Bodmin
Bodmin
| |
---|---|
Demonym | Bodminite[citation needed] |
OS grid reference | SX071665 |
Civil parish |
|
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BODMIN |
Postcode district | PL31 |
Dialling code | 01208 |
Police | Devon and Cornwall |
Fire | Cornwall |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Bodmin (Bosvenegh
The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered to the east by Cardinham parish, to the southeast by Lanhydrock parish, to the southwest and west by Lanivet parish, and to the north by Helland parish.[3]
Bodmin had a population of 14,736 as of the 2011 Census.[4] It was formerly the county town of Cornwall until the Crown Courts moved to Truro which is also the administrative centre (before 1835 the county town was Launceston). Bodmin was in the administrative North Cornwall District until local government reorganisation in 2009 abolished the District (see also Cornwall Council). The town is part of the North Cornwall parliamentary constituency, which is represented by Scott Mann MP.
Bodmin Town Council is made up of sixteen councillors who are elected to serve a term of four years. Each year, the Council elects one of its number as Mayor to serve as the town's civic leader and to chair council meetings.[5]
Situation and origin of the name
The name of the town probably derives from the Cornish "Bod-meneghy", meaning "dwelling of or by the sanctuary of monks".[6] Variant spellings recorded include Botmenei in 1100, Bodmen in 1253, Bodman in 1377 and Bodmyn in 1522.[6] The Bodman spelling also appears in sources and maps from the 16th and 17th centuries,[7] most notably in the celebrated map of Cornwall produced by John Speed but actually engraved by the Dutch cartographer Jodocus Hondius the Elder (1563–1612) in Amsterdam in 1610 (published in London by Sudbury and Humble in 1626).[8]
The hamlets of Cooksland, Little Kirland, Dunmere and Turfdown are in the parish.[9]
History
An inscription on a stone built into the wall of a summer house in Lancarffe furnishes proof of a settlement in Bodmin in the early Middle Ages. It is a memorial to one "Duno[.]atus son of Me[.]cagnus" and has been dated from the 6th to 8th centuries.[13]
Arthur Langdon (1896) records three Cornish crosses at Bodmin; one was near the Berry Tower, one was outside Bodmin Gaol and another was in a field near Castle Street Hill.[14] There is also Carminow Cross at a road junction southeast of the town.
The Black Death killed half of Bodmin's population in the mid 14th century (1,500 people).[15]
Rebellions
Bodmin was the centre of three Cornish uprisings. The first was the
Bodmin Borough Police
The Borough of Bodmin was one of the 178 municipal boroughs which under the auspices of the
"Bodmin Town"
The song "Bodmin Town" was collected from the Cornishman William Nichols at Whitchurch, Devon, in 1891 by Sabine Baring-Gould who published a version in his A Garland of Country Song (1924).[17]
Churches
Parish church of St Petroc
The existing church building is dated 1469–72 and was until the building of
Other churches
The Chapel of St Thomas Becket is a ruin of a 14th-century building in Bodmin churchyard. The holy well of St Guron is a small stone building at the churchyard gate. The Berry Tower is all that remains of the former church of the Holy Rood and there are even fewer remains from the substantial Franciscan Friary established ca. 1240: a gateway in Fore Street and two pillars elsewhere in the town. The Roman Catholic
Archdeaconry of Bodmin
Sites of interest
Bodmin Jail
Institutions
Other buildings of interest include the former Shire Hall, now a tourist information centre, and Victoria Barracks, formerly depot of the now defunct Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and now the site of the regimental museum. It includes the history of the regiment from 1702, plus a military library. The original barracks house the regimental museum which was founded in 1925. There is a fine collection of small arms and machine guns, plus maps, uniforms and paintings on display. The Honey Street drill hall was the mobilisation point for reservists being deployed to serve on the Western Front.[24]
Bodmin County Lunatic Asylum, later known as St Lawrence's Hospital,[25][26][27] was designed by John Foulston. The humorist, William Robert Hicks, was domestic superintendent in the mid-19th century.[28]
Walker Lines, named after
Bosvenna House, an Edwardian manor house, was formerly Bosvenna Hotel, and the home of the Royal British Legion Club, but has since become a private residence.
