Prideaux Castle is a multivallate

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

situated atop a 133 m (435 ft) high conical hill near the southern boundary of the parish of

Luxulyan Luxulyan (; kw, Logsulyan), also spelt Luxullian or Luxulian, is a village and civil parish in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village lies four miles (6.5 km) northeast of St Austell and six miles (10 km) south of Bodmin. ...

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,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is also sometimes referred to as ''Prideaux Warren'', ''Prideaux War-Ring'', or ''Prideaux Hillfort''. The site is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

and so protected from unauthorised works by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

Physical description

The remains of the first and second

circular rampart A circular rampart (German: ''Ringwall'') is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering. The ...

s are quite distinct, although overgrown with trees on the north and east sides. They appear to be constructed of earth and rubble. The third rampart is only fragmentarily represented, but easily traced, due to the vegetation. A fourth, outermost wall is discerned on aerial photographs,Aerial Photo of Prideaux Castle
/ref> or on the 1888 Ordnance Survey map.Grid Ref: 205948,55622
. This outermost wall is in the form of an incomplete "D" shape, extending to the west and south on the downhill slope of the site. There are two entrances, typical of the small hillfort,
located on the eastern and northern side (i.e., opposite the fourth wall), where it is most wooded. There is no evidence of dressed stones. The palisade and any internal structures would have been of wooden construction and must have perished without trace. The enclosed area is level and described from the ground as being somewhat elliptical, although from aerial photographs it appears nearly circular. Its diameter is about 100 m, with an area of about 0.8 ha. Its present use is as a cattle pasture, with a frangible, pinkish stone (possibly Devonian

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

) forming the substrate. Its condition is slowly deteriorating, with less structure now visible than was shown on the 1888 survey map. The northern and eastern ramparts are overgrown with trees, merging into forest. In the vicinity, there is much evidence of mining for

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

and kaolinite, with

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

, pits,

shafts ''Shafts'' was an English feminist magazine produced by Margaret Sibthorp from 1892 until 1899. Initially published weekly and priced at one penny, its themes included votes for women, women's education, and radical attitudes towards vivisection, ...

and dumps in abundance. The word castle has long been employed colloquially to designate prehistoric remains of this general type throughout

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. Prideaux Castle has also been known as Prideaux Warren. Adjacent to the fort are two extents of forest, one named "Prideaux Woods," the other "Warren Woods." Even after centuries of deforestation these join to another forest, "North Slope Woods," covering the south side of Luxulyan Valley. Some of this forestation has been backfilled during recent periods; other parts are known to be ancient.

Prideaux Wood (SX0655) near St Blazey is the site of a disused quarry. Around a quarter of this woodland is of ancient origin; the remainder being coniferous and planted in the 1960s. The conifers are gradually being removed, with care being taken not to disturb the numerous greater horseshoe bat colonies which roost here.

Etymology

Cornish etymology

Most of the authoritiesR. M. Prideaux, "Prideaux: A Westcountry Clan". agree that the earliest form of the name was something like , and that the name is of Cornish origin. The first documented appearance of the French spelling Prideaux did not appear until

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in ...

times. For at least the past several centuries the name has been in Cornwall and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

. The final is a

spelling pronunciation A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronounc ...

of the ''x'' in the French orthography. A derivation from Cornish ''bre'' "hill" + Cornish ''dinas'' "castle; fort" → *''bredinas'' may be suggested. A development from this otherwise plausible form would have to account for the initial devoicing, as well as the loss of the nasal.

"Near the waters"

Several fanciful etymologies have been proposed, based on the assumption of French origin. For example, the 18th century Cornish historian Thomas Tonkin derived it from the French phrase ''près d'eaux'' "near hewaters": This etymology is somewhat implausible for a hilly location at an elevation of some 135 metres located several kilometres from the sea.

