Sunday, 26 August 2018
Monday, 13 August 2018
southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal
Monday, 4 June 2018
King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed
Richard Whiting (abbot)
| Richard Whiting | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1461 |
| Died | 15 November 1539 |
| Beatified | 13 May 1895 by Pope Leo XIII |
Blessed Richard Whiting (1461 – 15 November 1539) was an English clergyman and the last Abbot of Glastonbury.
Whiting presided over Glastonbury Abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) under King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed after his conviction for treason for remaining loyal to Rome. He is considered a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1895.
Contents
[hide]Early life[edit]
Whiting attended the University of Cambridge, graduating with an MA in 1483.[1]
Career[edit]
Whiting was ordained deacon in 1500 and priest in 1501.[1] After the death of the Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Beere, in February 1525, the community elected his successor per formam compromissi, which elevates the selection to a higher ranking personage – in this case Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey obtained King Henry's permission to act and chose Richard Whiting. The first ten years of Whiting's rule were prosperous and peaceful.[2] He was a sober and caring spiritual leader and a good manager of the abbey's day-to-day life.[1] Contemporary accounts show that Whiting was held in very high esteem.
The abbey over which Whiting presided was one of the richest and most influential in England. About one hundred monks lived in the enclosed monastery, where the sons of the nobility and gentry were educated before going on to university.[3]
Whiting signed his assent to the Act of Supremacy when it was first presented to him and his monks in 1534. Henry sent Richard Layton to examine Whiting and the other inhabitants of the abbey. He found all in good order, but suspended the abbot's jurisdiction over the town of Glastonbury. Small "injunctions" were given to him about the management of the abbey property. A number of times over the years which followed, Whiting was told the abbey was safe from dissolution.[1] However, the 1535 Suppression of Religious Houses Act brought about the dissolution of the lesser monasteries and provided a warning of what the future might hold.
Death[edit]
By January 1539, Glastonbury was the only monastery left in Somerset. Abbot Whiting refused to surrender the abbey, which did not fall under the Act for the suppression of the lesser houses.[3] On 19 September of that year the royal commissioners, Layton, Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle, arrived there without warning on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, presumably to find faults and thus facilitate the abbey's closure. Whiting, by now feeble and advanced in years, was sent to the Tower of London so that Cromwell might examine him himself. The precise charge on which he was arrested, and subsequently executed, remains uncertain, though his case is usually referred to as one of treason. Cromwell clearly acted as judge and jury: in his manuscript, Remembrances are the entries:
Marillac, the French Ambassador, on 25 October wrote: "The Abbot of Glastonbury. . . has lately, been put in the Tower, because, in taking the Abbey treasures, valued at 200,000 crowns, they found a written book of arguments in behalf of queen Katherine." [1]
As a member of the House of Lords, Whiting should have been attainted (condemned) by an Act of Parliament passed for that purpose, but his execution was an accomplished fact before Parliament met. Whiting was sent back to Glastonbury with Pollard and reached Wells on 14 November. There some sort of trial apparently took place, and he was convicted of "robbing Glastonbury church". The next day, Saturday, 15 November, he was taken to Glastonbury with two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James, where all three were fastened upon hurdles and dragged by horses to the top of Glastonbury Tor which overlooks the town. Here they were hung, drawn and quartered, with Whiting's head being fastened over the west gate[3] of the now deserted abbey and his limbs exposed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgwater.[2]
Abbot of Glastonbury
Abbot of Glastonbury
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The Abbot of Glastonbury was the head (or abbot) of Anglo-Saxon and eventually Benedictine house of Glastonbury Abbey at Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The following is a list of abbots of Glastonbury:
Abbots[edit]
| Name | Dates | Works | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Benignus | ?458–469 | (reputed) | |
| ’Worgret’ | c.601–? | ||
| ’Lademund’ | c.663–c.667 | ||
| ’Bregored’ | c.667 | ||
| Beorhtwald | c.667–676/7 | Archbishop of Canterbury 693–731 | |
| Haemgils | 676/7–701/2 | ||
| Beorhtwald | 701/2–709/10 | ||
| Ealdberht | 709/10–718/9 | Church of SS Peter & Paul built by King Ine | |
| Ecgfrith | 718/19–? | ||
| Wealhstod | 729 | (rejected by some sources) | |
| Coengils | ?–737 | ||
| Tunberht | 737–? | ||
| Tyccea | 754–760 | ||
| Guba | 760–762 | ||
| Wealdhun | 762–794 | ||
| Beaduwulf | 794–800 | ||
| Muca | 802–824 | ||
| Guthlac | 824–851 | ||
| Ealhmund | 851–867 | ||
| Hereferth | 867–891 | (now thought probably to come before Ealhmund) | |
| Stithheard | 891–922 | ||
| Aldhun | 922–? | ||
| Cuthred | |||
| Ælfric? | |||
| Ecgwulf | |||
| St Dunstan | 940–957+ | Lengthened Ine's church and added a tower. Raised the level of the cemetery and constructed various monastic buildings. | later Archbishop of Canterbury[1][2] |
| ?Ælfric | occurs after Dunstan in some lists[2] | (probably spurious)[3] | |
| Ælfstan | occurs in some lists after Ælfric | (probably spurious)[3] | |
| Sigar | c.970–975(?)[2] | later Bishop of Wells 975–997[2] | |
| Ælfweard | c.975–1009[2][3] | ||
| Brihtred (Beorhtred) | 1009–?[3] | ||