There is a sizable single storey Masonic Hall in St Nicholas Street, which is home to no less than eight Masonic bodies.[29]
Other sites
Bodmin Beacon Local Nature Reserve is the hill overlooking the town. The reserve has 83 acres (33.6 ha) of public land and at its highest point it reaches 162 metres (531 ft) with the distinctive landmark at the summit. The 44 metres (144 ft) tall granite monument to Sir
In 1966, the "Finn VC Estate" was named in honour of
Education
There are no
Primary schools
Beacon ACE Academy opened as a primary school for pupils aged between 3–11 in September 2017, following the merger of Beacon Infant and Nursery School and Robartes Junior School. Beacon ACE Academy is part of Kernow Learning] Multi Academy Trust and is rated Good bySpecial Educational Needs.
There are a further two
Bodmin College
Bodmin College is a large state comprehensive school for ages 11–18 on the outskirts of the town. Its principal is Ms Seward-Adams. The college is home to the nationally acclaimed "Bodmin College Jazz Orchestra", founded and run by the previous Director of Music, Adrian Evans, until 2007 and more recently, by the current Director, Ben Vincent. In 1997, Systems & Control students at Bodmin College constructed Roadblock, a robot which entered and won the first series of Robot Wars and was succeeded by "The Beast of Bodmin". The school also has one of the largest sixth forms in the county.
Callywith College
Army School of Education
Aspiring National Service Sergeant Instructors of the
Transport
Bodmin Parkway railway station – once known as Bodmin Road – is a principal calling point on the Cornish Main Line about 3½ miles (5½ km) south-east of the town centre. Buses to central Bodmin, Wadebridge, Padstow, Rock, Polzeath, Port Isaac and Camelford depart from outside the station entrance. It is connected to Bodmin town by a branch line that is home to the local steam railway, Bodmin and Wenford Railway.
Bodmin is just off the A30 providing a connection to the M5 motorway at Exeter 62 miles (99 km) northeast.
Bus and coach services connect Bodmin with some other districts of Cornwall and Devon.
Sport and leisure
Bodmin has a
The Royal Cornwall Golf Club (now defunct) was located on Bodmin Moor. It was founded in 1889 and became "Royal" in 1891. The club disbanded in the 1950s.[40][41]
There is an active running club, Bodmin RoadRunners.
Bodmin was a stage finish in 2021 cycling Tour of Britain (Stage 1, 5th September).
Cornish wrestling
Bodmin has been a great centre for Cornish wrestling over the centuries.[42] The Bodmin Wrestling Association was instrumental in the setting up of the Cornish Wrestling Association in 1923. At the base of the monument on The Beacon are the remains of the wrestling ring which many believe was a Plen-an-gwary.[43][44][45] More recently Cornish wrestling tournaments are held as part of the revival of Bodmin Riding.
Other places in Bodmin where Cornish wrestling tournaments and matches were held include:
- Coldharbour near the Barracks[46]
- Field at Barn Lane, opposite the Asylum Reservoir[47]
- Field which adjoins St Nicholas opposite the Great Western Railway Station[48]
- The Gymnasium at the DCLI Barracks[49]
- Bodmin town's ground at Westheath[50]
- The Football Ground, Priory Park[51]
- Bodmin priory grounds, including the 1951 inter-celtic tournament[52]
William George Fish, known as, "Billy the Fish", from Bodmin, was the featherweight champion in 1927 and 1928 and the lightweight champion in 1933 and 1934.[53][54]
Media
- Newspapers
Cornish Guardian is a weekly newspaper published every Wednesday in seven separate editions, including the Bodmin edition.
In October 2020, the Bodmin Voice, sister paper to the Newquay Voice, was launched. It is published every Wednesday and focuses centrally on Bodmin.
- Radio
Bodmin is the home of NCB Radio, an internet radio station which aims to bring a dedicated station to North Cornwall. The town is also served by county-wide radio stations, BBC Radio Cornwall, Heart West and Greatest Hits Radio South West.
