Crowan Beacon forum 1 room

Error!

close
more_vert

No worries there Andy...I'm with William Blake on this one, 'tis only through opposites that progression can be made...reckon that precision has slipped in colloquialism, and that perhaps Black Rock in some quarters applies to cover the whole area? I stand corrected happily!
As for Uncle Ned's Rock, it's one that just pokes its head up nomenclaturally out of obscurity...it's deep in family lore as a meeting / trysting place, apparently has good sightlines from the north, Troon, Four Lanes, Beacon and the like; enquiries reveal nothing as to its nomenclature or who Uncle Ned was - guessing some colloquialism akin to the wellspring Jimmy Vincent's Well in Bolenowe village ( marked on the 1:25 000 as Vincent's Well, in that 'antiquity' typeface).
I've also seen it referred to in a local poem - whether by the Bolenowe poet John Harris or not I shall have to investigate, been scouring for the reference, but I suspect the poet is later than 1900, even mid-century...which triggered my interest that it has some fading local acclaim and was at some point known outside family lore.
Never been myself, but again it seems an odd survivor in an area super-intensively mined; really close to Grenville and the Great Flat Lode, it's on the OS sheet at Bolenowe Carn Moor (SW671374) (interestingly locally known as Scare Moor?)and I think is the one just above the 'r' in 'Carn'. It isn't very big, but has survived plunder on the moor which does show evidence of several shallow quarries and delves. Again this evidence comes from my family who can trace their Bolenowe roots back well into the 1700's. Might be worthy of further investigation I was thinking, if not ina strictly megalithical sense then at least for it's whispered position in fading local cultural tradition?
Oh how did the dowsing expedition go?
Chris

On New Years Eve while everyone was sober I asked some old Crowan residents about Black Rock. They were quite certain that it is the outcrop close to the old Blackrock Methodist chapel, now a B&B at the crossroads at gr 661349. The outcrop close to the chapel is where the Methodists preached in the 18thC. Those I spoke to were quite adamant that Crowan Beacon is not the same place as Black Rock. Unfortunately although John Wesley does mention Crowan in his he does not say where he preached.

The following extracts are fun though...

Rev Mr John Wesley's Journal
Monday 9th September 1765 About one I preached at Porkellis; at six in Crowan. I admire the depth of grace in the generality of this people; so simple, so humble, so teachable, so serious, so utterly dead to the world!

September Sat. 13. 1766 — I preached at noon in the new House at Crowan, it being a very stormy day.

Wesley letter

To Thomas Rankin [23]

LONDON, November 6, 1764.

DEAR TOMMY,--If the Crowan or Buryan Society are able to bear the expense of building themselves, we have no objection; but we must not increase our debt this year. This is what we determined. If you do build, build large enough. In general, we do not pay rent out of the public stock, but get help from friends in the circuit. For once we may allow forty shillings.

I shall write to Plymouth Dock this post. I hope John Catermole (a sound man) will come and help you. I shall either mend William Darney or end him. He must not go on in this manner.

Spread the little tracts wherever you go. You know the solid good which results therefrom. Go on; spend and be spent for a good Master.--I am, dear Tommy,

Your affectionate friend and brother.