and grey.
Rings of Brass. Two of them remain entire and are
of one and three-sixteenths and two and
fourteen-sixteenths inches external diameter
respectively. The latter is made of metal of
uniform thickness 1/4" on plane of its
diameter, the other rather stouter and of unequal
thickness. Fragments of similar rings were also
discovered.
Various bronze articles of personal use or
ornament, of which nothing remains but portions of
fibulae.
Stone implements which are lost. If seems
impossible that specimens so skilfully and
artistically wrought and punched as those from
Trelan could have been produced at a period
anterior to that of the usual stone or bronze
implements, or of the rude pottery found at Morval
Hill. The most recent date however assigned to
these late Celtic relics corresponds with the
establishment of the Roman occupation of England.
Whilst therefore there is abundant evidence of
Roman and even Saxon interments within tumuli and
other burial places of earlier British date
affording frequent opportunity for the mingling of
Roman and Saxon era, and other relics with those of
undoubtedly earlier periods, it seems to be quite
contrary to all acknowledged experience that the
art manufacture of a nation should suddenly, and
within the limits of historical record, be found to
become so deteriorated as the change from the
quality and beauty of the Trelan relics to the rude
simplicity of the most perfect paleotave or funeral
urn. Yet nothing less than this seemed to be
involved in the argument referred to.
Journal Roy Inste Vol XV April 1874.
Ancient Cross at Trelanvean.
See Journal of R.I. Cornwall. 1874. Dr.
Jago.
Trelanvean Cross is now supposed to be standing on
its original sight (site).
It was overturned about 60 years ago as people
imagined that a crock of gold might be
underneath.
Mr. Richard Smith who lived at Trelan for 60 years
put it in its old place before he left.
The Castle.
The old castle in the village stood on the site of
the late Dr. Leverton Spry's house. It was
shaped like the letter T with the perpendicular
line abutting the road. There was a broad staircase
in the castle, and a large upper room - as big as
the lower schoolroom - with a ceiling on which was
represented Chevy Chase.
Roscruge Beacon.
The above stands 580 ft. high. It was a station in
the Great French War and it affords a very
extensive view to the North and East.
The Club
St Keverne Club is mentioned in parish
Records.
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