- Television
Local TV coverage is provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Caradon Hill and the local relay transmitters.[55][56]
Notable people
See also Category:People from Bodmin
- John Arnold (1736–1799), watchmaker, of London
- John Thomas Blight, artist
- Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptologist and Assyriologist
- Chula Chakrabongse, philanthropist, Prince of Siam
- James Henry Finn, soldier who was awarded the Victoria Cross
- Thomas Flamank, lawyer, co-leader of the Cornish Rebellion, 1497
- John Gale, Australian journalist
- Francis Hamley, British Army officer who administered the South Australian government from 1868 to 1869
- Joseph Osbertus Hamley, British Army officer who administered the New Zealand station of the British Army Military Store Department during the New Zealand Wars
- William Hamley, founder of Hamleystoyshop
- Alice Hext, garden developer
- William Robert Hicks, superintendent of the Asylum
- The Onyx
- Herman Cyril McNeile, "Sapper", novelist
- Peter D. Mitchell FRS, Nobel prizewinner, spent the latter part of his career in Bodmin
- Ben Oliver, Cornwall County record holder for the 100m and 400m Wheelchair racing[57] and ranked best in the world at 800 metres, having set a new European record.[58]
- Sir Arthur Olver, expert in animal husbandry
- Saint Petroc
- Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, poet, novelist and critic
- Andy Reed, rugby union player
- Dan Rogerson, MP
- Henry Southwell, vicar of Bodmin, afterwards Bishop of Lewes
- Thomas Vivian or Vyvyan, Prior of Bodmin, titular Bishop of Megara[59]
Town twinning
Bodmin is
Official heraldry
W. H. Pascoe's 1979 A Cornish Armory gives the arms of the priory and the monastery and the seal of the borough.
- Seal – a king enthroned; legend: Sigill comune burgensium bodmine
- Priory – Azure three salmon naiant in pale Argent
- Monastery – Or on a chevron Azure between three lion's heads Purpure three annulets Or
Official events
On Halgavor Moor (Goats' Moor) near Bodmin there was once an annual carnival in July which was on one occasion attended by King Charles II.[61] Halgavor extends into the parish of Lanhydrock.[62]
Bodmin Riding, a horseback procession through the town, is a traditional annual ceremony.
'Beating the bounds' and 'hurling'
In 1865–66
In 2015, beating of the bounds and Cornish hurling took place at Bodmin 8 April organised by the
See also
- List of topics related to Cornwall
- List of Bodmin MPs
- Bodmin Hospital
- Bodmin manumissions
- Beast of Bodmin
- 2023 Bodmin mass stabbing
References
- ^ "List of Place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel" (PDF). Cornish Language Partnership. May 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-319-22938-5
- ^ "Cornwall Council online mapping". Mapping.cornwall.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013.
- ^ "Bodmin Population 2011". Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
- ^ "Bodmin Town Council Website". Bodmin Town Council. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
- ^ a b "History of Bodmin". bodmin.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
- ^ "Map". upload.wikimedia.org/. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- ^ "Map". paintingandframe.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- ^ "Cornwall; Explore Britain". Explorebritian.info. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
- Doble, G. H.(1965) The Saints of Cornwall: part 4. Truro: Dean and Chapter; pp. 132–166
- ^ Thorn, C. et al. (eds.) (1979) Cornwall. Chichester: Phillimore; entries 4,3–4.22
- ^ Powell-Smith, Anna. "Bodmin – Domesday Book". Retrieved 12 October 2016.
- ^ Discussion, photo and bibliography in Okasha, Elisabeth (1993). Corpus of Early Christian Inscribed Stones of South-west Britain. Leicester: University Press, pp. 126–128
- ^ He also mentions a fourth cross which is missing, but may have been the same as the third.--Langdon, A. G. (1896) Old Cornish Crosses. Truro: Joseph Pollard; pp. 46, 57, 74 & 227
- ^ "Black Death". Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
- ^ Sturt, John (1987) Revolt in the West: the Western Rebellion of 1549. Exeter: Devon Books
- ^ A more authentic version based on the Baring-Gould MSS. appeared in 1974 in Gordon Hitchcock's Songs of the West Country.--Dave Arthur's notes on Martyn Wyndham Read's Andy's Gone Broadside BRO 134.
