A Cornish Challenge for Mr B. Bluesinger

[Wendyf]

OK Bradders, I think you may be spending too much time trawling through YouTube clips, so I have a Cornish local history question for you.
My maiden name is Trossell, and there is a little group of farms near North Petherwin in Cornwall with Trossell or something very similar in their names.
I would love to know the history of this place and if it is in any way connected with my family. It would be wonderful if you could find something out for me.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

I'll do some digging Wendy...The last time I spoke to our local librarian , she could not have been more helpful....
I'll get onto it on Monday (that's the next time I'll be in Wadebridge) ...!
D

[Wendyf]

That's great Mr B. Thank you. There was a family of Trussell/Trossell people who were Norman nobility going back to medieval times, but they seem to have fizzled out later on with a couple of renegades being hung for highway robbery.

[Sunray10]

Hmm, how very interesting highwaymen. Stand and deliver your money or your life - as Adam Ant once said.

[Tripps]

Does the name Tressell fit in anywhere? This might lead to a connection with Robert Tressell, author of the "Ragged Trousered Philanthropists".

[Stanley]

You got there before me David. That struck me as well, an unusual name. Only problem is that 'Tressell' was a nom de plume. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tressell

[Wendyf]

It's one of those names that gets spelled in a variety of ways. There aren't many Trossells around in this country, more Trussells and even more Throssells. I have come across all three spellings tracing the family history back. My dad's family (all ag labs.)came to Bradford from Huntingdonshire in the 1870's. I have managed to trace them back to about 1790, but lost the will to live struggling with the name in parish registers before then. Trozl, Trysell.....anything beginning with T!
I would love to make a link with the ancient family but there is a huge gap. They had the manor of Billesley in Warwickshire for 400 years from the 12th Century. Acton Trussell and Marston Trussell are two other places named after them. I had never heard of them until an internet search came up with the name Trossell on a monument to the battle of Evesham in 1265.
I hoped I had found a tenuous link when I discovered from this website about theHundred Years War that some of them were archers under the Earl of Huntingdon. It turned out that it was just a title and that he probably never went near Huntingdon, but perhaps he pensioned some off his soldiers off in the county!
Anyway, this little group of farms & cottages keeps cropping up, and I would love to know what the connection is.

[Tizer]

A lot of names of Cornish people and places have been garbled by being Anglicised over the centuries to help the English pronounce them, Wendy.

[Sunray10]

Robin Hood was Earl of Huntingdon in the 13th century ?

[Stanley]

Oxford Dictionary of Surnames reports:Robert Trusel, 1195 Leicestershire. Godfrey Trussel 1204 Yorkshire. Old French 'trousell' meaning to packet. Middle English also as the 'puncheon or mould used in the stamping of coins'. So perhaps the name is occupational, a maker or user of Trussels.

[Wendyf]

Interesting Stanley, I hadn't come across the coin punch version.

[Tizer]

Trussel? Coins? North Petherwin is just up the road from Launceston, which once was the home of the Cornish mint. The Wikipedia page for Launceston states: "The earliest known Cornish mint was at Launceston (i.e. St Stephen by Launceston), which operated on a minimal scale (before Cornwall received full diocesan jurisdiction in the year 994 AD) at the time of Ethelred II. Only one specimen is known to exist. In the reign of William I the mint was moved to Dunheved and remained in existence until the reign of Henry II, 1160." (Dunheved is the Saxon name for Launceston.) The parish of North Petherwin links one boundary with the parish of St Stephen by Launceston. There is a village called Truscott in St Stephen by Launceston. There is more on the Online Parish Clerk's site for St Stephen by Launceston here: LINK and for North Petherwin here: LINK

[Stanley]

Wendy, the Oxford Dictionary of Surnames is usually taken to be a sound source. I think you can trust it.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Well , Wendy.....I made it to the Library , and although the woman who helped me last time was not in evidence , they gave me a contact number for The Cornish Studies Library , and the guy I spoke to was very good !
He looked up the location while I was on the phone , and confirmed a hamlet exists ,North East of Launceston, called Trossell (I think he said there was an "Upper " and a "Lower ")....
We spoke about coinage and Mint connections and he thought they had a book about Cornish Coins .....and would look it out.
He also gave me a contact number for the Secretary of Launceston Branch of "The Old Cornwall Society "
He told me to ask you to contact himself or his collegue directly at the Library for details of the book and any more info you require....didn't seem to want to give me his name , saying that the Email address was generic and anyway there were only two of them working there , so either of them would be happy to help......!
(I'll PM you the contact numbers etc , and I'll see if I can arrange to visit the Trossells and get some snaps in the not too distant future ....sound like it will only be about 45 min's away at the most )
.........
That was a good way of passing the time whilest Dexters blankets etc were "doing " at the Lauderette....eh !
D

PS This'll be my first PM on the new site .....let's see if I can find out Howter !

[Wendyf]

Thanks for that Bradders, you are a star. I have found a good photo of Lower Trossell on geograph.

[Tizer]

Judging from position on the sloping road it looks more like Middle Trossell to me!

Bradders, if you get time to pop into Launceston make a visit to The Bookshop, on Church Street (opposite the church, surprisingly!) and say hello to the owner, Richard Graham. Great for books about Cornwall as well as other topics, and have a look down in the cellar at his secondhand books. We usually drop in and buy something on our trips to and from Cornwall. He has a small web site here: http://www.launceston-bookshop.co.uk/

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Welcome Wendy....I've just looked at O.S. maps , and Trossell is nearer than I thought .....only a bit futher on than Davidstowe (where Dexter came from).
I've been meaning to go over there for some time , so it won't be long.
I mentioned (in a different life !) that there is a VERY SCARY old Wind farm over that way , which I want to visit..... so coupled with Peter's pointer to the bookshop (Thanks ! P), I now have three reasons to do a bit of recreational motoring ......
When this cloud lifts .....(we've had it for nearly a week , now)

[Wendyf]

Have you started to build your own wind turbine yet Bradders? It must be ages since you said you were going to have a go.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Not yet Wendy , but I did make a good windmill out of plastic bottles as the first stage ....then it got COLD !
Might resurrect the idea later this year , but it'll have to fit in around Busking !

[Stanley]

Newton Pickles made a wind turbine. He gave it to Paraffin Jack Grayson, a loom-sweeper at Bancroft. Here it is erected in Jack's garden at Havre Park in 1978. You may remember that Jack died alone in his house and his cats survived by eating him. Funny place Barlick!