| Brihtwig (Brihtwine) | c. 1017–1024[3] | later Bishop of Wells[3] | |
| Æthelweard (Aegelweard) | c.1024–1053[2] | ||
| Æthelnoth | 1053–1078[3] | deposed by Lanfranc[2] | |
| Thurstan | c.1077–after 1096[2] | Began a new church | 1091. Translation of relics of St Benignus from Meare |
| Herluin | 1100–1118[2] | Rebuilt Thurstan's church on a grander scale | |
| Seffrid Pelochin | 1120/1–1125[2] | Bishop of Chichester from 1125 to 1145 | |
| Henry of Blois | 1126–1171[2] | Built a bell tower, chapter house, cloister, lavatory, refectory, dormitory, infirmary, the 'castellum', an outer gate, a brewery and stables | also Bishop of Winchester from 1129[1] |
| Robert of Winchester | 1173–1180[2] | Built a chamber and chapel | previously Prior of Winchester[2] |
| Peter de Marcy | 1186. New St Mary's Chapel consecrated. Work on Great Church begun. | 1184 (25 May). Great Fire | |
| Henry of Sully | 1189–1193[2] | supposed tomb of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere discovered in the cemetery c. 1190[1] Later Bishop of Worcester 1193–1195[2] | |
| Savaric FitzGeldewin | 1193–1205[2] | also Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury | |
| (Master William Pica) | (1198–1200) | (elected 1198 but election quashed 1200)[2] | |
| Jocelin of Wells | 1206–1219[4] | also Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury from 1206–1242 | |
| William of St Vigor | 1219–1223[4] | ||
| Robert of Bath | 1223–1235[4] | Deposed 29 March 1235[4] | |
| Michael of Amesbury | 1235–c.1252[4] | Carried work on the choir forward | |
| Roger of Ford | 1252–1261[4] | died 2 October 1261, buried at Westminster[4] | |
| Robert of Petherton | 1261–1274[4] | Built abbot's chamber | died 31 March 1274[4] |
| John of Taunton | 1274–1291[4] | Choir completed; west end of nave and galilee built. King Arthur's remains transferred to new tomb 1278. | died 7 October 1291[4] |
| John of Kent | 1291–1303[4] | ||
| Geoffrey Fromond | 1303–1322[4] | Spent £1,000 on buildings: completed various parts of the Great Church | |
| Walter of Taunton | 1322–1323[4] | Built pulpitum at west end of choir | died 23 January 1323[4] |
| Adam of Sodbury | 1323–1334[4] | Completed vaulting of nave of Great Church; worked on great hall and built a new chapel on the Tor | Concealed Hugh le Despenser and Robert Baldock, Lord Chancellor at the end of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer's Overthrow of Edward II in 1326[5] |
| John of Breynton | 1334–1342[4] | Completed abbot's great hall and worked on various other related buildings including prior's hall | |
| Walter de Monington | 1342–1375[4] | Extended choir by 40 feet, adding 2 bays. Completed abbot's chapel and infirmary. King Arthur's tomb transferred 1368. | |
| John Chinnock (John Chynnock) | 1375–1420[4] | 1382. Restored chapel and rededicated it to SS Michael & Joseph; rebuilt cloisters, erected or repaired the dormitory and fratry. | |
| Nicholas Frome | 1420–1456 | Finished chapter house, rebuilt misericord house and great chamber; constructed bishop's quarters and a wall around abbey precincts. Probably responsible for the abbot's kitchen. | |
| John Selwood | 1456–1493 | Built parish church of St John Baptist. Erected pilgrims' inn. | |
| Richard Beere | 1493–1524 | Began Edgar Chapel; built crypt under Lady Chapel and dedicated it to St Joseph; built a chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at south end of nave; built the Loretto chapel; added vaulting under central tower and flying buttresses at east end of choir; built St Benignus' Church and rebuilt Tribunal | |
| Richard Whiting | 1525–1539 | Completed Edgar Chapel | Hanged on Glastonbury Tor, 15 November 1539. |
Thursday, 24 May 2018
Venvill “They do also present that the soil of divers moors
Venvill
“They do also present that the soil of divers moors, commons and wastes, lying for the most part about the same forest of Dartmoor and usually called by the name of the Common of Devonshire, is parcel of the Duchy of Cornwall, and that the foresters and other officers of his majesty and his progenitors Kings and Queens of England have always accustomed to drive the said commons, moors and wastes of other men (lying in like manner about the said forest) home to the corn hedges and leap yeates round about the same Common and forest, some few places only exempted, and that the said foresters and officers have taken and gathered to his majesty’s use at the times of drift within the same commons such profits and other duties as they have and ought to do within the said forest; how be it they intend not hereby to prejudice the particular rights which any persons do claim for themselves or their tenants in any commons or several grounds in or adjoining to the said common or forest, but do leave the same to judgment of the law and to the justness of their titles which they make to the same.
“More they do present that all the King’s tenants which are Venvill have accustomed and used to have and take time out of mind in and upon the forest of Dartmoor all things that may do them good, saving vert (which they take to be green oak) and venson, paying for the same their Venvill rents and other dues as hath been time out of mind accustomed, and doing their suits and service to his majesty’s courts of the manor and forest of Dartmoor aforesaid, and also excepting night rest, for the which every one of them have of long time out of mind -yearly paid or ought to pay 3 d., commonly called agrasewait, and also to have and take tyme out of mind common of pasture for all manner of beasts, sheep, cattle in and upon all the moors, wastes, and commons usually called the Common of Devonshire, and also turves, vagges, heath, stone, coal and other things according to their customs, paying nothing for the same but the rents, dues and services aforesaid, nevertheless their meaning is that the Venvill men ought not to turn or put into the said forest or common at any time or times any more or other beasts and cattle than they can or may usually winter in and upon their tenements and grounds lying within in Venvill.”
