48-472: Gwennap ( Standard Written Form : Lannwenep (village), Pluw Wenep (parish) ) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall , England, United Kingdom. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth . Hamlets of Burncoose , Comford , Coombe , Crofthandy , Cusgarne , Fernsplatt , Frogpool , Hick's Mill , Tresamble and United Downs lie in the parish, as does Little Beside country house. In
96-654: A monopoly on all tin mining in Devon, a right to representation in the Stannary Parliament and a right to the jurisdiction of the Stannary Courts. Plympton became the fourth Devon stannary town in 1328 after a powerful lobby persuaded the Sheriff of Devon that it was nearer the sea and therefore had better access for merchants. The Devon stannary towns are all on the fringes of Dartmoor , which
144-523: A variant graph by RLC when i is diphthongised to [əɪ] in stressed open syllables. ^3 Used in hiatus. ^4 A few monosyllables may keep the more conservative pronunciation [ʊɪ] in RLC, e.g. Cornish : moy [mʊɪ] "more", Cornish : oy [ʊɪ] "egg". ^5 Given as [yʊ] in the original Specification but as [ʏʊ] in the updated online dictionary. ^6 The variant graph ew may be used instead of yw to represent
192-570: A , l , o , r and u Stannary A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage , which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from the ore cassiterite mined in the region . In Cornwall, the duty was passed to the Duchy of Cornwall ; in Devon to the Crown . With
240-562: A contract to dredge a dock at Cardiff. The family continued to be involved in the mining industry well into the 20th century. Such innovations coincided with an increased national demand for copper, needed in the brass parts for the machinery of the Industrial Revolution . By 1779 copper was ousting tin as the main mineral extracted, but it was the period from 1815 to 1840 which was the heyday of mining in Gwennap. This era saw
288-700: A double consonant or a consonant cluster, e.g. Cornish : ass RMC [as] , RLC [æs] "how"; Cornish : hons RMC [hɔns] , RLC [hɔnz] "yonder". Exceptions are that long vowels precede st , e.g. Cornish : lost RMC & RLC [lɔːst] "tail", and also sk and sp in RMC, e.g. Cornish : Pask [paːsk] "Easter". Stressed vowels in polysyllables are short except in the case of conservative RMC speakers, who may pronounce vowels long before single consonants and st (and, for some, sk and sp ), e.g. Cornish : gwagen RMC [gwa(ː)gɛn] , RLC [gwægɐn] "a blank". ^1 May be reduced to [ɐ] when unstressed, which
336-439: A regular circular shape with turf seats. The location of the pit has been described as being used for Cornish wrestling tournaments prior to its transformation. Gwennap church is dedicated to St Wenappa; in 1225 it was given to the chapter of Exeter by Lord William Briwere . The parish church is an old foundation, but was rebuilt in the 15th century because of population growth caused by mining and then thoroughly restored in
384-450: A single different sound in RLC, the SWF uses what it terms umbrella graphs . Where an umbrella graph is considered unworkable, variant graphs may be used to spell a word. The SWF does not stipulate that either only RMC or RLC variant graphs must be used, for instance, a typical TC speaker will choose the letters that best reflect their own pronunciation. A third set of alternative letters
432-427: A whole leans toward a Middle Cornish base, since in many cases the correct RLC or TC pronunciation can be deduced from an RMC form, but not vice versa". Unstressed vowels are always short. Stressed vowels in monosyllables are long when followed by a single consonant or by nothing, e.g. Cornish : gwag RMC [gwaːg] , RLC [gwæːg] "empty", Cornish : lo RMC [lɔː] , RLC [loː] "spoon", and short when followed by
480-538: Is an industry stretching back to prehistoric times when tin streaming in the Carnon Valley is believed to have occurred. In surrounding valleys stones of cassiterite (SnO 2 ) were washed downstream from outcropping lodes and trapped in the alluvial mud where they could be easily extracted. Later these outcropping tin lodes were worked by 'bounders' and the open workings (coffins) of these early miners are still partially visible at Penstruthal . Early evidence of
528-427: Is given as [ə] in the original Specification but as [ɐ] in the updated online dictionary. ^2 Unrounded to [ɛ] when unstressed. ^3 Given as [œ] in the original Specification but as [øː] in the updated online dictionary. ^4 Often realised as [əɪ] in RLC in stressed open syllables, in which case it is written with the variant graph ei . ^5 Can either represent [ɔ] ,
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#1732787617956576-475: Is not shown in writing. As an example, Cornish : Penn Sans has been transliterated into English as Penzance reflecting pronunciation. At times, the various varieties of revived Cornish differ in their pronunciation of sounds. A number of strategies are employed in the Standard Written Form to deal with these differences and make the system usable for all. When a RMC sound is consistently
624-508: Is reflected in spelling, e.g. TC Cornish : menedh [ˈmɛnɐθ] , RLC Cornish : mena [ˈmɛnɐ] "mountain". ^4 [v] often occurs morpheme-initially before vowels. The mutation of [f] to [v] found in some varieties of Cornish is not shown in writing. ^5 A few words spelt with mm and nn lack pre-occlusion in RLC. These include words thought to have entered the language after pre-occlusion occurred, e.g. Cornish : gramm "gramme", and words that fell out of use by
