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Archiver > CORNISH > 2000-02 > 0951587196


From: philip ellery <>
Subject: Jews in Cornwall?
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2000 17:46:36 +0000


Hi all,

Occasionally there are requests for info on Jews in Cornwall.
If you have Jewish connections you may be interested in the following.


7th Feburary to 1st April 2000
Exhibition: The Jews of Devon & Cornwall

This exhibition will be touring Devon and Cornwall starting in the year
2000. It is being researched by Evelyn Friedlander, of The Hidden Legacy
Foundation, with assistance from Dr Helen Fry, and Keith Pearce in
Penzance. It will feature treasures from the Jewish communities of
Exeter, Plymouth, Falmouth and Penzance.

7/2/00-1/4/00 Penlee House Gallery and Museum, Penzance
13/5/00-17/6/00 Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
12/8/99-28/10/00 Falmouth Art Gallery
16/11/00-28/2/01 Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery
6/3/01-28/4/01 Museum of North Devon, Barnstaple




for anyone interested I also found the following, which makes
interesting reading...

(make what you will of it!)

TIN METAL was transported OUT OF BRITAIN INTO GAUL, the merchants
carrying it on horse-back THROUGH THE HEART OF CELTICA TO MARSEILLES and
the city called NARBO. -- Diodorus Siculus, Booth's translation, vol.i,
p.311.

The promontory of Cornwall is rich in the remains of old mining works
and debris. The Phoenicians were probably the first to utilize Cornish
tin; and some mines, like the Ding-Dong Mine, can be traced to a high
antiquity. The oldest crude pits containing smelted tin are called
"JEWS' HOUSES," the tradition being that THE TIN MINES OF CORNWALL were
"WROUGHT BY THE JEWS with pickaxes of holm, box and hartshorn -- tools
sometimes found among the rubble of such works." These date to very
remote times.

There is hardly a tin-bearing spot in Cornwall that has not been worked
over by the "OLD MEN," -- as the ancient miners of the land are always
called. "....upon whatever spot the OLD MINER has worked there we are
told the Phoenician has been or THE JEW has mined. The existence of the
terms "JEWS' HOUSES," "JEWS' TIN," "JEWS' LEAVINGS," "ATTALL" and "ATALL
SARACEN," prove the connection of these strangers with the Cornish
miners." (Romances of the West, by Hunt. London, 1872).

In Polwhele's History of Cornwall (Falmouth, 1803) we read that "the
OLDEST smelting-places are called 'JEWS' HOUSES,' the old blocks of tin
occasionally found are called 'JEWS' PIECES,' and the stream works of
tin that have been formerly deserted by the labourers are called 'JEWS'
WORKS' or 'ATTALL SARACEN.' The JEWS appear to have called themselves,
or were called by the Britons of Cornwall, 'SARACENS.' "

All through the land of Cornwall the ancient presence and influence of
the JEWS is marked by names and places like "BOJEWYAN" (ABODE OF THE
JEWS), "TREJEWAS" (JEWS' VILLAGE) and "MARKET JEW." These, as well as
the historical "JEWISH WINDOWS" in St. Neot's church and other Jewish
monuments and memories, abundantly supplement the older traditions of
the "JEWS' HOUSES" and "JEWS' LEAVINGS."
snipped from
http://triumph.simplenet.com/arimathe.htm



Regards
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Phil Ellery http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cornwall
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