It is not always easy to determine precisely those parishes that were described as being in Venville; such parishes were said to be
Venvill
Friday, 18 May 2018
mengele "energy of an infirm person" : annual summer solstice.
mengele "energy of an infirm person" : annual summer solstice.: Solstice sunrise at Stonehenge STONEHENGE: The sun rises behind the Stonehenge monument in England, during the summer solstice shortly a...
The archaeology of antimony
The archaeology of antimony mining: a resource assessment
In metallurgy, antimony was used in alloys for printer’s type, in the preparation of anti-friction metals and for hardening lead. It was also used as an alloy, at from 5 to 10 per cent, with tin in the production of Britannia metal. Antimony compounds were also used as a de-oxidiser and colourant in glass, pottery, pigments and dyes. From an early period antimony compounds were also used in cosmetics and for medicinal purposes, and, as such, can turn up in the archaeological record (Watson 2013, 21). A small number of mines in the 19th century and earlier, primarily in Cornwall, produced antimony concentrates as a co-product and a few were promoted with antimony as their principal product.
Geological background The principal ore of antimony is the sulphide stibnite (Sb2S3) although the antimony-lead sulphosalt (PB4FeSb6S14) has been worked in some mines. The antimony at the Louisa Mine, in Dumfries and Galloway, is associated with stratiform arsenopyrite-pyrite mineralisation in a Silurian greywacke sequence with similarities to that in the Clontibret area, County Monaghan (Gallagher et al. 1983, 24). The latter is associated with gold, and antimony has been associated with gold mineralisation in the vicinity of Port Isaac, Cornwall. Work by Clayton and others (1990) links the antimony in that part of Cornwall to stratiform pre-granite mineralisation and whilst there has been little or no investigation of antimony mineralisation in south-east Cornwall it is probably of a similar origin (See Scrivener and Shepherd 1998 on stratiform mineralisation in general in Cornwall). In Cumbria, to the north-east of Bassenthwaite, work by Fortey and others (1984) again links the antimony to stratiform mineralisation similar to that in Dumfries and Galloway.
Historical background Very few mines in Britain produced antimony ores in significant quantities and they appear to have been confined to Cornwall, Cumbria and parts of Scotland. Antimony mineral are reported elsewhere but with no known record of production. In Cornwall, at Wheal Leigh near Pillaton to the north-west of Saltash, antimony is said to have been worked from the late 16th century (Beer 1988, xxi). A mine or mines in the Pillaton area reportedly produced 25 tons of ore in the 1770s and over 130 tons of ore in the 1820s. Around Port Isaac in north Cornwall, and particularly in the parish of Endellion, antimony was being worked by the mid-18th century with production levels from Wheal Boys in the 1770s of around 95 tons (De La Beche 1839, 615-16). Lysons’ (1814, 194-216, citing Pryce, Mineralogia
2
Cornub.) noted that a works for producing regulus of antimony was set up by a Mr. Reed at Feock, close to Falmouth, and De La Beche (1839, 616) gives a date of 1778 for the works. A small number of mines in both these areas of Cornwall continued to produce small amounts of antimony ore in the second half of the 19th century (Burt et al 1987, xxxii). Small amounts of ore were also produced from mines in Cumbria, to the north-east Bassenthwaite on the western edge of the Caldbeck Fells. These were worked prior to 1816 (Lysons 1816, cxi) and again in the 1840s but information on the extent of those workings is limited. The best study of antimony mining and the processing of the ores in Britain comes from the southwest of Scotland and the working of the Louisa Mine at Glendining, in Dumfries and Galloway, and the work there can inform that which should be carried out in England. The history of the Louisa Mine, the antimony at which was first worked in 1793, was researched by McCracken (1965) at about the same period that it was examined by Charles Daniel in connection with other work in the area. Slag from the smelting process on site was analysed by Tylecote (1983), and the site was subsequently surveyed and included in the RCAHMS publication on the historic landscape of eastern Dumfrieshire (RCAHMS 1997, 276-77).
Technological background The mining and ore preparation methods employed in working antimony ores were little different to those used in the other hard rock non-ferrous metal mining sectors. Stibnite, the antimony sulphide, had a specific gravity well below that of galena, the lead sulphide, with which it was commonly found in mixed ore deposits and could therefore be easily separate by conventional methods. Jamesonite, the antimony-lead sulphosalt, was a different matter with the lead and antimony in chemical combination, where the antimony would be separated after smelting. Smelting of antimony ores to a metallic regulus was a specialist liquation process, carried out on site at Glendining in the 1790s and described in detail in the contemporary Statistical Account of Scotland (Sinclair 1791-99, II, 525-27). The process was evidently also carried out on at least one mine in Cornwall, Pengenna, near Port Isaac, where ‘old smelting works remain at Watergate, near the adit mouth, where much slag, rich in antimony, still lies’ (Dewey 1920, 50). Processing was also carried out at Feock in Cornwall, albeit away from the mining sites (Lysons 1814, 194-216) but little detail is available and the site of the process has not been investigated. Given that the presence of antimony could be a significant contaminant in lead, hardening it to the extent that it was brittle and no longer malleable; many producers were at pains to remove it. Softening hearths where antimony and other contaminants would be removed might be found at a number of lead smelters and Gill (2001, 95-96) describes such a hearth at Old Gang, Swaledale, confusingly known as the ‘Silver House’ although, as the process involved skimming contaminants from the surface of lead maintained in a molten state, it may have been confused with the Pattinson
3
process for silver enrichment. There is, however, no evidence that the antimony was recovered as a marketable product.
Infrastructure associated with antimony production There is no evidence of any elements within the infrastructure of mining in England which specifically supported the production of antimony. In Scotland, however, the settlement of Jamestown, in the parish of Westerkirk, Dumfries and Galloway, was built by the company operating the Louisa Mine in the 1790s along with an access road and bridges. The company also instituted a miners’ library in Jamestown which still survives (McCracken 1965, 143-44 and Appendix).
Archaeological assessment There has, as yet, been no archaeological investigation of antimony mines or the preparation and smelting of antimony ores in England. The limited amount of investigation done at Glendining, in Scotland, (RCAHMS 1997, 276-77) including analysis of the slag from the smelter carried out by Tylecote (1983), with the benefit of a contemporary account of operations in the 1790s (Sinclair 179199, II, 525-27), could provide information relevant to the investigation of sites in England.
Acknowledgements Thanks to Dave Williams and Mike Gill.
References Beer, K E 1988 The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England, addenda and corrigenda. Keyworth: BGS Clayton R E, Scrivener R C and Stanley C J 1990 ‘Mineralogical and preliminary fluid inclusion studies of leadantimony mineralisation in north Cornwall’ Proceedings of the Ussher Society 7.3, 258-62 http://ussher.org.uk/journal/90s/1990/documents/Clayton_et_al_1990.pdf [accessed 16 April 2013] De La Beche, H T 1839 Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset. London Dewey, H 1920 Arsenic and Antimony Ores, Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain 15. London: HMSO Fortey N J, Ingham J D, Skilton, B R H, Young, B and Shepherd T, J 1984 ‘Antimony mineralisation at Wet Swine Gill’, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria. Proc Yorkshire Geol Soc 45, 59-65 Gallagher, M J, Stone, P, Kemp, A E S, Hills, M G, Jones, R C, Smith, R T, Peachey, D Vickers, B P, Parker, M E, Rollin, K E and Skilton, B R H 1983 Stratabound arsenic and vein antimony mineralisation in
4
Silurian greywackes at Glendinning, south Scotland. London: BGS Mineral Reconnaissance Programme 59 [PDF document] URL http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/11855/1/WFMR83059.pdf [accessed 16 April 2013] Gill, M C 2001 Swaledale, its Mines and Smeltmills. Ashbourne: Landmark Lysons, D and Lysons, S 1816 Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland. London [Web documents] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=404 [accessed 18 April 2013] McCracken, A 1965 ‘The Glendining Antimony Mine (Louisa Mine)’, Trans Dumfrieshire and Galloway Nat Hist and Antiq Soc, 3.42, 140-48 Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) 1997 Eastern Dumfrieshire: an archaeological landscape. Edinburgh: HMSO Scrivener, R C and Shepherd, T J 1998 ‘Mineralization’ in E B Se1wood, E M Durrance and C M Bristow (eds) The Geology of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 36-57. Exeter: UEP Sinclair, J 1791-99 Statistical Account of Scotland. 21 vols, Edinburgh Tylecote, R F 1983 ‘Scottish Antimony’ Proc Soc of Antiquaries of Scotland 113, 645-46 Watson, B 2013 ‘The Princess in the Police Station’, British Archaeology May-June 2013, 20-23
In metallurgy, antimony was used in alloys for printer’s type, in the preparation of anti-friction metals and for hardening lead. It was also used as an alloy, at from 5 to 10 per cent, with tin in the production of Britannia metal. Antimony compounds were also used as a de-oxidiser and colourant in glass, pottery, pigments and dyes. From an early period antimony compounds were also used in cosmetics and for medicinal purposes, and, as such, can turn up in the archaeological record (Watson 2013, 21). A small number of mines in the 19th century and earlier, primarily in Cornwall, produced antimony concentrates as a co-product and a few were promoted with antimony as their principal product.
Geological background The principal ore of antimony is the sulphide stibnite (Sb2S3) although the antimony-lead sulphosalt (PB4FeSb6S14) has been worked in some mines. The antimony at the Louisa Mine, in Dumfries and Galloway, is associated with stratiform arsenopyrite-pyrite mineralisation in a Silurian greywacke sequence with similarities to that in the Clontibret area, County Monaghan (Gallagher et al. 1983, 24). The latter is associated with gold, and antimony has been associated with gold mineralisation in the vicinity of Port Isaac, Cornwall. Work by Clayton and others (1990) links the antimony in that part of Cornwall to stratiform pre-granite mineralisation and whilst there has been little or no investigation of antimony mineralisation in south-east Cornwall it is probably of a similar origin (See Scrivener and Shepherd 1998 on stratiform mineralisation in general in Cornwall). In Cumbria, to the north-east of Bassenthwaite, work by Fortey and others (1984) again links the antimony to stratiform mineralisation similar to that in Dumfries and Galloway.
Historical background Very few mines in Britain produced antimony ores in significant quantities and they appear to have been confined to Cornwall, Cumbria and parts of Scotland. Antimony mineral are reported elsewhere but with no known record of production. In Cornwall, at Wheal Leigh near Pillaton to the north-west of Saltash, antimony is said to have been worked from the late 16th century (Beer 1988, xxi). A mine or mines in the Pillaton area reportedly produced 25 tons of ore in the 1770s and over 130 tons of ore in the 1820s. Around Port Isaac in north Cornwall, and particularly in the parish of Endellion, antimony was being worked by the mid-18th century with production levels from Wheal Boys in the 1770s of around 95 tons (De La Beche 1839, 615-16). Lysons’ (1814, 194-216, citing Pryce, Mineralogia
2
Cornub.) noted that a works for producing regulus of antimony was set up by a Mr. Reed at Feock, close to Falmouth, and De La Beche (1839, 616) gives a date of 1778 for the works. A small number of mines in both these areas of Cornwall continued to produce small amounts of antimony ore in the second half of the 19th century (Burt et al 1987, xxxii). Small amounts of ore were also produced from mines in Cumbria, to the north-east Bassenthwaite on the western edge of the Caldbeck Fells. These were worked prior to 1816 (Lysons 1816, cxi) and again in the 1840s but information on the extent of those workings is limited. The best study of antimony mining and the processing of the ores in Britain comes from the southwest of Scotland and the working of the Louisa Mine at Glendining, in Dumfries and Galloway, and the work there can inform that which should be carried out in England. The history of the Louisa Mine, the antimony at which was first worked in 1793, was researched by McCracken (1965) at about the same period that it was examined by Charles Daniel in connection with other work in the area. Slag from the smelting process on site was analysed by Tylecote (1983), and the site was subsequently surveyed and included in the RCAHMS publication on the historic landscape of eastern Dumfrieshire (RCAHMS 1997, 276-77).
Technological background The mining and ore preparation methods employed in working antimony ores were little different to those used in the other hard rock non-ferrous metal mining sectors. Stibnite, the antimony sulphide, had a specific gravity well below that of galena, the lead sulphide, with which it was commonly found in mixed ore deposits and could therefore be easily separate by conventional methods. Jamesonite, the antimony-lead sulphosalt, was a different matter with the lead and antimony in chemical combination, where the antimony would be separated after smelting. Smelting of antimony ores to a metallic regulus was a specialist liquation process, carried out on site at Glendining in the 1790s and described in detail in the contemporary Statistical Account of Scotland (Sinclair 1791-99, II, 525-27). The process was evidently also carried out on at least one mine in Cornwall, Pengenna, near Port Isaac, where ‘old smelting works remain at Watergate, near the adit mouth, where much slag, rich in antimony, still lies’ (Dewey 1920, 50). Processing was also carried out at Feock in Cornwall, albeit away from the mining sites (Lysons 1814, 194-216) but little detail is available and the site of the process has not been investigated. Given that the presence of antimony could be a significant contaminant in lead, hardening it to the extent that it was brittle and no longer malleable; many producers were at pains to remove it. Softening hearths where antimony and other contaminants would be removed might be found at a number of lead smelters and Gill (2001, 95-96) describes such a hearth at Old Gang, Swaledale, confusingly known as the ‘Silver House’ although, as the process involved skimming contaminants from the surface of lead maintained in a molten state, it may have been confused with the Pattinson
3
process for silver enrichment. There is, however, no evidence that the antimony was recovered as a marketable product.
Infrastructure associated with antimony production There is no evidence of any elements within the infrastructure of mining in England which specifically supported the production of antimony. In Scotland, however, the settlement of Jamestown, in the parish of Westerkirk, Dumfries and Galloway, was built by the company operating the Louisa Mine in the 1790s along with an access road and bridges. The company also instituted a miners’ library in Jamestown which still survives (McCracken 1965, 143-44 and Appendix).
Archaeological assessment There has, as yet, been no archaeological investigation of antimony mines or the preparation and smelting of antimony ores in England. The limited amount of investigation done at Glendining, in Scotland, (RCAHMS 1997, 276-77) including analysis of the slag from the smelter carried out by Tylecote (1983), with the benefit of a contemporary account of operations in the 1790s (Sinclair 179199, II, 525-27), could provide information relevant to the investigation of sites in England.
Acknowledgements Thanks to Dave Williams and Mike Gill.