672-538: Is the traditional graphs . As the name implies, these spellings are closer to those traditionally employed by Cornish writers, and so are preferred by some Cornish speakers today. Although traditional graphs are considered correct and may be used freely by individuals, they are unlike variant graphs in that they do not have equal standing with standard graphs and "will not appear in elementary language textbooks or in official documents produced by public bodies". ^1 When unstressed and word final ^2 Before
720-562: Is the granite upland which bore the tin. No definition of the boundaries of the Devon stannaries is known, if indeed one ever existed. Survival of stannary records has been rather patchy. The Cornwall Record Office has records from the Vicewarden's Court of the Stannaries of Devon and Cornwall, mostly from the mid nineteenth century onwards, which is rather late in the overall history of the stannary organisations. Earlier survivals in
768-514: The Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". It was the outcome of a process initiated by the creation of the public body Cornish Language Partnership , which identified a need to agree on a single standard orthography in order to end previous orthographical disagreements, secure government funding, and increase
816-410: The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site . It lends its name to Gwennap Pit , where John Wesley preached on 18 occasions between 1762 and 1789, although Gwennap Pit is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) to the northwest, at the hamlet of Busveal near St Day. The pit was caused by mining subsidence in the mid-18th century. After Wesley's death the local people turned the pit into
864-743: The World War I , Wheal Busy , Mount Wellington , Whiteworks, Poldice, Parc an Chy, and Wheal Jane . The last mine to work commercially was South Crofty Mine at Pool near Redruth which ceased operation in March 1998 bringing to a close over 2,000 years of mining in the Gwennap area. There were Cornish wrestling tournaments, for prizes, held in Gwennap Pit and at the Gwennap Graveyard. Standard Written Form The Standard Written Form or SWF ( Cornish : Furv Skrifys Savonek ) of
912-425: The 1840s from Chapel Moor. It has a crude crucifixus figure and a small Latin cross on the front and a large Latin cross on the back and is probably a fragment of a larger cross. There is also an ornamented cross shaft which was found in the church wall about 1860 and by mistake used again in the vestry foundations. On 6 September 1762 John Wesley came to Gwennap and attracted a great crowd of tin miners. Unfortunately
960-692: The 18th and early 19th centuries Gwennap parish was the richest copper mining district in Cornwall , and was called the "richest square mile in the Old World". It is near the course of the Great County Adit which was constructed to drain mines in the area including several of the local once-famous mines such as Consolidated Mines , Poldice mine and Wheal Busy . Today it forms part of area A6i (the Gwennap Mining District) of
1008-409: The 19th century. The tower is detached. In 1882, following the removal of the centre gallery, which was said to be an eyesore, The Cornishman newspaper described the church as one of the prettiest in Cornwall. It was later described by Charles Henderson , as "few Cornish churches are less interesting than Gwennap". There is a Cornish cross in the churchyard which was moved to the vicarage garden in
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#17327876179561056-592: The CRO include the Tin Abstract Books from the Truro Tin office for 1703–10 and 1833–35. These books record the quantities of tin coined in the various coinage towns of Devon and Cornwall, the purchase of tin by the crown and the shipment of this tin by sea to London . Many stannary-related papers including registration of tin bounds, records of tin production and papers relating to disputes are to be found in
1104-544: The RLC period, e.g. Cornish : gonn "I know". ^6 The distribution of [s] and [z] differs in each variety of Cornish. Some rules are common to almost all speakers, e.g. final s and medial s between vowels or a sonorant and a vowel are usually [z] , whereas other rules are specific to certain varieties, e.g. RMC speakers usually realise initial s as [s] whereas RLC tend to prefer [z] (except in such clusters as sk , sl , sn , sp and st ). The mutation of [s] to [z] found in some varieties of Cornish
1152-652: The United States. The agreement meant that Cornish became officially accepted and funded, with support from the UK government and the European Union . In June 2009, the Gorsedh Kernow voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Standard Written Form. In 2013, the SWF was reviewed in a process intended to identify problems and issues with the orthography. A small number of changes were made to the SWF, which made
1200-634: The abolition of tin coinage in 1838 (following extensive petitioning by the Cornish tin industry for simplification of the taxation rules), the principal purpose of the stannaries ceased. In Cornwall, however, they retained certain historic rights to appoint stannators to the Cornish Stannary Parliament . The word ‘stannary’ is derived from the Middle English stannarie , through Medieval Latin stannaria (‘tin mine’), ultimately from Late Latin stannum (‘ tin ’) ( cf.
