Trewhiddle

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Trewhiddle
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Trewhiddle
Location within Cornwall
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ST AUSTELL
Postcode district PL26
Dialling code 01726
Police Devon and Cornwall
Fire Cornwall
Ambulance South Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°19′30″N4°48′02″W / 50.3251°N 4.8006°W / 50.3251; -4.8006

Trewhiddle is a small settlement in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies in the civil parish of Pentewan Valley and the ecclesiastical parish of St Austell. The nearest town is St Austell, approximately one mile to the north.

Contents

The Trewhiddle Hoard (see below) has given its name to a Trewhiddle style of decoration in Anglo-Saxon art of the 9th century.

Manor of Trewhiddle

Trewhiddle was formerly referred to as a manor [1] which at one time contained two small settlements, Higher and Lower Trewhiddle. These settlements existed till at least 1891, [2] but have since disappeared. The Trewhiddle area still includes two farms and Trewhiddle House.

Archaeology

The Trewhiddle Hoard

The Trewhiddle Hoard in the British Museum Trewhiddle Hoard Brit Museum1.jpg
The Trewhiddle Hoard in the British Museum
The silver chalice and other items The Victoria history of the county of Cornwall BHL22111458.jpg
The silver chalice and other items

On 8 November 1774, miners streaming for tin uncovered a hoard of 114 Anglo-Saxon coins together with a silver chalice and other gold and silver objects. The coins, mostly from Mercia and Wessex, indicate that the hoard was hidden, possibly to protect it from Viking raiders, in around 868. [1] [3] The artefacts were originally collected by Philip Rashleigh who published a subsequent account. [4] Some were later dispersed, but most of the hoard was presented to the British Museum. [5] Many of the artefacts were decorated with stylized niello animals, a feature of Anglo-Saxon art which has since become known as Trewhiddle style decoration. [6] [7]

The Trewhiddle Ingot

Another remarkable discovery was made in 2003, when a 150-year-old lump of tungsten was found at Trewhiddle Farm. This may predate the earliest known smelting of the metal (which requires extremely high temperatures) and has led to speculation that it may have been produced during a visit by Rudolf Erich Raspe to Happy-Union mine (at nearby Pentewan) in the late eighteenth century. Raspe, best known as the author or translator of the Baron Munchausen stories, was also a chemist with a particular interest in tungsten. [8] [9]

Trewhiddle House and estate

The legendary Cornish smuggler Cruel Coppinger may have been based on John Copinger, said to have purchased the Trewhiddle estate in the 1790s. [10] In the 1840s, Trewhiddle House was home to the entomologist and botanist Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe. In the late twentieth century the house became a restaurant (the 'Trewhiddle Inn') and the estate a tourist campsite. Both house and estate have now been sold to developers and a number of 'New England–style' holiday villas have now been built. [11] Little evidence remains of the former house other than a capped-off well and a small portion of the former walls which have been built into the landscaping.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Erich Raspe</span> German author and scientist (1736–1794)

Rudolf Erich Raspe was a German librarian, writer, and scientist, called by his biographer John Patrick Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, also known as Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, originally a satirical work with political aims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Austell</span> Town in Cornwall, England

St Austell is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, 10 miles (16 km) south of Bodmin and 30 miles (48 km) west of the border with Devon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlestown, Cornwall</span> Human settlement in England

Charlestown is a village and port on the south coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of St Austell Bay. It is situated approximately 2 miles (3 km) south east of St Austell town centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentewan Railway</span>

The Pentewan Railway was a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway in Cornwall, England. It was built as a horse-drawn tramway carrying china clay from St Austell to a new harbour at Pentewan, and was opened in 1829. In 1874 the line was strengthened for locomotive working. It finally succumbed to more efficient operation at other ports and closed in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentewan</span> Human settlement in England

Pentewan is a coastal village and former port in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at grid reference SX 019 472 3 miles (4.8 km) south of St Austell at the mouth of the St Austell River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Rashleigh (1729–1811)</span> British politician

Philip Rashleigh of Menabilly, Cornwall, was an antiquary and Fellow of the Royal Society and a Cornish squire. He collected and published the Trewhiddle Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure, which still gives its name to the "Trewhiddle style" of 9th century decoration.

