Craig Weatherhill (1950 or 1951 – 18 or 19 July 2020) was a Cornish

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

, novelist and writer on the history, archaeology, place names and mythology of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. Weatherhill attended school in Falmouth, where his parents ran a sports shop. He played football for a number of local clubs, including Mawnan, and played as goalkeeper for the county football team. Between 1972 and 1974, Weatherhill served with the RAF, training as a

cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...

. He was discharged after a serious back injury. He worked as a planning officer, architectural designer and historic conservation expert in local government and private practice. Under the tutelage of historian P.A.S. Pool he conducted archaeological surveys of West Cornwall. Weatherhill was also a Conservation Officer at Penwith District Council. He contributed to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's Radyo Kernow, in particular to the series ''The Tinners' Way'' and ''Beachcombers''. In 1981 Weatherhill was made a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow for services to Cornish archaeology, taking the

bardic name A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. The Welsh language, Welsh term bardd ('poet') originally referred to the Welsh poets of the M ...

(Draughtsman of Archaeology). He was a member of

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...

organisations

Cussel an Tavas Kernuak Cussül an Tavas Kernôwek (formerly ''Cussel an Tavas Kernûak''; the Cornish Language Council) is an association founded in 1987 to teach, research and further the Cornish language in Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow), UK. Since the adoption of a Stand ...

and Agan Tavas, as well as of campaign group Kernow Matters To You. In 2020, Gorsedh Kernow conferred its

Awen ''Awen'' is a Welsh language, Welsh, Cornish language, Cornish and Breton language, Breton word for "Artistic inspiration, inspiration" (and typically poetic inspiration). In Welsh mythology, is the inspiration of the poets, or bards; its pers ...

award on Weatherhill for outstanding contribution to

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

and broader Cornish culture. Weatherhill also took part in numerous archaeological surveys and excavations, including the excavation of Bosiliack Barrow in 1985, among other ancient monuments across West Cornwall. During the 1980s, Weatherhill was responsible for rediscovering three lost ancient holy wells in the space of just a few weeks, those wells being Venton Bebibell, Venton Zennor and Bosporthennis Holy Well, all within the Penwith Moors. Weatherhill's rediscovery of Venton Bebibell lead to the reviving of the tradition of "dolly dunking" by the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network (CASPN) in 2004. More recently, restoration work has been carried out on Bosporthennis Well.

Works

* ''The Principal Antiquities of the Land's End District'' (with Charles Thomas and P. A. S. Pool), Cornwall Archaeological Society 1980 * ''Belerion: Ancient Sites of Land's End'', Alison Hodge 1981, 1985; Halsgrove 1989, 2000 * ''Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly'', Alison Hodge 1985; Halsgrove 1997, 2000, 2009 * ''The Lyonesse Stone'': #
The Lyonesse Stone
', Tabb House 1991 # ''Seat of Storms'', Tabb House 1997 # ''The Tinners' Way'', Tabb House 2011 * ''Myths and Legends of Cornwall'' (with Paul Devereux), Sigma Press 1994, 1997 *
Cornish Place Names & Language
', Sigma Press 1995, 2007 * ''Place Names in Cornwall & Scilly'', Wessex/Westcountry Books 2005 * ''A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names'' (ed. by

Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 1963) is an American and Irish linguistics, linguist, Character encoding, script encoder, typesetting, typesetter, type designer and Publishing, publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which ...

), Evertype 2009 * ''Nautilus. A sequel to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and The Mysterious Island'', Evertype 2009 * ''The Place-names of the Land's End Peninsula'', Penwith Press 2017 * ''Jowal Lethesow: Whedhel a'n West a Gernow'', translation of ''The Lyonesse Stone'' into Cornish by N.J.A. Williams, Evertype 2009 * ''The Promontory People: An Early History of the Cornish'', Francis Boutlé Publishers 2014 *''They Shall Land – The Spanish Raid on Mount's Bay, Cornwall, July 1595'', Penwith Press 2019

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weatherhill, Craig 2020 deaths Architects from Cornwall Non-fiction writers from Cornwall Novelists from Cornwall Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Cornish-speaking people Year of birth uncertain