References Beer, K E 1988 The Metalliferous Mining Region of South-West England, addenda and corrigenda. Keyworth: BGS Clayton R E, Scrivener R C and Stanley C J 1990 ‘Mineralogical and preliminary fluid inclusion studies of leadantimony mineralisation in north Cornwall’ Proceedings of the Ussher Society 7.3, 258-62 http://ussher.org.uk/journal/90s/1990/documents/Clayton_et_al_1990.pdf [accessed 16 April 2013] De La Beche, H T 1839 Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset. London Dewey, H 1920 Arsenic and Antimony Ores, Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Special Reports on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain 15. London: HMSO Fortey N J, Ingham J D, Skilton, B R H, Young, B and Shepherd T, J 1984 ‘Antimony mineralisation at Wet Swine Gill’, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria. Proc Yorkshire Geol Soc 45, 59-65 Gallagher, M J, Stone, P, Kemp, A E S, Hills, M G, Jones, R C, Smith, R T, Peachey, D Vickers, B P, Parker, M E, Rollin, K E and Skilton, B R H 1983 Stratabound arsenic and vein antimony mineralisation in
4
Silurian greywackes at Glendinning, south Scotland. London: BGS Mineral Reconnaissance Programme 59 [PDF document] URL http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/11855/1/WFMR83059.pdf [accessed 16 April 2013] Gill, M C 2001 Swaledale, its Mines and Smeltmills. Ashbourne: Landmark Lysons, D and Lysons, S 1816 Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland. London [Web documents] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=404 [accessed 18 April 2013] McCracken, A 1965 ‘The Glendining Antimony Mine (Louisa Mine)’, Trans Dumfrieshire and Galloway Nat Hist and Antiq Soc, 3.42, 140-48 Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) 1997 Eastern Dumfrieshire: an archaeological landscape. Edinburgh: HMSO Scrivener, R C and Shepherd, T J 1998 ‘Mineralization’ in E B Se1wood, E M Durrance and C M Bristow (eds) The Geology of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 36-57. Exeter: UEP Sinclair, J 1791-99 Statistical Account of Scotland. 21 vols, Edinburgh Tylecote, R F 1983 ‘Scottish Antimony’ Proc Soc of Antiquaries of Scotland 113, 645-46 Watson, B 2013 ‘The Princess in the Police Station’, British Archaeology May-June 2013, 20-23
Monday, 7 May 2018
"PHŒNICIANS IN DART VALE.
Derivation of the name—Phœnicians—Taw Marsh—Artillery practice on the moors—Encroachments—The East Okement—Pounds and hut circles—Stone rows on Cosdon—Cranmere Pool—Sticklepath—Christian inscribed stones—South Zeal—West Wyke—North Wyke—The wicked Richard Weekes—South Tawton church—The West Okement—Yes Tor—Camp and Roman road—Throwleigh.
AGOOD deal of pseudo-antiquarianism has been expressed relative to the name of a little moorland parish two and a half miles uphill from Okehampton. It is now called Belstone, and it has been surmised that here stood a stone dedicated to Baal, whose worship had been introduced by the Phœnicians.
I must really quote one of the finest specimens of "exquisite fooling" I have ever come across. It appeared as a sub-article in the Western Morning News in 1890.
It was headed: —
"PHŒNICIANS IN DART VALE.
[SPECIAL.]
"Much interest, not only local but world-wide, was aroused a few months back by the announcement of a Phœnician survival at Ipplepen, in the person of Mr. Thomas Ballhatchet, descendant of the priest of the Sun Temple there, and until lately owner of the plot of land called Baalford, under Baal Tor, a priestly patrimony, which had come down to him through some eighteen or twenty centuries, together with his name and his marked Levantine features and characteristics.
"Such survivals are not infrequent among Orientals, as, for instance, the Cohens, Aaron's family, the Bengal Brahmins, the Rechabites, etc. Ballhatchet's sole peculiarity is his holding on to the land, in which, however, he is kept in countenance in England by the Purkises, who drew the body of Rufus to its grave in Winchester Cathedral on 2nd August, 1100.
"Further quiet research makes it clear beyond all manner of doubt that the Phœnician tin colony, domiciled at Totnes, and whose Sun Temple was located on their eastern sky-line at Ipplepen, have left extensive traces of their presence all the way down the Dart in the identical andunaltered names of places, a test of which the Palestine Exploration Committee record the priceless value. To give but one instance. The beautiful light-refracting diadem which makes Belliver[1] the most striking of all her sister tors, received from the Semite its consecration as 'Baallivyah,' Baal, crown of beauty or glory. The word itself occurs in Proverbs i. 9 and iv. 9, and as both Septuagint and Vulgate so render it, it must have borne that meaning in the third century B C., and in the third century A.D., and, of course, in the interval. There are many other instances quite as close, and any student of the new and fascinating science of Assyriology will continually add to them. A portrait of Ballhatchet, with some notes by an eminent and well-known Semitic scholar, may probably appear in the Graphic; in the meantime it may be pointed out that his name is typically Babylonian. Not only is there at Pantellaria the gravestone of one Baal-yachi (Baal's beloved), but no less than three clay tablets from the Sun Temple of Sippara (the Bible Sepharvaim) bear the names of Baal-achi-iddin, Baal-achi-utsur, and Baal-achi-irriba. This last, which bears date 22 Sivan (in the eleventh year of Nabonidus, B.C. 540), just two years before the catastrophe which followed on Belshazzar's feast, is in the possession of Mr. W. G. Thorpe, F.S.A. It is in beautiful condition, and records a loan by one Dinkiva to Baal-achi-irriba (Baal will protect his brother), on the security of some slaves."
One really wonders in reading such nonsense as this whether modern education is worth much, when a man could write such trash and an editor could admit it into his paper.
Ballhatchet means the hatchet or gate to a ball, i.e. a mine.
As it happens, there is not a particle of trustworthy evidence that the Phœnicians ever traded directly with Cornwall and Devon. The intermediary traders were the Veneti of what is now Vannes, and the tin trade was carried through Gaul to Marseilles, as is shown by traces left on the old trade route. In the next place, there is no evidence that our British or Ivernian ancestors ever heard the name of Baal. And finally, Belstone is not named after a stone at all, to return to the point whence we started. In Domesday it is Bellestham, or the ham, meadow of Belles or Bioll, a Saxon name that remains among us as Beale.
Belstone is situated at the lip of Taw Marsh, once a fine lake, with Steeperton Tor rising above it at the head. Partly because the river has fretted a way through the joints of the granite, forming Belstone Cleave, and partly on account of the silting up of the lake-bed with rubble brought down by the several streams that here unite, the lake-bed is now filled up with sand and gravel and swamp.
