Tag Archives: tristan and isolde

Indian queens in the heart of Cornwall

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DURING NUMEROUS VISITS to Cornwall, we have driven along the A30 road. Often on these journeys, we have driven past signs pointing to a place named ‘Indian Queens’, but we had never visited it. So, on the 29th of June 2024, we left the main road and headed towards Indian Queens without knowing what to expect. To be honest, at first sight, the place does not seem of any interest to the visitor. But, as we were to discover, Indian Queens contains one of the most unusual sights in Cornwall.

By chance, we pulled up opposite a house, which incorporates two granite pillars surmounted by a triangular pediment on which the following words are inscribed:

“THE INDIAN QUEEN. Licensed brewer and retailer of beer, cyder, spirits, wine, and tobacco. Licensed to the post horses.”

The building to which this was attached was not a pub and looked newer than the pillars and the inscribed pediment. These fragments are all that remains of a pub called ‘The Indian Queen’, which stood in another part of the district: between Goss Moor and Fraddon. The former pub, which had been built in the late 18th century, had a Victorian signboard (now in a museum in Truro). It depicted an American Indian Queen on one side and Queen Victoria on the other. Until about 1780, the pub had been called ‘The Queen’s Head’, but by 1787, it had become ‘The Indian Queen’. It is thought by some that a Portuguese princess, who was travelling between Falmouth and London, stayed at the inn, and because she was olive skinned, the locals thought she was an American Indian queen, and that is how the name of the pub and of the village originated. Later, the village name changed from Indian Queen to Indian Queens, as it is known today.

The village has one Indian restaurant, aptly named “Indian Queen”. Run by some friendly Bangladeshi people, it occupies what was formerly The Railway Tavern pub.  We ate dinner there. The following morning, we returned to Indian Queens to look at something we had missed the day before. Pocohontas Crescent leads to a footpath that heads towards the Indian Queens Pit. This proved to be a most interesting place.

In 1850, local Wesleyans approached the mine owner Henry Jenkyn to convert the local, disused quarry into an outdoor ‘preaching pit’, like the one already created (from a disused mining quarry) at Gwennap near Redruth, which was used by John Wesley – the founder of Methodism. The preaching pits were like amphitheatres in which large numbers of people could listen to the preaching of Methodist ministers. By 1860, the pit at Indian Queens was already being used by the congregations of various local Methodist chapels. Between 1880 and 1907, the pit had been adapted to look as it does today. The sloping sides of the pit were remodelled to create tiers just like those in ancient Greek and Roman amphitheatres, but each row was separated by a much greater height than in the ancient versions. The circular tiers encircle a round, flat area below them. By 1907, the semicircular raised preaching platform was in place. The pit was used for preaching, Sunday School anniversaries, and other events until 1970.

Between 1970 and 1976, the pit became overgrown and was unused. However, in 1976, a local man, Lloyd Truscott, worked hard to restore the pit. On the 20th of May 1978, a service was conducted in the restored pit. Today, the pit is owned by a group of trustees representing the local Methodists and other organisations. It is still used for staging events, and we were lucky enough to attend one of them on the 30th of June 2024.  That afternoon, we watched a highly entertaining improvised version of “Tristan and Isolde” – a play, not the opera. Three young actors performed it very engagingly and with great panache.

Until we ventured into Indian Queens, I had never heard of preaching pits. There are three surviving circular preaching pits in Cornwall, and one, which only occupies a quarter of a circle. I hope to write more on this subject at a later date.

A saint, a hermit on high, and a cousin

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I HAVE OFTEN VISITED my cousin, Peter, who lives near Bodmin in Cornwall. On my way to see him, I have always noticed signs pointing to roads leading to Roche. It was this year, only on our most recent visit to the area, that we first visited the small village about 6 miles southwest of Bodmin.  Roche, pronounced as in ‘poach’, and is French for ‘rock’, is known as ‘Tregarrek’ in the Cornish language, which means ‘homestead on the rock’, which is a suitable name for the place, as I will explain.

Hermitage at St Roche, Cornwall

Unfortunately, the parish church was closed when we stopped in Roche. It is dedicated to St Gomonda, one of the many saints barely known outside Cornwall. Robert Meller, who is compiling a fascinating multi-volume, encyclopaedic account of Cornwall, wrote of Gomonda:

“Precisely nothing is known about this female-sounding saint and in reality, she might have been Saint Gonand, a male saint.”

Nothing is known about St Gonand. It is also possible that the church was dedicated to Bishop Conan, the first bishop of St Germans, appointed in the 10th century. The church itself has a Norman font (which we were unable to see) and a mediaeval tower (15th century). The rest of the church was rebuilt between 1820 and 1822 in a style typical of older churches in the area.

St Gomonda’s churchyard, which we entered by crossing over a stile made of granite slabs, contains a weathered Cornish cross, a primitive-looking monolith about six feet in height. The stone is covered with man-made indentations or carvings. One of these depicts a sword, which according to Meller, is an unusual image to be found on a Cornish cross. There have been standing stones, menhirs, such as the cross at St Gomonda, since before Christianity arrived in Cornwall. The crosses with Christian symbolism date from the 5th century onwards. It is therefore possible that the one we saw at Roche was pre-Christian with later Christian carvings, but here I am merely guessing.

About 420 yards southeast of the parish church, there is a ruined early 15th century, two-storied hermit’s chapel. Like many holy Hindu shrines in India and the monasteries in Greece’s Meteora district, the chapel perches high above the land around it. It can be seen 60 feet above its surroundings on the top of Roche Rock, whose presence inspired the naming of the village near it. Built in 1409 and dedicated to St Michael, the chapel used to be accessed by an iron ladder. At some stage, the cell beneath the chapel (on the upper floor) was occupied by a leper, expelled from his village because of his illness. He survived because every day, his daughter, Gundred, carried him water from a well about a mile and a half away. For her compassion and kindness, she was sanctified, becoming yet another of the saints of Cornwall.

Roche Rock and its chapel figure in various folk legends, including “Tristan and Isolde”. Meller wrote that when King Mark was chasing the lovers, Tristan and Isolde:

“… they took refuge in Roche Chapel to escape capture …To escape capture from the soldiers, Tristan jumped out of the chapel window – referred to as ‘Tristan’s Leap’”

Putting aside legends, the Roche Rock is an exceptional geological feature. Geologists consider it to be the finest example of quartz-tourmaline rock in Britain. It is composed of quartz and black tourmaline, which is a type of granite also known as ‘schorl’. Schorl is extremely hard and resistant to being worn away by the weather. Over the millions of years since this large lump of stone was formed, the surrounding terrain has been worn away, leaving the prominent rock that we see today.

I doubt that I would have thought twice about visiting the place had my cousin not lived nearby. I first met Peter in the early 1980s or late 1970s. Then, I got to know him and his family as friends. In the late 1990s, I began researching my family history, a process that included filling in gaps on family trees. A relative in New Zealand provided me with much information about a branch of my mother’s extended family. You might be able to imagine my surprise when I discovered from this information what Peter and I never knew before – that we are related; we have a common ancestor. We found out that apart from being friends, we are also members of the same family. Peter and I are doubly related because my mother’s parents were second cousins once removed. Peter and I are not only 4th cousins but also 5th cousins.

Our first visit to Roche proved interesting. Small as it is, Roche contains several things to see, which are some of the many features that help to make Cornwall attractive for visitors. Although one might not want to stay there, it is worth making a small detour from the main A30 road to explore the place briefly.