About Field Names - Standing Stones of the Land's End Peninsula

ALTHOUGH THE EARLIEST mapped reference to field names can be found on the Lanhydrock Atlas of 1696 most information on field names comes from the Tithe Apportionment Maps and Schedules of the late 1830s to early 1840s as well as from a handful of old estate surveys. The Atlas only records land held in Cornwall at that time by the Earl of Radnor, head of the Robartes family from the Truro area who later built the great mansion at Lanhydrock: it is therefore very selective but clearly demonstrates the fragmentation of land ownership.

By contrast Tithe Maps cover all land and resulted from the Tithe Act of 1836 by which the inclination to pay tithes in cash, rather than the age-old method of payment in kind, was officially regularised: the change was compulsory and the tithe was fixed by reference to the price of corn. Large-scale maps of every parish were drawn up to show all land in numbered enclosures with lists of owners and tenants, the area of enclosure, its current use, and the name by which it was then commonly known.

Some of these names are in Cornish, some in English, and some in a hybrid anglicised Cornish, frequently unintelligible. Cornish was the dominant language until the 16th century although many of the gentry were bilingual or only knew English. Over 90% of farm names prior to this period are in Cornish whereas almost all settlements later than the 17th century are in English. However, field names are subject to far greater alteration than place names; there are numerous instances of Cornish names in the Lanhydrock Atlas being superseded by English names by the time of the Tithe Maps when less than half field names retained Cornish or hybrid names.

There were a number of ways in which a name could alter. The old Cornish name could be directly translated into its English equivalent; into another Cornish word of different meaning; or into an English name of different meaning – the latter being the most common. An incoming English-speaking farmer taking over a farm during the mid-18th century might change any Cornish names, which would generally be totally meaningless to him, into an English name of his own choosing. For example a name of Men Heere could become Long Stone, especially if the ancient standing stone was still in place; if not, the field might be renamed from some other feature such as a barn or mine in the vicinity.

The piecemeal tenancy of land, with the intermingling of differently owned fields, meant that it was possible for an English-speaking farmer to work fields adjacent to those of a Cornish-speaking farmer: field names reflect this cultural variety within a single farm, or Townplace, containing several dwellings for families working the tenement.

This fragmented working of the land presents another problem for discovery of antiquities through field name evidence. It is usually considered that if there is a field name relating to an antiquity, for instance a standing stone or stone cross (ie. Park Menheere or Park Grouse) than an actual monument once stood in that particular field. This is not necessarily so. For example a field could be named after a stone cross standing in moorland several hundred yards away, or even just visible in the distance, simply because the field was, at that time, the nearest piece of enclosed land to the stone worked by that particular occupant.

A field with an existing standing stone could be given a name by the current tenant which totally ignored its presence, whereas the field next to it worked by someone who considered the stone as being significant might call his field after it (i.e. Longstone Field) – so giving a totally false impression of the location of the stone if it was later removed. Sometimes a large enclosed area of moorland might be named after an existing monument but, as time went by, some of this land would be broken in, subdivided, and hedged, so that the monument might then lie within newly cultivated fields: yet the remaining piece of rough ground might still retain its old name although no antiquity remained on it.

It is important to realise that field names are given to identify a particular piece of land so that anyone working that tenancy would understand where it was – they were not given to record old monuments.

Menhyr  is the Cornish word for Long Stone, from men (stone) and hyr (long), the plural for stone being meyn. There are a large number of corruptions including:

(The) Menars, Amania, Amena, Maine Heere, Mean Her, Meane Heere, Meanehere, Men Hêr, Mener, Menheere, Menher, Menhere, Mennar, Menner, Menor and Mines.

Some other words connected with menhyr include:

Dor meaning ‘ground’ – usually describing the type of ground, eg. rocky, yellow, etc, and corrupted to dore, doar or doare.

Gwel, gweal or gweale meaning a field – also park or parke.

Gun meaning downs - the normal term for the uncultivated high ground of West Penwith – corrupted to goon, woon, noon, one, un and wun.

Croft is used locally to describe an area of enclosed rough pasture.

Furze is a term used to describe gorse-covered ground.

Grid references are approximate: exact location should be found on accompanying field maps.