Tintagel church 1.jpg

Tintagel () or Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh, meaning ''Village on a Mountain'') is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, England. The village and nearby Tintagel Castle are associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur and in recent times has become a tourist attraction.

Toponymy

Toponymists have had difficulty explaining the origin of 'Tintagel': the probability is that it is Norman French, as the Cornish of the 13th century would have lacked the soft 'g' ('i/j' in the earliest forms: see also Tintagel Castle). If it is Cornish then 'Dun' would mean ''Fort''. Oliver Padel proposes 'Dun' '-tagell' meaning ''narrow place'' in his book on place names. There is a possible cognate in the Channel Islands named ''Tente d'Agel'', but that still leaves the question subject to doubt.

The name first occurs in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (c. 1136, in Latin) as ''Tintagol'', implying pronunciation with a hard sound as in modern English ''girl''. But in Layamon's ''Brut'' (MS Cotton Otho C.xi, f. 482), in early Middle English, the name is rendered as ''Tintaieol''. The letter ''i'' in this spelling implies a soft consonant like modern English ''j''; the second part of the name would be pronounced approximately as ''-ageul'' would be in modern French.

An oft-quoted Celtic etymology in the ''Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names'', accepts the view of Padel (1985) that the name is from Cornish *''din'' meaning ''fort'' and *''tagell'' meaning ''neck, throat, constriction, narrow'' ( Celtic *''dūn'', "fort" = Irish ''dún'', "fort", ''cf''. Welsh ''dinas'', "city"; *''tagell'' = Welsh ''tagell'', "gill, wattle").

The modern-day village of Tintagel was always known as Trevena ( kw, Tre war Venydh) until the Post Office started using 'Tintagel' as the name in the mid-19th century. Until then, 'Tintagel' had been restricted to the name of the headland and of the parish.

Area and population

Treknow is the largest of the other settlements in the Tintagel parish, which also include Bossiney, Truas, Trebarwith, Tregatta, Trenale, Trethevy, Treven, Trevillet, and Trewarmett. The population of the entire parish was 1,727 at the 2011 census, down from 1,820 people at the 2001 census, and the area of the parish is . (The population recorded in the 2011 census was 1,782 but this includes Knightsmill in the parish of St Teath.)

An electoral ward also exists extending inland to Otterham. The population of this ward at the same census was 3,990.

History and government

A small cliff castle was established at Bossiney in Norman times, probably before the Domesday Survey of 1086. In ''Domesday Book'', there are certainly two manors in this parish (for a probable third see Trethevy).

Bossiney and Trevena were established as a borough in 1253 by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall. Bossiney (which included Trevena) was held from the monks of Bodmin by the Earl of Cornwall: there was land for six ploughs and of pasture (before the Conquest it had been held from the monks by Alfwy). The monks of Bodmin held Treknow themselves: there was land for eight ploughs and of pasture. Tintagel was one of the 17 Antiqua maneria of the Duchy of Cornwall. The parish feast traditionally celebrated at Tintagel was 19 October, the feast day of St Denys, patron of the chapel at Trevena (the proper date is 9 October but the feast has moved forward due to the calendar reform of 1752). The market hall and the site of the fair were near the chapel. "Tintagel (Trevena) declined towards the end of the medieval period for it was ill-equipped to take up fishing as an alternative occupation. Paradoxically it now enjoys a temporary prosperity as a result of tourist interest in the castle which was converted so romantically by Geoffrey of Monmouth into an ancient residence of King Arthur." (W. G. V. Balchin 1954)

The Tithe Commissioners' survey was carried out in 1840–41 and recorded the area of the parish as , of which arable and pasture land was . The land owned by the largest landowner, Lord Wharncliffe, amounted to , and there was of glebe land. Precise details of the size and tenure of every piece of land are given. Sidney Madge did research into the history of the parish and compiled a manuscript ''Records of Tintagel'' in 1945. The villages of Trevena and Bossiney were until the early 20th century separated by fields along Bossiney Road.

