Engine houses at Wheal Hearle, East Boscaswell Mine - geograph

Boscaswell ( kw, Boscaswal) is a village in the extreme west of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, UK. It lies towards the cliffs from

Pendeen Pendeen (from kw, Penn Din meaning "headland fort", previously known as kw, Boskaswal Wartha, meaning "Caswal's high dwelling") is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is north-northea ...

, looking west across fields to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. Boscaswell lies within the St Just in Penwith division of

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition o ...

. The village consists mainly of terraced cottages, built of granite, and a council house estate. Many of the cottages would once have housed families whose menfolk worked at the

Geevor Tin Mine Geevor Tin Mine (from kw, Whel an Gever, meaning "mine of the goats"), formerly North Levant Mine is a tin mine in the far west of Cornwall, United Kingdom, between the villages of Pendeen and Trewellard. It was operational between 1911 and 1990 ...

Higher Boscaswell Higher Boscaswell is a hamlet near Pendeen in west Cornwall, England. It is east of Pendeen and on the B road from St Ives to St Just. Higher Boscaswell is included in the St Just in Penwith division on Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( ...

is a hamlet south-east of Pendeen.

Toponymy

"Boscaswell" should not be confused with the present-day village of

Boscastle Boscastle ( kw, Kastel Boterel) is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster (where the 2011 Census population was included) . It is south of Bude and northeast of Tint ...

, further east on the north Cornwall coast. F. J. Horsefield posited that what is now Boscaswell was once the site of another Danish castle. This is not now thought to be true. Recent archaeological excavations at the lower end of Boscaswell have indicated that the land has been occupied for more than 10,000 years. There is an ancient pagan well in Boscaswell which is where the name is thought to have its origins. The name can be broken down to the place (bos) of Cas' (a person or entity or abbreviation thereof) and well (as in the English word). Another explanation is given by

Craig Weatherhill Craig Weatherhill (1950 or 1951 – 18 or 19 July 2020) was a Cornish antiquarian, novelist and writer on the history, archaeology, place names and mythology of Cornwall. Weatherhill attended school in Falmouth, where his parents ran a sports ...

in ''A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names'', where he gives a 1310 version of the name, 'Boscaswal', and points out that 'bos' in Cornish means dwelling, esp. in place names, thus giving 'Cadwal's dwelling'.

Mining

The

mining sett Mining setts were a legal arrangement used historically in the counties of Devon and Cornwall in South West England to manage the exploitation of land for the extraction of tin. The term was also used on the Isle of Man.''Manx Sun'', Saturday, Fe ...

of East Boscaswell Mine was sold by tender, either as a going or dead concern, in October 1882. Included was a 30-inch cylinder pumping engine and a 24-inch cylinder winding and stamping engine.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Penwith St Just in Penwith