1248-573: The antiquity of mining in Gwennap is recorded in the Stannary Roll of 1305–06 which notes that Johannes Margh of Trevarth sent thirty shipments of tin to Truro . In 1512 two local men were overheard quarrelling in Cornish about the theft of "tynne at Poldyth in Wennap". Tin raised in Gwennap was dressed and smelted locally. Early modern 'crazing mills' powered by water, such as that which existed at Penventon, were built to grind, and later stamp
1296-455: The day was very windy and Wesley could not make himself heard. Someone suggested the shelter of Gwennap Pit, about 1.5 miles away, so the whole crowd walked there and Wesley was able to preach his sermon. Wesley's Journal records, "The wind was so high that I could not stand at the usual place at the village of Gwennap; but a small distance was a hollow capable of containing many thousands of people. I stood on one side of this amphitheatre towards
1344-414: The established coinage towns. Devon's stannaries are usually referred to by the names of stannary towns which were the locations where white tin was assessed, coined , and sold. They were also the location for some of the institutions associated with the operation of the stannary. King Edward I 's 1305 Stannary Charter established Tavistock , Ashburton and Chagford as Devon's stannary towns, with
1392-410: The nearby Camborne-Redruth district, rich deposits of tin were found below the copper. In Gwennap no such deposits were found and when low prices caused the collapse of the copper market in the 1860s, many mines were forced to close or amalgamate. Consolidated and United were incorporated into Clifford Amalgamated mine . Many of the mines that continued or went over to tin production could not survive
1440-656: The original Specification but as [ʏ] in the updated online dictionary. Reduced to [ɪ] when unstressed. ^10 Changed to [ɪʊ] when stressed and word-final or before gh . In a small number of words, u can represent [ʊ] when short or [uː] or [ɪʊ] when long in TC and RLC. The 2013 Review recommends these be spelt optionally as ù and û respectively in "dictionaries and teaching materials". ^11 Can be pronounced [ɛ, eː] and therefore spelt e in TC and RLC. ^1 Loanword spelt with aw are often pronounced [ɒ(ː)] in TC and RLC . ^2 Used as
1488-590: The orthography easier for learners and went some way to reducing the spelling difference between dialects. In 2021, a third edition of the SWF was published by the Akademi Kernewek , incorporating the decisions of the 2014 review and work over the subsequent decade. The Standard Written Form recognises Revived Middle Cornish ( RMC ), Tudor Cornish ( TC ), and Revived Late Cornish ( RLC ) as variants of equal standing on which it bases its system. The original 2008 Specification states that "[t]he orthography as
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1536-530: The practice to include steam engine drives for corn mills and a small workshop and foundry in Redruth. He also patented a boiler gauge. His only son, Francis William Michell (1828–1901), was responsible for the installation of over one hundred of these pumps and engines at numerous mines. With his cousin Richard Henry Michell (1817–1894), he went into partnership building a dredge and entering into
1584-401: The pronunciation [ɛʊ] . ^1 Used solely in words whose status as borrowings is in no doubt. ^2 In certain borrowed words, such as Cornish : fondacyon RMC [fɔnˈdasjɔn] , RLC [fənˈdæʃjɐn] "foundation". ^3 TC speakers realise dh as [θ] and v as [f] word-finally in an unstressed syllable. RLC speakers may not even realise these sounds at all, although this
1632-575: The pumping engine to perform beyond the expectations of the time. A great many of these pumps and engines were installed by Richard Michell, Mine Engineer (1748–1836) of Gwennap and his descendants. In November 1806 he and four others, namely Mine Captains John Martin, John Dennis, W. Davey and T. Trestrail, met at Busveal and agreed to repair Gwennap Pit, or rather reconstruct the amphitheatre in respect to and in memory of John Wesley. It opened and had preaching in it on 18 June 1807. His eldest son, Francis (1780–1860) followed in his fathers footsteps expanding
1680-445: The records of families with tin mining interests, although these are frequently intermingled with records on other matters so location of specific information is difficult. The National Archives hold most of the records of central government, which includes records on stannary matters including manorial rolls for part of the reign of Charles 1. The House of Lords Record Office also contains relevant material, primarily relating to
1728-410: The red waste rock from deep underground lay strewn about the moors and the valleys constantly echoed to the roar of the 'stamps'. Another visible sign of industrialisation was the construction of mineral tramways which transported copper ore and Welsh coal to and from coastal ports more efficiently than packs of mules . In 1809 a horse-drawn tramway was constructed between Portreath and Scorrier which
1776-477: The rise of huge mining enterprises including the Consolidated , United, and Tresavean Mines. Consolidated yielded almost 300,000 tons of copper between 1819 and 1840 which sold for over £2 million. Gwennap the "Copper Kingdom" was then the richest known mineralised area in the world. Mining rapidly transformed the landscape. Consolidated Mines alone had nineteen engine houses for pumping, winding and crushing:
