Bolventor
Bolventor (Template:Langx) is a hamlet on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in Altarnun civil parish between Launceston and Bodmin.[1]
Toponymy
[edit | edit source]The hamlet has been said to take its name from the "Bold Venture" that it must have appeared to build a farm in this moorland, but this is probably folk etymology, as "Bol-" is a common prefix in Cornish placenames. It is much more likely that the name derives from the 'Bold Adventure' tin-working area which was in operation near Jamaica Inn during the 1840s-1850s[2]
Jamaica Inn
[edit | edit source]Bolventor is the location of the famous Jamaica Inn coaching inn. It is bypassed by a dual carriageway section of the A30 trunk road; before the bypass was built the hamlet straddled the A30 road.
Daphne du Maurier, a former resident, chose Bolventor as the setting for her novel about Cornish smugglers titled Jamaica Inn. The inn that inspired the novel, Jamaica Inn, has stood beside the main road through the village since 1547. It is now a tourist attraction in its own right and dominates the hamlet. The Jamaica Inn was the subject of a paranormal investigation during a 2004 episode of reality television programme Most Haunted.
Church
[edit | edit source]
The former Holy Trinity Church that lies to the east of the hamlet closed some years ago. A mile from Bolventor there was a chapel of St Luke (from the 13th to the early 16th century): the font is now at the church of Tideford.[3] Bolventor parish was established in 1846 (before that date the village was in St Neot parish; the new parish was made up of parts of St Neot, Altarnun and Cardinham parishes[4]) but has now been merged with Altarnun.
1945 air disaster
[edit | edit source]On 14 September 1945 a Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk VII (PN305) was operating a flight from RAF Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, to Lajes Field, Azores, Portugal. During the flight an electrical failure occurred causing a dingy inside the wing to inflate dislodge from stowage. The dingy wrapped around the tail assembly and the aircraft went into a nose dive, crashing into the Priddacombe area of Bolventor. All 21 on board, seven crew and fourteen passengers, died in the crash.[5][6][7][8]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 201 Plymouth & Launceston ISBN 978-0-319-23146-3
- ↑ R. D. Penhallurick Tin in Antiquity (2008) Maney; p. 207.
- ↑ Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 62.
- ↑ Beacham, Peter & Pevsner, Nikolaus (2014). Cornwall. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12668-6; p. 117.
- ↑ "RAF Davidstow Moor :: View 1945 Crash Log". Archived from the original on 15 March 2016.
- ↑ "25.05.1945 296 Squadron Halifax III NA291 Flt Lt. Fraser. RAF Earles Colne, Essex, Fortunes Farm, Leavesden, Hertfordshire". Aircrew Remembered site. Retrieved 21 February 2026.
- ↑ "Aircraftman 1st Class P FITZGIBBON (1599165), Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve) [Royal Air Force WW2 Casualty ]".
- ↑ "Crash of a Handley Page H.P.63 Halifax VII in Bolventor: 21 killed | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives".