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Cornwall has been coveted since ancient times for its abundant tin mines. The Phoenicians traded cloth for it, and merchants of all backgrounds sailed far and wide to barter their wares for the rare and valuable commodity. Research by Adam Rutherford, author of 1939’s Anglo-Saxon Israel or Israel-Britain reveals that Cornish tin:
"…is mentioned by such classical writers as Herodotus, Homer, Pytheas and Polybius, whilst Diodorus Siculus gives the details of the trade route."
Researchers and historians have noted that Christ’s uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, was a wealthy Jewish tin trader who made regular trips to Britain. Legend suggests that on at least one occasion he was accompanied by his nephew, Christ.
The tin trader: Joseph of Arimathea by Pietro Perugino (a detail from a larger work)
Joseph is best known for offering his tomb to accommodate the body of the crucified Christ, an act that fulfilled Isaiah's prediction that the grave of the Messiah would be provided by a wealthy man:
“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.”
Joseph is less known for his role as a tin merchant, and this should come as no surprise as there are few detailed accounts of his life. Nevertheless, there are countless legends of Joseph and Christ in England, a handful of which we shall review now.
The 19th century children’s lullaby recounts the legend plainly:
"Joseph was a tin merchant, a tin merchant, a tin merchant. Joseph was a tin merchant and the miners loved him well."
Similarly, in the 19th century, the residents of the West Country tin mining village of Priddy had an equally simple expression:
"As sure as our Lord was in Priddy."
The nine megalithic barrows of Priddy
Fortunately there are more references than mere nursery rhymes. Eusebius, an ecclesiastical historian who was regarded as the Father of Church history, wrote three hundred years before Augustine came to Britain that:
“The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the Isles called the Brittanic Isles”.
Several early historical accounts write of Joseph’s travels and one in particular, from the ancient Glastonbury Chronicle, records an interesting meeting between Joseph and the British King Arviragus:
“Joseph then counselled the King to believe in Christ: King Arviragus refused this, nor did he believe in Him. Arviragus the King gave him twice six hides at Glastonia. Joseph left the rights with those companions in the XXXI year after the Passion of Christ. These men, with praises built a church of wattles.”
Another West Country legend builds on the Glastonbury theme:
“Joseph of Arimathaea, a rich man and disciple of Jesus, fled the Holy Land to escape the persecution of the followers of Christ. Journeying to Britain in hopes of spreading the faith there, he arrived in Glastonbury weary and discouraged, for his teaching had had little effect. He prayed for a miracle to convince the unbelievers, and when he thrust his staff into the earth, it burst forth into leaf and sweetly-scented blossoms.”
The original Glastonbury Thorn, which died in 1991
Joseph’s association with Glastonbury – a town long believed to be the true Arthurian Avalon, appears to have been the impetus for his association with the Holy Grail. As the 13th century approached the Burgundian poet Robert de Boron wrote the first account of Joseph’s life – the aptly named Joseph d'Arimathe, which featured the Holy Grail as the chalice used at the Last Supper. The cup was given to Joseph by his superior Pontius Pilate, who as another legend recounts, hailed form Fortingall Scotland – a strange village in the exact centre of Scotland with the oldest tree in Europe and a number of ancient stone circles and carved stones with cup marks.
Fortingall – the alleged home of Joseph’s superior – Pontius Pilate
Boron tells us that Joseph used the cup to catch the blood of Christ as he was dying on the cross and that later, Joseph’s followers took the chalice – the Holy Grail – to Britain. From this point onward, Joseph, Christ and the Holy Grail were inseparable in literature, and the story was regarded as fact in countless new age accounts.
What’s intriguing and certainly worth mentioning is the similarity in the Cornish mythology of Arthur and Christ. In fact, one could be forgiven for believing they were the same person. References to each occur over and over again in the southwest of England, and in his book Arthurian Britain, Geoffrey Ashe attributes nearly fifty Cornish sites to Arthur, alone. The similarities between the two icons are worthy of a review:
- Each has a mystical legend in Cornwall
- Each had strong association with the Holy Grail
- Each had 12 initiates (Apostles | Knights of the Round Table)
- Each was mentored by a wise man (John the Baptist | Merlin)
- Each partnered with a mystical woman (Mary Magdalene | Guinevere)
- Each was born under auspicious circumstances and died with mystical associations and a prophecy to return from the dead in our hour of need.
