The Search for Arthur’s Cornwall
The story of King Arthur always captures the imagination. The Welsh, the English, the French and the Cornish all lay claim to him - and even though he is clearly, on one level, an archetype, the whiff of someone historically real is enough to bring out even the most hardened sceptics. So it was that some 33 members and friends of the Tamar Dowsers and the West Cornwall Dowsers pitched up at the Arthurian Centre at Slaughterbridge, near Camelford in north Cornwall, for a joint outing in April.
After a month of dry weather, the morning started menacingly, with most of us passing through showers on our way to Camelford. But the clouds cleared and the sun shone, and North Cornwall chose to show us its amiable, tourist-friendly aspect.
We were grateful to site owner, Joe Parsons, for an introduction to the centre, part of a farm that has been in his family for many years. The site itself is comprised of three main sections - a mediaeval village, a battle ground (possibly that of King Arthur’s famous last stand at Camlan) and an enigmatic stone, now lying by the side of a small stream, bearing inscriptions in both Latin and in Ogham.
The first of these was the most straightforward. The village, of which just a few scattered mounds are now visible above ground, does indeed dowse as being mediaeval - although like most sites it had been in use for millennia before that. We traced the outlines of buildings and animal pens, and found hearths, wells - and a few contemporary graves in the adjacent field. Jolly interesting - but not Arthurian. Joe and his colleagues are progressively excavating this upper section of the site, under the guidance of professional Archaeologists, with several digs coming up in the summer. Alan Neal agreed to revisit the site before or during these investigations to try to help the diggers identify some relevant targets.
The incessant twittering of the high-voltage cables traversing this part of the site were a real test for the dowsers - but the TDs and the WCDs are made of sterner stuff.
The battle ground presented much more difficult dowsing. The location indicated by the notice board seemed far too small a theatre to hold a decent battle, but the dowsing unveiled a few pointers. Firstly, there were at least two conflicts here. The potentially Arthurian set-to in the 6th century and the later, larger and better-documented confrontation of AD832. Neither seemed to be a pitched battle in the conventional sense. In the indicated field there appeared to be just half-a-dozen sites of the fallen, while the west bank of the valley had a dozen more. However, there seemed to be a greater number under the pylons and leading up to the main road. All this indicated that one or both of these battles were really running skirmishes, with warriors lying where they were killed, while their compatriots fell back to regroup or escape. There seemed little evidence of graves for these fighting men, just the remanences of bodies left on the grass.
The area would have looked much different in both the 6th and the 9th centuries, without the field boundaries, tracks and trees – and the ‘battles’ may well have sprawled across many acres. The dowsing evidence indicates that the ‘Cornish’ were pushed back westwards, perhaps in some disarray. While a further, more extensive, study would be needed to determine the area covered by each of these conflicts, in the responses to Joe’s helpful questionnaire, a number of people indicated where they felt men may have fallen - and where traces of them, or their artefacts, may still exist for the Archaeologists to find.
Strangely tucked away amongst all this carnage, is the recently excavated secluded private garden belonging to former owner Charlotte Falmouth. There was a general consensus that this was pleasant and peaceful place, close to the stream, which had a distinctively female energy. Perhaps this was where Lady Falmouth met with her friends - or maybe it was just her own energy etched into a favourite spot in her landscape.