Prehistory

Bronze Age

The earliest occupation in the vicinity of the site dates from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. Cornwall has functioned continuously since high antiquity as a centre of

mining and trade, tin being an essential ingredient of bronze. The fort is situated not far from the ancient trade route which later became known as the

Saints' Way The Saints' Way ( kw, Forth an Syns) is a long-distance footpath in mid Cornwall, England, UK. History and description The footpath runs from Padstow parish church in the north via Luxulyan to Fowey parish church in the south, a distance o ...

; from here tin was traded as far as the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. The central role of tin mining in the local economy seem to have a continuity leading up to the stannary "Pridias",The original Cornish language form of "Prideaux" which in later times was one of the "

tithings A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

" (administrative districts) of the Blackmoor Stannary, centered at nearby

Hensbarrow Beacon Hensbarrow Beacon is a hill in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated a mile north-west of Stenalees village at . It is the highest natural point of the Hensbarrow uplands, a natural region and national character area. The natural ...

, with its records stored at the church in

Iron Age

Without datable artifacts, the hillfort is nonetheless assigned to the

of pre-

Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered wa ...

on the basis of its general form. Because the enclosed area is less than 1 ha, it would be classified as a "small multivallate hillfort", resembling most others of that type. There is no physical evidence that any structure was ever built upon the site subsequent to the Iron Age.

History

Domesday

There are at the present time three inhabited places arranged in an arc or line a few hundred metres to the north of the Castle. On the 1888 map they are called "Prideaux," "Little Prideaux," and "Great Prideaux." The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 mentions nothing that could be identified by name with either Luxulyan or Prideaux (Pridias). The nearest manor to Prideaux Castle listed is

Tywardreath Tywardreath (; kw, Ti War Dreth, meaning "House on the Beach" (or Strand)) is a small hilltop village on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, about north west of Fowey. It is located in a sheltered spot overlooking a silted up ...

(Tiwardrai), about 1.5 km to the southeast. Next nearest would have been Bodiggo (Bodenwitghi) at about 2.5 km. Both of these manors are recorded as held by Richard Fitz Thorold from Robert, Count of Mortain,

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

's half brother.

Pridis (Prideaux) stannary tithing

The economy of Prideaux may have been based in part on the

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 mine ...

. Britain, specifically

was famous for

, a key ingredient of bronze and thus an important trade item during the

. In 1201

King John of England King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the t ...

chartered four

stannaries 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 Cornwall: Foweymoor (Bodmin Moor), Blackmoor (

Hensbarrow Hensbarrow is a natural region in the county of Cornwall, England, UK, that has been recognized as National Character Area 154 by Natural England. Hensbarrow is an upland region covering an area of just under 12,000 hectares immediately north o ...

downs near Saint Austell), Tywarnhaile (Truro to Saint Agnes) and Penwith-with-Kerrier. Blackmoor was the oldest

, with eight subdivisions called

. ''Pridis'' (which is near the Cornish original of ''Prideaux'') is listed as one of the eight tithings of the Blackmoor stannary.

References

Bibliography

*Bartlett, J. 1856. "The History of St Blazey: a lecture"
Online; accessed 2006-06-30.
* Maclean, Sir John. 1873. ''The Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor in the County of Cornwall.'' Bodmin: Liddell & Son. *Pearce, Rob. 990? "Luxulyan Church and the Stannaries".
Online; accessed 2006-06-27
*Polsue, Joseph. 1867–1872. ''Parochial History of Cornwall'', vols 1—4. Truro: W. Lake, * Polwhele, Richard (1760–1838), ''The History of Devonshire'' (3 vols. 1797–1806, reprinted 1977 by Kohler and Coombes, Dorking, 1977). *Prideaux, R yM. 1989. ''Prideaux: a Westcountry clan.'' Chichester: Phillimore & Co. . *Rowe, John. 990?"A Short History of Luxulyan Parish and The Parish Church of St. Cyriac and St. Julitta".
Online; accessed 2006-06-27

External links

Images of "Prideaux Hillfort"
*{{gbmapping, cap=1, SX 0592 5567
1888 OS Map of Prideaux Castle Grid Ref: 205948,55622Aerial Photo of Prideaux Castle
Hill forts in Cornwall Iron Age sites in Cornwall Military history of Cornwall