The military authorities coveted this tract for artillery practice. They set up butts, but woman intervened. A very determined lady marched up to them, although the warning red flags fluttered, and planted herself in front of a target, took out of her reticule a packet of ham sandwiches and a flask of cold tea, and declared her intention of spending the day there. In vain did the military protest, entreat, remonstrate; she proceeded to nibble at her sandwiches and defied them to fire.
She carried the day.
Since then Taw Marsh has been the playfield of many children, and has been rambled over by visitors, but the artillery have abstained from practising on it.
The fact is that the military have made the moors about Okehampton impossible for the visitor, and those who desire to rove over it in pursuit of health have been driven from Okehampton to Belstone, and object to be moved on further.
What with the camp at Okehampton and the prisons at Princetown and encroachments on every side, the amount of moorland left open to the rambler is greatly curtailed.
The privation is not only felt by the visitor but also by the farmer, who has a right to send out his sheep and cattle upon the moor in summer, and in times of drought looks to this upland as his salvation.
A comparison between what the Forest of Dartmoor was at the beginning of this century and its condition to-day shows how inclosures have crept on—nay, not crept, increased by leaps; and what is true of the forest is true also of the commons that surround it. Add to the inclosed land the large tract swept by the guns at Okehampton, and the case becomes more grave still. The public have been robbed of their rights wholesale. Not a word can now be raised against the military. The Transvaal War has brought home to us the need we have to become expert marksmen, and the Forest of Dartmoor seems to offer itself for the purpose of a practising-ground. Nevertheless, one accepts the situation with a sigh.
There is a charming excursion up the East Okement from the railway bridge to Cullever Steps, passing on the way a little fall of the river, not remarkable for height but for picturesqueness. There is no path, and the excursion demands exertion.
On Belstone Common is a stone circle and near it a fallen menhir. The circle is merely one of stones that formed a hut, which had upright slabs lining it within as well as girdling without.
Under Belstone Tor, among the "old men's workings" by the Taw, an experienced eye will detect a blowing-house, but it is much dilapidated.
The Taw and an affluent pour down from the central bog, one on each side of Steeperton Tor, and from the east the small brook dances into Taw Marsh. Beside the latter, on the slopes, are numerous pounds and hut circles, and near its source is a stone circle, of which the best uprights have been carried off for gateposts. South of it is a menhir, the Whitmoor Stone, leaning, as the ground about it is marshy. Cosdon, or, as it is incorrectly called occasionally, Cawsand, is a huge rounded hill ascending to 1,785 feet, crowned with dilapidated cairns and ruined kistvaens. East of the summit, near the turf track from South Zeal, is a cairn that contained three kistvaens. One is perfect, one wrecked, and of the third only the space remained and indications whence the slabs had been torn. From these three kistvaens in one mound start three stone rows that are broken through by the track, but can be traced beyond it for some way; they have been robbed, as the householders of South Zeal have been of late freely inclosing large tracts of their common, and have taken the stones for the construction of walls about their fields.
By ascending the Taw, Cranmere Pool may be reached, but is only so far worth the visit that the walk to and from it gives a good insight into the nature of the central bogs. The pool is hardly more than a puddle. Belstone church is not interesting; it was rebuilt, all but the tower, in 1881. Under Cosdon nestles Sticklepath. "Stickle" is the Devonshire for steep. Here is a holy well near an inscribed stone. A second inscribed stone is by the roadside to Okehampton. At Belstone are two more, but none of these bear names. They are Christian monuments of the sixth, or at latest seventh, century. At Sticklepath was a curious old cob thatched chapel, but this has been unnecessarily destroyed, and a modern erection of no interest or
Inscribed Stone, Sticklepath
beauty has taken its place. South Zeal is an interesting little village, through which ran the old high-road, but which is now left on one side. For long it was a treasury of interesting old houses; many have disappeared recently, but the "Oxenham Arms," the seat of the Burgoyne family, remains, the fine old village cross, and the chapel, of granite. Above South Zeal, on West Wyke Moor, is the house that belonged to the Battishill family, with a ruined cross near it. The house has been much spoiled of late; the stone mullions have been removed from the hall window, but the ancient gateway, surmounted by the Battishill arms, and with the date 1656, remains untouched. It is curious, because one would hardly have expected a country gentleman to have erected an embattled gateway during the Commonwealth, and in the style of the early Tudor kings. In the hall window are the arms of Battishill, impaled with a coat that cannot be determined as belonging to any known family. In the same parish of South Tawton is another old house, North Wyke, that belonged to the Wyke or Weekes family. The ancient gatehouse and chapel are interesting; they belong, in my opinion, to the sixteenth century, and to the latter part of the same. The chapel has a corbel, the arms of Wykes and Gifford; and John Wyke of North Wyke, who was buried in 1591, married the daughter of Sir Roger Gifford. The gateway can hardly be earlier. The house was built by the same man, but underwent great alteration in the fashion introduced from France by Charles II., when the rooms were raised and the windows altered into croisées.
Touching this house a tale is told.
About the year 1660 there was a John Weekes of North Wyke, who was a bachelor, and lived in the old mansion along with his sister Katherine, who was unmarried, and his mother. He was a man of weak intellect, and was consumptive. John came of age in 1658. In the event of his death without will his heir would be his uncle John, his father's brother, who died in 1680. This latter John had a son Roger.
