texlahoma — The Modern Antiquarian

“Wade bridge deliuereth you into waste ground, where 9 long and great stones called The sisters stand in a ranke together, and seem to have been so pitched, for continuing the memory of somewhat, whose notice is yet enuied vs by time.”
Richard Carew’s Survey of Cornwall 1605

Film by Matthew Shaw

Boscawen-ûn; Cornish name derived from bod, “dwelling or farmstead” and scawen, “elder tree”. The suffix –un comes from goon, “downland or unenclosed pasture”.

“Folklore has it that Boscawen-ûn is a circle created by maidens dancing on the Sabbath being turned to stone. Whilst this story is attractive, perhaps more credible is the possibility of Boscawen-ûn being one of the three Gorsedds, or Druid Meeting Places, of Britain. The Welsh Triads which date back to around the 6th Century AD record “Boskawen of Dumnonia” as being one of the “Gorsedds of Poetry of the Island of Britain”. Certainly the circle is still an important spiritual meeting place for local Pagan groups and ritual offerings are still placed here.”
Historic-Cornwall

Film by Matthew Shaw

Legend has it that the menhir stands on the spot where five ancient parish boundaries met. The stone takes its name from a gallows tree which once stood next to it.

Film by Matthew Shaw

“I followed, and found myself in the famous subterranean passage known as Chapel Uny Cave, walled and roofed with flat stones of granite. It is thirty-five feet long, and leads to a circular domed chamber twelve feet in diameter, now open to the sky.

I remarked upon the size of the slabs of granite that form the roof, and asked the farmer how these heavy weights, that a football team could hardly lift, were placed in position.

“The giants put them there,” he answered. I pricked my ears. Was I, on my last day, to stand face to face with a man who believed in the giants? Alas no! He did not refer to the fabulous Bolster, nor to the giants of Trencrom and St. Michael’s Mount, who played at bob-button, but to mortals, Cornishmen of vast strength and stature, like Anthony Payne, who seem at one time to have been common in Cornwall.

He spoke of John and Richard Row, brothers, who could lift enormous stones with the greatest ease. Once the wheel of a heavily laden waggon came off. John raised the waggon with his mighty shoulder, while Richard replaced the wheel.”
From ‘Days in Cornwall’ by Charles Hind (1909).

Film by Matthew Shaw

“This menhir or prehistoric longstone, which was originally about 16 feet high, was known as Men Gurta. It is now called St Breock Longstone. Weighing about 16.5 tons it is still the heaviest standing stone in Cornwall.

The word menhir is a combination of two words found in the Breton language; men (stone), and hir (long).” Cornwall Heritage Trust

Film by Matthew Shaw

“Anne, the daughter John Pollard, of this parish [St. Columb], and Loveday, the daughter of Thomas Rosebere, of the parish of Enoder, were buried on the 23rd day of June, 1671, who were both barbarously murdered the day before in the house of Capt’n Peter Pollard on the bridge, by one John the son of Humphrey and Cicely Trehembern, of this parish, about 11 of the clock in the forenoon upon a market day.”

The following tradition is given in connection with the above:= “A bloodhound was obtained and set upon the trail, which it followed up a narrow lane, to the east of the union-house, named Tremen’s-lane; at the head, the hound made in an oblique direction towards the town, and in a narrow alley, known as Wreford’s-row, it came upon the murderer in his father’s house, and licked his boots, which were covered in blood.”

The sentence on Tremen was “that he be confined in an iron cage on the Castle Downs, 2 miles from St. Columb, and starved to death.” While in confinement he was visited by a country woman on her way home from market. The prisoner begged earnestly for something to eat; the woman informed him that she had nothing in the shape of food but a pound of candles; this being given him, he ate them in a ravenous manner. It’s a saying here, in reference to a scapegrace, that he is a regular Tremen.

Richard Cornish. St. Columb.
From v1 of the Western Antiquary (June 1881).

Film by Matthew Shaw

“The common people call it Hell stone, and have a tradition that the devil flung it from Portland Pike, a north point of that island full in view, as he was diverting himself at quoits.” History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset by Rev. John Hutchins (1803)

Film and music by Matthew Shaw

GWREIDDIAU / ROOTS was the 10th year anniversary of the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape project, based at the internationally important 5,000 year old passage tomb, Ynys Môn.

Think Creatively worked in collaboration with Cadw, Manchester Metropolitan University, GeoMôn, Galeri Caernarfon, Oriel Môn, Stone Club, Anglesey Druid Order, Rhys Mwyn and supported Welsh artists to deliver a series of workshops, walks, talks and excavations.

Matthew Shaw of Stone Club hosted the Q&A and created the soundscape capturing the voices of visitors experiences of the site to the backdrop of the fantastic film footage captured by Adam Stanford.