1824-463: The rising cost of coal and the fluctuations of mineral prices, causing a second wave of closures in the mid-1870s. Few mines survived the troubled times of the late 19th century, but Tresavean was one success story. Brought back to life as a tin mine in 1908 it was the second deepest mine in Cornwall at 2,660 feet (810 m) when it closed in 1928. Other mines that were resurrected in the 20th century include Wheal Gorland , worked for tungsten before
1872-629: The short version of long o [ɔː/oː] , or [ɤ] , the short counterpart to oo [oː/uː] . When representing [ɤ] , the 2013 Review suggests o could be written as ò for clarity in "dictionaries and teaching materials". ^6 Used as a variant graph by RLC speakers in a few words where RMC and TC speakers use long a , [aː] and [æː] respectively. After the 2013 Review, used solely in Cornish : boas "be", Cornish : broas "big", Cornish : doas "come", Cornish : moas "go", and their derivatives. ^7 Used in word only when both Kernewek Kemmyn (KK) writes oe and RLC realises
1920-451: The sound [uː] . Therefore, oo does not always correspond to KK, e.g. SWF Cornish : loor , KK Cornish : loer "moon" both [loːr] , but SWF Cornish : hwor [ʍɔːr] , KK Cornish : hwoer [hwoːr] "sister". This is because evidence suggests the second group of words with o underwent a different phonological development to the first group with oe . ^8 Pronounced solely as [uː] in RLC. ^9 Given as [y] in
1968-554: The stannaries varied greatly and was in no way related to their size. Before sale could occur, tin had to be brought to a stannary town to be coined in buildings known as coinage halls .The towns at which tin coinage was carried out in Cornwall varied over time. The Cornish coinage towns included at various times: Penzance , Truro , Helston , St Austell , Bodmin (probably), Liskeard and Lostwithiel . Penryn twice attempted to acquire coinage town status, supported by Falmouth, but failed on both occasions due to strong opposition from
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2016-434: The symbol for the chemical element Sn). The native Cornish word is sten and tin-workings stenegi . There were four Cornish stannaries (from west to east): The geographical jurisdiction of each Cornish stannary was more clearly demarcated from that of the others than was the case in Devon, as each represented a separate tin-bearing area, even though the boundaries were not precisely laid down. The relative productivity of
2064-528: The tin ore. This released cassiterite which was then smelted in local 'burning houses'. Demand for charcoal in the smelting process rapidly depleted Gwennap's ancient woodland, leaving a wild, moorland, landscape. Deep exploitation of the tin lodes was not possible with the limited technology of the early modern period as Cornish mines were wet due to the high rainfall of the area. De-watering workings at depth with 'rag and chain pumps', leather bags or 'kibbles' (metal buckets) were all ineffective. Deep lode mining
2112-468: The top and with people beneath on all sides, I enlarged on those words in the gospel for the day, 'Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see....hear the things that ye hear.'" He continued to use the Pit for a total of 18 times; it is claimed that in 1773 he attracted a staggering 32,000 people. (Normally the pit provides comfortable seating for 2,000.) His final visit was in 1789. Mining in Gwennap
2160-506: The use of Cornish in Cornwall . The new form was agreed in May 2008 after two years of negotiations, and was influenced by all the previous orthographies. The negotiating teams comprised members of all the main Cornish language groups, Kesva an Taves Kernewek , Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek , Agan Tavas , and Cussel an Tavas Kernuak , and received input from experts and academics from Europe and
2208-554: Was later extended to Poldice and Crofthandy . This was followed by the building of the Redruth -Chasewater Railway in 1824 running from Pedn-an-Drea and Wheal Buller , Redruth to Devoran . Mining reached its technical apogee in Gwennap in the 1840s with the installation of the first ever man engine in Britain at Tresavean Mine ; but the nature of the area's geology, which had bestowed such wealth, eventually proved its downfall. In
2256-434: Was only made possible by two innovations, the first of which occurred in 1748, when John Williams of Scorrier House initiated the construction of the Great County Adit , a phenomenal feat of engineering, which drained mine workings through a system of adits. Over the next century this was extended from Poldice to include many other mines consisting of 63 miles (101 km) of tunnels in all. The other remarkable invention
2304-417: Was that of the steam engine, allowing mines to be de-watered to greater depths. As one of Britain's earliest industrial regions, Gwennap had by the early 19th century become synonymous with steam technology, attracting Britain's top engineers including Boulton & Watt and William Murdoch . Together with Cornish engineers such as Loam , Sims, Woolf , Hornblower and Richard Trevithick , these men enabled
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