- ^ Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall; 2nd ed. Penguin Books
- ^ Sedding, Edmund H. (1909) Norman Architecture in Cornwall: a handbook to old ecclesiastical architecture. London: Ward & Co.; pp. 21–36
- ^ a b Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall, second ed. Penguin Books.
- ^ "Parish of St Mary, Bodmin". Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-9550097-0-9; p. 119
- ISBN 978-1-85479-248-8
- ^ "Bodmin". The Drill Hall Project. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
- ^ "Bodmin workhouse, later St Lawrence's Hospital (Illustration)". Peter Higginbotham's Workhouse website. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2007.
- ^ "Middlesex University index of County Asylums". Mdx.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2007.
- ^ "History of St Lawrence's Hospital, after its closure". Art.deaco.btinternet.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
- ^ Boase, G. C. (1891). "Hicks, William Robert (1808–1868), asylum superintendent and humorist". Dictionary of National Biography Vol. XXVI. Smith, Elder & Co. Retrieved 23 December 2007.
- ^ Cornwall Masonic Yearbook 2019/20
- ^ Chichester, H. M. (2004) 'Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, first baronet (1785–1853)’, rev. Roger T. Stearn, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 1 Jan 2008
- ^ "New Zealand Cornish Association newsletter" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
- ^ [1][permanent dead link]
- ^ [2][permanent dead link]
- ^ [3][permanent dead link]
- ^ "Games Workshop founder and entrepreneur to open 2 free schools". Gov.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ [4][permanent dead link]
- ^ "New post-16 College planned to be built on land at Bodmin". Callywith. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- ^ "Illiterate Recruits" in The Times (London) (23 August 1947).
- ^ Colin Day, National Service with the RAEC in Cornwall Part 1, at http://www.colindaylinks.com/dayspast/raec49.html Archived 25 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 7 December 2010).
- ^ "Royal Cornwall Golf Club", "Golf's Missing Links".
- ^ "Royal Cornwall Golf Club. Bodmin. (1889 - 1950s)". Golf's Missing Links. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
- ^ Royal Cornwall Gazette, 30 June 1810.
- ^ The Western Morning News; 16 September 2013.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 30 June 2010.
- ^ Royal Cornwall Gazette, 25 July 1856.
- ^ Royal Cornwall Gazette, 9 July 1908.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 16 September 1904.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 24 June 1921.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 13 January 1922.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 25 June 1936.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 11 July 1963.
- ^ Cornish Guardian, 19 July 1951.
- ^ William George Fish (1913-1954), Old Cornwall, Autumn 2011, p44-47.
- ^ The Longsdale Book of Sporting Records, Seeley, Service & Co Ltd, 1937, p416.
- ^ "Full Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter". Ukfree.tv. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
- ^ "Freeview Light on the Penaligon Down (Cornwall, England) transmitter". Ukfree.tv. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
- ^ "Truro College wheelchair athlete Ben Oliver sets his sights on competing at 2020 Paralympic Games | West Briton". westbriton.co.uk. 2014. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
- ^ [5][permanent dead link]
- ^ Brown, H. Miles (1964) The Church in Cornwall. Truro: Oscar Blackford; p. 40
- ^ "Twinned Towns: 3 Cornish Towns with Surprising Sister Cities". The Cornish Life. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
- ^ Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
- ^ Ordnance Survey One-inch Map of Great Britain; Bodmin and Launceston, sheet 186. 1961
- ^ "2010 Bodmin Hurl Rules". Rotary Club of Bodmin. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
- ^ "Beating the Town Bounds – Photos". Rotary & Lions Clubs of Bodmin. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
Further reading
- Henderson, Charles (1935) "Some Notes on Bodmin Priory", in: Essays in Cornish History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 219–28
- Maclean, Sir John (1870) Parochial and Family History of the Parish and Borough of Bodmin, in the County of Cornwall. (Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg Minor; pt. 2.) London: Nichols & Sons
External links
- Bodmin Council
- "A Brief History of Bodmin". Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2009.