Once again, the similarities are interesting, and would appear to represent an archetype of some sort of Grail Savior – a theme of considerable significance in Cornwall.
We return to Joseph, not in the context of the Grail, but rather tin. Joseph was regarded as a trade hero by metal workers across England and at least one researcher, the Rev Lionel Smithett Lewis, author of 1953’s St Joseph Of Arimathea At Glastonbury, placed his entry into Britain at Marizion. Lewis wrote:
"We workers in metal are a very old fraternity, and like other handicrafts we have our traditions amongst us. One of these... is that Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man of the Gospels, made his money in the tin trade with Cornwall. We have also a story that he made voyages to Cornwall in his own ships and that on one occasion he brought with him the Child Christ and His Mother and landed them at St Michael's Mount (my italics)."
On December 22, 2007, the Daily Express newspaper in the UK ran an article entitled ‘Our Mythical Christmas’ that recounted the now familiar tale. The article placed the specific landing spot of Christ in Brittan at Looe Island, just up the coast from Land's End. Curiously, folklore at Looe associated with the megalithic monument called the Giant's Hedge indicates that a centenarian of Looe is on record as having said:
"The piskies of Cornwall heard that a little boy and his uncle had landed at Looe Island, and they were so anxious to protect them, that they went to the giants, and got them to build a hedge."
The Giants Hedge – Looe © Hamhead
However, the most popular account of Christ in England belongs to William Blake, whose epic poem Jerusalem (subtitled The Emanation of the Giant Albion) is widely believed to reference the presence of Christ in England. Blake, a member of The Royal Academy, began the poem in 1804 and finished it some 16 years later – complete with 100 illustrations.
William Blake by Thomas Phillips, 1807
The poem contains an obtuse reference to ‘dark Satanic mills’. The expression is ambiguous to our 21st century mind, although its meaning has been the subject of heated debate down through the years. Most believe the phrase references tin mines – a symbol of the evil and ruthless industrial revolution according to Blake. In Jerusalem, Blake wrote the now seminal text:
“And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?”
Tin mines – Land's End
Few recall that Blake’s popular poem was written as a preface to another more important piece, namely Blake’s larger-than-life work, Milton. The hero of the story, John Milton, returns from heaven and encourages Blake to develop his relationship with dead writers. The poem is apocalyptic and deals with the union of the dead and the living, the male and the female, and varying forms of reality.
Milton – the hero of Blake’s epic poem of the same name
So was Blake merely preserving the memory of when Joseph of Arimathea travelled to Britain with his nephew, Christ – or does it allude to something more – something different? Again, the debate on what exactly was meant by ‘dark Satanic mills’ has ranged from megalithic sites, which Blake regarded as satanic, to the coming of the industrial revolution – which he found even more distasteful, to the perceived evils of the Church of England and even the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The megalithic association with ‘dark Satanic mills’ is interesting for Cornwall, and Land's End in particular, possess more than its share of tin mines – the precursor to the industrial revolution, as well as stone circles, standing stones, dolmen and an unusual underground monument indigenous to the peninsula, called Fogou’s.
Standing at the entrance to the Carn Euny Fogou
Fogou’s are a peculiar type of ancient monument, unique to Land's End. Its name derives from fogo and fócw, meaning ‘Cave’ in Cornish and Celtic languages, respectively. Fogou’s are thought to date from the late Iron Age – circa 500 BC. Their primary feature is a curved roof passage leading to an underground hollow, where an adjoining chamber is reached through what is known as a “creep” passage. Typically the main passage – not the entrance – is astronomically aligned.