St Blazey Gate is a settlement in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom in the civil parish of St Blaise. It is situated between the towns of St Blazey and Par on the A390 to St Austell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staffordshire Hoard</span> Anglo-Saxon hoard discovered in 2009

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liudhard medalet</span> 6th-century Anglo-Saxon gold object from England

The Liudhard medalet is a gold Anglo-Saxon coin or small medal found some time before 1844 near St Martin's Church in Canterbury, England. It was part of the Canterbury-St Martin's hoard of six items. The coin, along with other items found with it, now resides in the World Museum Liverpool. Although some scholarly debate exists on whether or not all the items in the hoard were from the same grave, most historians who have studied the object conclude that they were buried together as a necklace in a 6th-century woman's grave. The coin is set in a mount so that it could be worn as jewellery, and has an inscription on the obverse or front surrounding a robed figure. The inscription refers to Liudhard, a bishop who accompanied Bertha to England when she married Æthelberht the king of Kent. The reverse side of the coin has a double-barred cross, or patriarchal cross, with more lettering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ipswich Hoard</span> Hoards in Britain

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trewhiddle style</span>

Trewhiddle style is a distinctive style in Anglo-Saxon art that takes its name from the Trewhiddle Hoard, discovered in Trewhiddle, Cornwall in 1770. Trewhiddle ornamentation includes the use of silver, niello inlay, and zoomorphic, plant and geometric designs, often interlaced and intricately carved into small panels. Famous examples include the Pentney Hoard, the Abingdon sword, the Fuller brooch, and the Strickland brooch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galloway Hoard</span> Hoard of silver jewellery and other items

The Galloway Hoard, currently held in the National Museum of Scotland, is a hoard of more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone, and earthen objects from the Viking Age discovered in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland in September 2014. Found on Church of Scotland land, the hoard has been described by experts as "one of the most significant Viking hoards ever found in Scotland". With years of extensive study and research, scholars are still not certain who buried the hoard, why they did so and whether they were Vikings or Anglo-Saxons. During the Viking Age, Galloway found itself squeezed between two Viking kingdoms and essentially cut off from other Anglo-Saxons in Britain - "Galloway is where these different cultures were meeting. It’s not just Scandinavians, but people from Britain and Ireland as well."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedale Hoard</span> Treasure hoard found in North Yorkshire, England

The Bedale Hoard is a hoard of forty-eight silver and gold items dating from the late 9th to early 10th centuries AD and includes necklaces, arm-bands, a sword pommel, hacksilver and ingots. It was discovered on 22 May 2012 in a field near Bedale, North Yorkshire, by metal detectorists, and reported via the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Following a successful public funding campaign, the hoard was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum for £50,000.

Mawgan Porth Dark Age Village is a small ancient settlement consisting of 3 courtyard house complexes and a cemetery on the North coast of Cornwall dating from the 10th century. It was excavated in 1950-54 by Rupert Bruce-Mitford. The site was first discovered after the apparent after the discovery of the skeleton in 1934. The landowner. Mr P A Wailes, had wanted to build on the land and soundings to test the subsoil revealed the skeleton, stone walls, pottery and bone fragments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentney Hoard</span>

The Pentney Hoard is an Anglo-Saxon jewellery hoard, discovered by a gravedigger in a Pentney, Norfolk churchyard in 1978. The treasure consists of six silver openwork disc brooches, five made entirely of silver and one composed of silver and copper alloy. The brooches are decorated in the 9th century Trewhiddle style. The hoard is now in the British Museum.

The Beeston Tor Hoard is an Anglo-Saxon jewellery and coin hoard discovered in 1924 at Beeston Tor in Staffordshire. The hoard consists of forty-nine coins, two silver brooches with Trewhiddle style decoration, three finger rings, and miscellaneous fragments. The coins date the burial of the hoard to approximately 875 AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkoswald Hoard</span> 9th-century Cumbrian hoard

The Kirkoswald Hoard is a ninth-century hoard of 542 copper alloy coins of the Kingdom of Northumbria and a silver trefoil ornament, which were discovered amongst tree roots in 1808 within the parish of Kirkoswald in Cumbria, UK.

The Talnotrie Hoard is a 9th-century mixed hoard of jewellery, coinage, metal-working objects and raw materials found in Talnotrie, Scotland, in 1912. Initially assumed to have belonged to a Northumbrian metal-worker, more recent interpretations associate its deposition with the activities of the Viking Great Army.

References

  1. 1 2 Rashleigh, J. "An account of Anglo-Saxon coins and gold and silver ornaments found at Trewhiddle, near St Austell, AD 1774", Numismatic Chronicle 8: 137-157 (1868)
  2. "Cornwall Online Census Project, transcript of Piece RG12/1822(5)". Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  3. Rogers, J. J. "Saxon silver ornaments and coins found at Trewhiddle, near St Austell, AD 1774", Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall 2: 292-305 (1867)
  4. Rashleigh, P. "Account of antiquities discovered in Cornwall, 1774", Archaeologia 9: 187-188 (1789)
  5. "Collection search: You searched for". British Museum. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  6. Laing, J. Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 5, p. 181 (1979) ISBN   0-7100-0113-4
  7. "British Museum - the Strickland Brooch". Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  8. "BBC Inside Out - Tungsten". Bbc.co.uk. 4 October 2004. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. "1 John Copinger 28". Archived from the original on 22 June 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  11. "Welcome to Natural Retreats". Naturalretreats.co.uk. Retrieved 2 March 2017.