The Story of an Ancient Parish: Breage with Germoe: With Some Account of Its Armigers, Worthies and Unworthies, Smugglers and Wreckers, Its Traditions and SuperstitionsCoulthard, H. R. (Hugh Robert)
History
The Story of an Ancient Parish: Breage with Germoe: With Some Account of Its Armigers, Worthies and Unworthies, Smugglers and Wreckers, Its Traditions and Superstitions
It seems in every way possible that a fair proportion of the tin
exported from the Island of Ictis to Greece, Italy and the East came
from what is now the Parish of Breage. We have been told by those
competent to speak on such matters that there are tin workings in the
neighbourhood of Wheal Vor which evince a very great antiquity. The name
of Wheal Vor itself means in the Celtic tongue "great work," but we
cannot build much as to the antiquity of the mine merely upon its Celtic
name, as the Cornish or Celtic language continued to be spoken in this
part of Cornwall even until the reign of Queen Anne or later.
At what date the Romans penetrated into Cornwall it is impossible to
say. It has been usual to regard their occupation of Cornwall as of a
somewhat shadowy and uncertain character, but this is not altogether
borne out by facts. Their camps, possibly of a not very permanent
character, are scattered all over our most western part of the County,
amongst other places there is one at St. Erth and another in the parish
of Constantine. The Roman Mile-stone, found in the foundations of St.
Hilary Church, at the restoration, and now preserved there, attests the
fact that a Roman road to the extreme West passed near St. Hilary
Church, probably following the same lines that the main road between
Penzance and Helston follows to-day. Along this road it is probable
would come the first real light and culture to Breage with the steady
tramp of the marching legionaries. It may well have been that
Christianity first travelled this way in their train. Roman coins and
Roman pottery have been from time to time found all over the County. In
1779 an urn containing copper coins weighing eight pounds was found on
Godolphin Farm by a ploughman who sold them to a Jew, and so all trace
of them was lost.
In whatever way Christianity was first brought to the remote Parish of
Breage, it was certainly not brought by St. Breaca, St. Germoe and the
rest of their companions, who only made their appearance at the end of
the fifth or beginning of the sixth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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