Archive for the ‘Cornwall and Cornish’ Category

Place-name Merry-Go-Round 2: PORTH

Saturday, May 18th, 2013


Porth Joke. Credit: Charles Winpenny, Cornwall Cam

The element PORTH is extremely common in Cornish place-names. It is very tempting to associate it with the English word port. Indeed, there are a few names where the element turns up as PORT. Port Isaac, recorded c. 1540 as Porthissek, is an example. The name means “corn-rich cove”.

However, the basic meaning of this element appears to be “entrance”. It is true that it is often used to mean “cove” or “harbour” and thus overlaps with the meaning of POL. That it doesn’t always have one of those meanings is demonstrated by the the name Bosporthennis (pron: bəzˈprenɪs). This place is not far from here and is in the centre of the peninsula, quite a long way from the sea. The name means “dwelling at the entrance to Ninnes“. Ninnes derives from an ennis, which means either “the island” or “the isolated place”.

The problem with PORTH is that it quite often has changed into POL, and vice versa. Polperro, which I left hanging at the end of the last posting is an example. This name was recorded in 1303 as Porthpira. The second element is either a personal name or the name of a stream. Just to scramble your braincells a little more Polperro is situated on the River Pol.

Another example of the PORTH – POL confusion is the place in the picture. Porth Joke has an alternative local name Polly Joke. There is disagreement about the meaning of the second element. Some say it means “jackdaw”, others say it means “rich in plants”.

An example of the change from POL to PORTH is the wonderfully named Porth Kidney. This is situated not far from here near St. Ives. The name was recorded in 1580 as Polkymyas. The second element means “permission (to land goods)”.

So now you see why I titled this and the previous posting Place-name Merry-Go-Round. And I haven’t finished yet.

Place-name Merry-Go-Round 1: POL

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Credit: Paul Henjum
Photo in public domain.

I think it’s about time for another foray into Cornish place-names.

We’ll start with the element POL. This according to Padel means: pit, pool, stream, cove or creek. Quite a choice. He remarks drily: “It is often difficult to decide which of the various meanings is present in a particular place-name.”

There are quite a few POL names in these parts. Less than a mile away from here there is a dwelling called Pol Teggan (“beautiful POL”, I think) and about the same distance away is a vineyard called Polgoon (“POL on the moor”). A little further afield there is Polpry (usually glossed as “clay pit”) which has the rather unexpected pronunciation pɒlˈpraɪ. And much further away in north Cornwall there is my favourite, Polyphant (“toad pool”).

Perhaps the best-known POL name is Polperro, which is a very picturesque tourist destination. But more on this name in a later post.


Polperro. Credit: Mick Knapton. Used under this licence.

Penzance harbour

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Last Monday was a public holiday in the UK. The weather was very kind. Here are some pictures from a stroll around the harbour in Penzance.


Gry Maritha is a cargo ship belonging to the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company. She was built in Norway and named after the daughter of her first captain. The ship makes regular journeys to the islands throughout the year. She is known locally as The Grim Reaper.


Someone hard at work in the inner harbour even on a public holiday. Such dedication.


A view across the outer harbour and the bay towards St. Michael’s Mount. The picture was taken from Ross Bridge, a swing bridge which separates the outer and inner harbours.


Looking west over the Jubilee Pool. The pool isn’t open for the summer yet.

Hissing swans

Sunday, April 7th, 2013


The weather yesterday was a little more benign. The pictures are from a visit to Tehidy Country Park. The name is pronounced təˈhɪdi and probably derives from Cornish ti “house” and Hidin a personal name.


I don’t know what the ruined building is, but as it was right next to a stream, I suppose it could have been some sort of mill.


The swan on the left was obviously fed up with being photographed. Just after I took this picture, I crossed the wooden bridge you can see to the left. The swan hissed loudly at me. Scary!

Pennycomequick

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

The building you can see in the picture used to be a pub. Unfortunately, it fell on hard times, was sold, and the building has been converted into student flats.

The name is one I know well. The building is in an area of Plymouth which bears the same name and is quite close to the main railway line from the west country to London. I have passed it many, many times on the train. Apparently, the locals believe that the area was named after the pub rather than vice versa. Wikipedia, however, suggests a “Brythonic derivation of the name Pen y cwm coet, meaning the head of a wooded valley, or Pen y cwm gwyk, referring to the nearby creek, is possible, but must be treated with caution as it is unproven“.

As Sidney Wood points out in a comment on my post about Bessy Beneath Pennycomequick is also a putative earlier name for the town of Falmouth. The Wikipedia article on the town is less cautious about relating this to a Celtic source – Peny-cwm-cuic.

The trouble with all of these derivations is two-fold. First, y as the definite article is Welsh. Cornish has an. Secondly, the word cwm is Welsh. I don’t think Cornish orthography ever used w to represent a vowel sound. Oliver Padel gives comm as the Cornish place-name element meaning “valley” and comments that it occurs very rarely in Cornish names. He hypothesises that the many occurrences of comb or combe in West Country names, either as simplexes or in compounds such as Ilfracombe (Devon) and Wiveliscombe (Somerset) are of English origin. English borrowed the word from Welsh.

So if Pennycomequick does derive from a Celtic source, it would have to be from a name beginning something like pen an comm. The problem is that the Plymouth name is not in Cornwall, but in Devon, and the Falmouth name is only a putative former name, so Pennycomequick does not appear in any of my Cornish place-name reference books.


Photo credit: Google Street View.