Trebarwith was the scene of the shipwreck of the ''Sarah Anderson'' in 1886 (all on board perished), but the most famous of the wrecks happened on 20 December 1893, at Lye Rock when the barque ''Iota'' was driven against the cliff. The crew were able to get onto the rock and apart from a youth of 14 were saved by four men (three of these from Tintagel: one of them, Charles Hambly, received a Vellum testimonial and three medals for bravery afterwards). The story is told in verse in ''Musings on Tintagel and its Heroes'' by Joseph Brown, 1897; the youth was buried in Tintagel Churchyard and the grave is marked by a wooden cross (his name is given in the bureaucratic Italian usage, surname first: Catanese Domenico). On 6 July 1979, Tintagel was briefly subject to national attention when an RAF Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft crashed into the village following an engine malfunction; the unusual incident caused significant damage and consternation, but no deaths.

The borough of Bossiney was given the right to send two MPs to Parliament c. 1552 and continued to do so until 1832 when its status as a borough was abolished. For the purposes of local government, Tintagel is currently a civil parish and councillors are elected every four years. The principal local authority in this area is Cornwall Council, but until March 2009 the parish was in the area of North Cornwall District Council. Parish council minutes can be found on Tintagel Web. From 1894 to 1974, the parish was in the Camelford Rural District.

Arthurian legends

As described in Geoffrey's popular ''Historia'', Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, put his wife Igraine in ''Tintagol'' while he was at war (''posuit eam in oppido Tintagol in littore maris'': "he put her in the ''oppidum'' Tintagol on the shore of the sea"). Merlin disguised Uther Pendragon as Gorlois so that Uther could enter Tintagel and impregnate Igraine while pretending to be Gorlois; Uther and Igraine's child was King Arthur. This motif became the standard origin story of Arthur in subsequent medieval chronicles and chivalric romances. Some events of the Tristan and Iseult legend are also set at Tintagel.

Archaeology and architecture

The Ravenna Cosmography, of around 700, makes reference to Purocoronavis (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii': the location is unidentified, but Tintagel and Carn Brea have both been suggested. If this is correct then it would have been on the site of Tintagel Castle. Excavations around Tintagel Castle have supported the notion of trade goods there, with ships from along the Atlantic Coast and the Mediterranean Sea bringing pots carrying wine or oil, in the Early medieval period. The site appeared to be one of the places where a local king or warlord, perhaps of Dumnonia, and his entourage settled for a time, and traded with ships arriving from those far ports.

Excavations

Major excavations beginning with C. A. Ralegh Radford's work in the 1930s on and around the site of the 12th-century castle have revealed that Tintagel headland was the site of either a high status Celtic monastery (according to Ralegh Radford) or a princely fortress as well as trading settlement dating to the 5th and 6th centuries (according to later excavators), in the period immediately following the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. Finds of Mediterranean oil and wine jars show that Sub-Roman Britain was not the isolated outpost it was previously considered to be, for an extensive trade in high-value goods was taking place at the time with the Mediterranean region. Finds from the excavations are preserved at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. In 1998, excavations discovered the Artognou stone, which has added to Tintagel's Arthurian lore, although historians do not believe the inscription refers to King Arthur. Two seasons of excavation work were undertaken in Tintagel churchyard in the early 1990s.

Antiquities

The largest of the Bronze Age barrows is at the highest point in the parish, Condolden, another is at Menadue, and there are a number of others along the cliffs. In the Iron Age there were probably fortifications at Willapark and Barras Head, and inland at Trenale Bury. Two of the Roman milestones found in Cornwall are at Tintagel (the earlier of the two is described under Trethevy: the later one was found in the walls of the churchyard in 1889 and is preserved in the church. The inscription can be read as ' p C G Val Lic Licin' which would refer to the Emperor Licinius (d. 324).