Now it happened that there was a great scamp of the name of Richard Weekes, born at Hatherleigh, son of Francis Weekes of Honeychurch, possibly a remote connection, but not demonstrably so.
He was a gentleman pensioner of Charles II., but spent most of his leisure time in the Fleet Prison. One day this rascal came down from London, it is probable at the suggestion of consumptive John's mother and sister, who could not be sure what he, with his feeble mind, might do with the estate.
Richard ingratiated himself into the favour of John, and urged him not to risk his health in so bleak and exposed a spot as South Tawton, but to seek a warmer climate, and he invited him to Plymouth. The unsuspicious John assented.
When John was cajoled to Plymouth, Richard surrounded him with creatures of his own, a doctor and two lawyers, who, with Richard's assistance, coaxed, bullied, and persuaded the sickly John into making a deed of settlement of all his estate in favour of Richard. The unhappy man did this, but with a curious proviso enabling him to revoke his act by word as well as by deed. Richard had now completely outwitted John's mother and sister, who had been conspirators with him, on the understanding that they were to share the spoils.
After a while, when it was clear that John was
North Wyke Gate House
1661, but not till he had been induced by his mother and sister to revoke his will verbally, for they had now learned how that the wily Richard had got the better of them.
Next day, Sunday, Richard Weekes arrived, booted and spurred, at the head of a party of men he had collected. With sword drawn he burst into the house, and when Katherine Weekes attempted to bar the way he knocked her down. Then he drove the widow mother into a closet and locked the door on her. He now cleared the house of the servants, and proceeded to take possession of all the documents and valuables that the mansion contained. Poor John's body lay upstairs: no regard was paid to that, and, saying "I am come to do the devil's work and my own," he drove Katherine out of the house, and she was constrained to take refuge for the night in a neighbouring farm. The widow, Mary Weekes, was then liberated and also turned out of doors.
The heir-at-law was the uncle John, against whom Mary and Katherine Weekes had conspired with the scoundrel Richard. This latter now sought Uncle John, made him drunk, and got him to sign a deed, when tipsy, conveying all his rights to the said Richard for the sum of fifty pounds paid down. Richard was now in possession. The widow thereupon brought an action in Chancery against Richard. The lawyers saw the opportunity. Here was a noble estate that might be sucked dry, and they descended on it with this end in view.
The lawsuit was protracted for forty years, from 1661 to 1701, when the heirs of the wicked Richard retained the property, but it had been so exhausted and burdened, that the suit was abandoned undecided. Richard Weekes died in 1670.
The plan resorted to in order to keep possession after the forcible entry was this. The son of Richard Weekes had married a Northmore of Well, in South Tawton, and the Northmores bought up all the debts on the estate and got possession of the mortgages, and worked them persistently and successfully against the rightful claimants till, worried and wearied out, and with empty purses, they were unable further to pursue the claim. In 1713 the estate was sold by John Weekes, the grandson of Richard, who had also married a Northmore, and North Wyke passed away from the family after having been in its possession since the reign of Henry III.
It was broken up into two farms, and the house divided into two. Recently it has, however, been repurchased by a descendant of the original possessors, in a female line, the Rev. W. Wykes Finch, and the house is being restored in excellent taste.
In South Tawton church is a fine monument of the common ancestor, John Wyke, 1591. The church has been renovated, monumental slabs sawn in half and used to line the drain round the church externally. With the exception of the sun-dial, bearing the motto from Juvenal, "Obrepet non intellecta senectus" and a Burgoyne monument and that of "Warrior Wyke," the church does not present much of interest at present, whatever it may have done before it fell into the hands of spoilers.
The West Okement comes down from the central bogs through a fine "Valley of Rocks," dividing and forming an islet overgrown with wild rose and whortleberry. Above it stands Shilstone Tor, telling by its name that on it at one time stood a cromlech, which has been destroyed. This valley furnishes many studies for the artist.
Hence Yes Tor may be ascended, for long held to be the highest elevation on Dartmoor. The highest peak it is, rising to 2,030 feet, but it is over-topped by the rounded High Willhayes, 2,039 feet. Between Yes Tor and Mill Tor is a rather nasty bog. Mill Tor consists of a peculiar granite; the feldspar is so pure that speculators have been induced to attempt to make soda-water bottles out of it, by fusing without the adjunct of other materials.
On the extreme edge of a ridge above the East Okement, opposite Belstone Tor, is a camp, much injured by the plough. Apparently from it leads a paved raised causeway or road, presumed to be Roman; but why such a road should have been made from a precipitous headland above the Okement, and whither it led, are shrouded in mystery. Near this road, in 1897, was found a hoard of the smallest Roman coins, probably the store of some beggar, which he concealed under a rock, and died without being able to recover it. All pertained to the years between A.D. 320 and 330.
Of Okehampton I will say nothing here, as the place has had a chapter devoted to it in my Book of the West—too much space, some might say, for in itself it is devoid of interest. Its charm is in the scenery round, and its great attraction during the summer is the artillery camp on the down above Okehampton Park. On the other side of Belstone, Throwleigh may be visited, where there are numerous prehistoric relics. There were many others, but they have been destroyed, amongst others a fine inclosure like Grimspound, but more perfect, as the inclosing wall was not ruinous throughout, and the stones were laid in courses. The pulpit of Throwleigh church is made up of old bench-ends.
- ↑ Belliver is a modern contraction of Bellaford, as Redever is Redaford.
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