Boscaswell () is a village in the extreme west of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, UK. It lies towards the cliffs from

Pendeen Pendeen (from meaning "headland fort", previously known as , meaning "Caswal's high dwelling") is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, England. It is north-northeast of St Just and west of Penzance. I ...

, looking west across fields to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. Boscaswell lies within the St Just in Penwith division of

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...

. The village consists mainly of terraced cottages, built of granite, and a council house estate. Many of the cottages would once have housed families whose menfolk worked at the

Geevor Tin Mine Geevor Tin Mine (from , meaning "mine of the goats"), formerly North Levant Mine is a tin mine in the far west of Cornwall, England, between the villages of Pendeen and Trewellard. It was operational between 1911 and 1990 during which time it ...

. Higher Boscaswell is a hamlet south-east of Pendeen.

Toponymy

"Boscaswell" should not be confused with the present-day village of

Boscastle Boscastle () is a village and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Forrabury and Minster (where the 2011 Census population was included) . It is south of Bude and northeast of Tintagel. The harbour ...

, further east on the north Cornwall coast. F. J. Horsefield posited that what is now Boscaswell was once the site of another Danish castle. This is not now thought to be true. Recent archaeological excavations at the lower end of Boscaswell have indicated that the land has been occupied for more than 10,000 years. There is an ancient pagan well in Boscaswell which is where the name is thought to have its origins. The name can be broken down to the place (bos) of Cas' (a person or entity or abbreviation thereof) and well (as in the English word). Another explanation is given by

Craig Weatherhill Craig Weatherhill (1950 or 1951 – 18 or 19 July 2020) was a Cornish antiquarian, novelist and writer on the history, archaeology, place names and mythology of Cornwall. Weatherhill attended school in Falmouth, where his parents ran a sports ...

in ''A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names'', where he gives a 1310 version of the name, 'Boscaswal', and points out that 'bos' in Cornish means dwelling, esp. in place names, thus giving 'Cadwal's dwelling'.

Mining

The mining sett of East Boscaswell Mine was sold by tender, either as a going or dead concern, in October 1882. Included was a 30-inch cylinder pumping engine and a 24-inch cylinder winding and stamping engine.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Penwith St Just in Penwith