| The St. Stephen Beacon is a, granite sugar-loaf rising nearly 700 ft. above sea level. As its name implies it was anciently one of the hills on which fires were lit on mid- summer eves and to pass warnings along in time of national danger. It would appear also that it was used as a strong point in some local battle, as there is a well defined trench around the shoulder of the hill. Capt. Sam Trethewey, captain of Tin-hill Mine on its southern slope, used to call the hill "The King's Pethera's Mount." In an old "Cymric score" pethera means fourth. I have often wondered where ain, tain, tethera, i.e. the first three are, perhaps Castle-an-dinas, Domellick Dinas and Hensbarrow. Being nearly in the centre of the large Parish of St. Stephen-in-Brannel huge bonfires were burned on its summit during times of national rejoicing. I remember bonfires in 1887 and 1897 celebrating Queen Victoria's Jubilee and at the coronations of Edward VII and George V, also Victory bonfires. From this hill you can see nearly all the China Clay Pits and China Stone Quarries in the Parish. The late Mr. Robert Varcoe, Sr., of Resugga Farm - a steward of the Boconnoc Estate as well as a director of various clay and stone works, and whose grandfather opened up Goonvean Clay Pit in 1797 - used to advocate at the rent audit at the Grenville Arms, Nanpean, when responding to the toast of "China Clay" that tile clay workers of the district should erect a statue to Wm. Cookworthy on this hill for his pioneer work in starting the local industry, for it was at the S.W. foot of this hill that the first Carloggas Pit was opened up. Other pits around its base, South, New South, West, East and North Carloggas, Wheal Ball, Duckworth and Rogers' Carpella, while mid-cornwall (E.C.L.P.) and Spicer's Carpella are still going strong. The pits mentioned are all within a mile, while a bit farther away are the Bloomdale, Luke's Victoria (now Nanpean playing-Eeld), Goonvean, Trethosa, Kernick, Treviscoe, Hallow, Hendra, Dubbers, Dorothy, while the conical sand-hills of Little John's, Cocks Barrow and Longstone can be seen. Almost the whole of the China Stone Quarries are quite near, namely : - Tregargus, Goonvean, Slip, Luke's, Quarry Close, Rostowrack and Hendra. It is rather remarkable that the kind of granite that produces China Stone, i.e., granite free of "shell," should be found in quantities at something like the centre of the granite upheavals. The late Mr. Joseph M. Coon, F.R.G.S., used to say that formerly a magma reservoir of molten boiling granite lay under the Scillies, Penzance, St. Austell, N. Cornwall and Dartmoor which erupted and made the granite intrusions at the places mentioned, incidentally forming the clay beds as well. Can we imagine this vast cauldron under the earth's crust boiling violently at the centre and throwing off the lighter particles of shell before the final volcanic upheaval which brought it near the earth's crust, resulting in China stone as we know it? Is it a feasible supposition? C. S. Gilbert in his Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall, 1817, writes, "there are several mines and stream works in this parish which with the manufacture of china clay and agricultural pursuits give good employment to its inhabitants." Though tin streaming and mining has died out, yet the growth of the clay and stone trade through the 132 years since he wrote now finds work, together with farming, for the male and for some of the female population, which now numbers between 4,800 and 5,000 people. The presence of workable minerals brings the workman, and so we have a number of villages; to the S. West, St. Stephen Churchtown with its tall tower and fine church. Its suburbs stretch out on all the roads; to Gwindra, to Terras (where the Hocking brothers, Silas and Joseph, were born), away up Treneague-Trethosa road to Stepaside, forking, one to Trevescoe, the other to Goonmaris, the home of the clever young author of Wilding Graft (Jack R. Clemo), who incidentally makes one of the characters in the book visit this hill. One branch of this road leads to Nanpean, a large village north of the Beacon just up from Drinnick Mill Station, from where much of the china clay and stone products are despatched. Nan- pean has a church and chapel, an institute, and a playing- field which because of its sheltered position in the Old Victoria Bottoms has been described as the best playing-field in Cornwall. Another branch of the road at Goonamaris skirts the base of the hill passing through Goonabara and on to Fox- hole, a large village which has grown during the last half century from a small hamlet of some 20 cottages to nearly 200, comprising 20 council-houses built after the 1914-18 war, 30 "Cornish Units," built recently, 40 houses owned by E.C.L.P. and the remainder owned privately, which can be clearly seen from here also, besides what I have already described, and which all lie within a couple or three miler of the hill. The distant view on a clear day reaches along the coast from the Blaek Head to Falmouth, down to Carn Brea and St. Agnes Beacon. In the middle distance the derelict mine engine-houses of St. Austell Consols and Dowgas Mines stand out, while nearer still are those of Tinhill and Stenagwyns; so I say, to anyone having a, good glass and an hour or two to spare, choose a fine clear day and "have a, go." It is an easy ascent being also easy to find, with a good road nearly half-way around it. |