There are many other relics of antiquity to be found here such as the so-called King Arthur's Footprint on the Island and a carved rock from Starapark which has been placed outside the Sir James Smith's School at Dark Lane, Camelford. Rodney Castleden has written about these as Bronze Age ritual objects. "King Arthur's Footprint" is a hollow in the rock at the highest point of Tintagel Island's southern side. It is not entirely natural, having been shaped by human hands at some stage.Ralls-MacLeod, Karen & Robertson, Ian (2003) ''The Quest for the Celtic Key''. Luath Press. ; p. 116. It may have been used for the inauguration of kings or chieftains as the site is known to have a long history stretching back to the Dark Ages. The name is probably a 19th-century invention by the castle guide.

Stone crosses, of which there are two, have both been moved from their original positions: the plainer of the two is Hendra cross (see Bossiney). Aelnat's cross which was found at Trevillet and then moved to the Wharncliffe Arms Hotel at Trevena, is finely carved. The inscription can be read as 'Aelnat fecit hanc crucem pro anima sua' (Ælnat made this cross for he good ofhis soul) – the back of the stone has the names of the four evangelists. The name of this man is Saxon, and together with Alfwy mentioned in 1086 he is the only Anglo-Saxon recorded in connection with the area. One of Thomas Hardy's poems, "By the runic stone" (1917) was interpreted by Evelyn Hardy as referring to Aelnat's cross.

Notable secular buildings

The village has the Tintagel Old Post Office, which dates from the 14th century. It became a post office during the 19th century, and is now listed Grade I and owned by the National Trust.

Tintagel Primary School was built at Treven in 1914 to replace the old church school (founded 1874) and has been extended since. Those who go on to a comprehensive school attend Sir James Smith's School, Camelford. The Gift House was purchased by the Trustees of Tintagel Women's Institute from Catherine Johns and not donated as previously thought. It adjoins the Old Post Office.

The former Vicarage was built in the early 17th century and substantial additions were made in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries. In the grounds is Fontevrault Chapel and a columbarium which is one of the best preserved in Cornwall. The site and glebe lands were the home of the vicars as early as the mid-13th century when the benefice came into the hands of the Abbey of Fontevraud in Anjou, France. In 2008, the Diocese of Truro decided to acquire new accommodation for future vicars and to sell the vicarage.

King Arthur's Hall at Trevena is a substantial building of the early 1930s. It was built for custard powder manufacturer F. T. Glasscock as the headquarters of the "Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table", behind Trevena House. A variety of Cornish stones are used in the construction and the 73 stained glass windows illustrating the Arthurian tales are by Veronica Whall; there are several paintings of scenes from the life of King Arthur by William Hatherell. In 1927, the "Order of the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table" was formed in Britain by Frederick Thomas Glasscock (a retired London businessman, d. 1934) to promote Christian ideals and Arthurian notions of medieval chivalry. Glasscock was resident at Tintagel (in the house "Eirenicon" which he had built) and responsible for the building of King Arthur's Hall (an extension of Trevena House which had been John Douglas Cook's residence and had been built on the site of the former Town Hall and Market Hall). The hall is now used as a Masonic Hall, and is home to four Masonic bodies.

Hotels

The King Arthur's Castle Hotel (now called Camelot Castle Hotel) opened in 1899; it was an enterprise of Sir Robert Harvey and the architect was Silvanus Trevail. It was originally intended as the terminus hotel for a planned branch railway line from Camelford that was never built. The hotel stands alone on land previously known as Firebeacon. The hotel was built in 1896. The front has battered walls, a central entrance tower rising to five storeys and projecting four-storey corner towers; the towers have machicolations and rise above the three storeys of the rest of the building. The Great Hall on the first floor is designed around a replica of the Winchester Round Table and has Romanesque arcades with Italian marble piers. In 2010, an exposé of the hotel's business practices was broadcast by the BBC
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