The layout of a typical Fogou: Pendeen Fogou
Not surprisingly, the archeological jury is undecided as to the function of the Fogou. Practical theories suggest they were used for food storage – particularly the drying of meat, and / or provided shelter from the harsh winter snow and rain, not dissimilar to how Tacitus, the Roman senator and historian form the end of the 1st century, describes caves built by Germans for the same purpose. This theory is strengthened by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, who observed that tribes in Iron Age Britain built 'underground repositories' to store their grain. However, Fogou’s are extremely damp and constructed with elaborate lintels too narrow for normal human activity, leading many to conclude that their function was more ritualistic than domestic.
Halliggye Fogou entrance
Halliggye Fogou main chamber
The prevailing consensus is that Fogou’s were religious centres built by chieftains for shamanic rituals and initiations. To this day, those who enter Fogou’s experience otherworldly images, particularly women, and some Forou’s are used by New Age communities as re-birthing ritual centers, such as the Boliegh Fogou.
The Boleigh Fogou was first excavated in 1957 by Dr E. B. Ford. Not only was Ford able to uncover pottery dating parts of the structure to the late Iron Age, La Tène B Period (circa 450 BC), but he noticed something quite peculiar on the left side of the Fogou entrance. In the words of the former site owner, Jo May:
“He arranged for the boulder to be photographed with infrared film and the resulting photograph revealed a male figure, apparently full-faced, with long hair around the head, the left side of the face being flecked away. The right arm, raised from the elbow, supports a spear; the left is held horizontally to the elbow, the forearm being lifted vertically, the hand grasping a lozenge shaped object possibly the head of a serpent, one of the coils of which being dimly suggested round the wrist. Although related to similar figures in Brittany, the carving was unique in Britain.”
Boleigh Fogou – entrance and internal schematic
The next, serious excavation of the Boleigh Fogou came in 1995 from the British Television Series Time Team, whose work revealed a previously undiscovered house enclosed by an oval wall with over sixty pieces of pottery dating form the early Iron Age. Refreshingly, Time Team concluded:
“There was a lot more to these structures than could be explained by conventional archaeology” and that “the Fogou was designed for religious use by the settlement.”
Left: Time Team aerial reconstruction
Right: May’s interpretation of their findings (Courtesy Jo May)
Aileen Fox points out in his 1973 South-West England 3500 BC - AD 600 that most Fogou’s were constructed facing the prevailing winds. Others have noted that their orientations favor the rising and setting midwinter sun. Cheryl Straffon argues in her book, Pagan Cornwall, that Fogou’s were ritualistic centres built in honor of the Mother Goddess;
“Who by now (Iron Age) may have been identified primarily as an Earth Goddess.”
Earth energy proponent Paul Devereux points out in his book, Power Places that the radiation levels in Cornwall are abnormally high in general and twice as powerful in underground chambers, such as Fogou’s. Many believe this fact offers an explanation for the large number of hallucinogenic experiences that occur in these structures.
Fogou’s represent a unique aspect of Land's End’s prehistory, and are at risk of being consumed into working farms and private estates. At Pendeen Vau, the ancient Fogou has been incorporated into a working farm / Bed and Breakfast. Coincidently, legend states that the Pendeen Vau chambers reach for many miles under the Atlantic Ocean. Julian Cope comments on this in his excellent book, The Modern Antiquarian:
“Even scholars believed this to be true as late as 1584, when Norden the Antiquarian, in his Survey of Cornwall, wrote the tide flows into the cave, at high water, very far under the earth.”
The Fogou of Peenden Vau
Generally speaking, Land's End’s Fogous are unique in Britain, yet bear a striking resemblance to the French Souterrains (meaning under ground) of Brittany. Again, this is not surprising as we have already touched upon many of the similarities between these two lands. Celts from Brittany are known to have sailed to Land's End and landed at Lamorna Cove – not far from the Boleigh Fogou.
Lamorna Cove – where French Celts from Brittany once landed
Here, dozens of enigmatic megalithic monuments haunt the landscape – as they do in France at the more famous megalithic centre known as Carnac. Sadly, the spectacular megalithic sites of Land's End deserve more mention than can be afforded here, however we will indulge in one particular site just a bit further.
Boskawen-Un Stone Circle
Chu Quoit
Carn Euny Fogou
Carn Gluze
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