127-472: Wadebridge ( / ˈ w eɪ d b r ɪ dʒ / ; Cornish : Ponswad ) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall , England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles (eight kilometres) upstream from Padstow . The permanent population was 6,222 in the census of 2001, increasing to 7,900 in the 2011 census. There are two electoral wards in the town (East and West). Their total population
254-556: A Cornish translation of Ælfric of Eynsham 's Latin-Old English Glossary, which is thematically arranged into several groups, such as the Genesis creation narrative , anatomy, church hierarchy, the family, names for various kinds of artisans and their tools, flora, fauna, and household items. The manuscript was widely thought to be in Old Welsh until the 18th century when it was identified as Cornish by Edward Lhuyd . Some Brittonic glosses in
381-544: A basis, and Nicholas Williams published a revised version of Unified; however neither of these systems gained the popularity of Unified or Kemmyn. The revival entered a period of factionalism and public disputes, with each orthography attempting to push the others aside. By the time that Cornish was recognised by the UK government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, it had become recognised that
508-651: A breath of sea scented the Camel Valley! Cornish air, soft Cornish rains, and silence after steam ". The original station in Wadebridge was built on a triangle of land bounded by the River Camel, the Polmorla brook, and what is now The Platt. The single platform and engine shed were on the town side of the line, which continued across Molesworth Street to serve the quays immediately downstream of Wadebridge bridge. Towards Bodmin,
635-505: A complete version of a traditional folk tale, John of Chyanhor , a short story about a man from St Levan who goes far to the east seeking work, eventually returning home after three years to find that his wife has borne him a child during his absence. In 1776, William Bodinar, who describes himself as having learned Cornish from old fishermen when he was a boy, wrote a letter to Daines Barrington in Cornish, with an English translation, which
762-592: A field above the nearest houses. There were no casualties and only minor damage. In 2003, the Perch Garage murders occurred outside the town on the A39 road (Atlantic Highway). Wadebridge is in the constituency of North Cornwall which is currently held by the Conservative MP Scott Mann . The main offices of the former North Cornwall District Council were at Trenant Road in the town. Wadebridge Town Council
889-539: A lampoon of either of the Tudor kings Henry VII or Henry VIII . Others are the Charter Fragment , the earliest known continuous text in the Cornish language, apparently part of a play about a medieval marriage, and Pascon agan Arluth ( The Passion of Our Lord ), a poem probably intended for personal worship, were written during this period, probably in the second half of the 14th century. Another important text,
1016-841: A less substantial body of literature than the Middle Cornish period, but the sources are more varied in nature, including songs, poems about fishing and curing pilchards , and various translations of verses from the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. Edward Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica , which was mainly recorded in the field from native speakers in the early 1700s, and his unpublished field notebook are seen as important sources of Cornish vocabulary, some of which are not found in any other source. Archaeologia Britannica also features
1143-503: A lesser extent French entered the Cornish language throughout its history. Whereas only 5% of the vocabulary of the Old Cornish Vocabularium Cornicum is thought to be borrowed from English, and only 10% of the lexicon of the early modern Cornish writer William Rowe, around 42% of the vocabulary of the whole Cornish corpus is estimated to be English loan words, without taking frequency into account. (However, when frequency
1270-498: A manifesto demanding a return to the old religious services and included an article that concluded, "and so we the Cornyshe men (whereof certen of us understande no Englysh) utterly refuse thys newe Englysh." In response to their articles, the government spokesman (either Philip Nichols or Nicholas Udall ) wondered why they did not just ask the king for a version of the liturgy in their own language. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer asked why
1397-734: A marriage ceremony from being conducted in Cornish as the Marriage Act 1949 only allowed for marriage ceremonies in English or Welsh. In 2014, the Cornish people were recognised by the UK Government as a national minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . The FCNM provides certain rights and protections to a national minority with regard to their minority language. In 2016, British government funding for
SECTION 10
#17328515444791524-535: A mixture of English and Brittonic influences, and, like other Cornish literature, may have been written at Glasney College near Penryn . From this period also are the hagiographical dramas Beunans Meriasek ( The Life of Meriasek ) and Bewnans Ke ( The Life of Ke ), both of which feature as an antagonist the villainous and tyrannical King Tewdar (or Teudar), a historical medieval king in Armorica and Cornwall, who, in these plays, has been interpreted as
1651-563: A name plate already affixed. It had been named the Elephant as the makers had failed to realise that the first engine had been named after the river and not an animal. The last passenger train left Wadebridge railway station in 1967 following railway cutbacks. The old railway trackbed is now the Camel Trail , and the Bodmin and Wenford Railway heritage railway runs on part of the route. Wadebridge
1778-631: A number of orthographic, and phonological, distinctions not found in Unified Cornish. Kernewek Kemmyn is characterised by the use of universal ⟨k⟩ for /k/ (instead of ⟨c⟩ before back vowels as in Unified); ⟨hw⟩ for /hw/, instead of ⟨wh⟩ as in Unified; and ⟨y⟩, ⟨oe⟩, and ⟨eu⟩ to represent the phonemes /ɪ/, /o/, and /œ/ respectively, which are not found in Unified Cornish. Criticism of all of these systems, especially Kernewek Kemmyn, by Nicolas Williams, resulted in
1905-674: A number of toponyms, for example bre 'hill', din 'fort', and bro 'land', and a variety of animal names such as logoden 'mouse', mols ' wether ', mogh 'pigs', and tarow 'bull'. During the Roman occupation of Britain a large number (around 800) of Latin loan words entered the vocabulary of Common Brittonic, which subsequently developed in a similar way to the inherited lexicon. These include brech 'arm' (from British Latin bracc(h)ium ), ruid 'net' (from retia ), and cos 'cheese' (from caseus ). A substantial number of loan words from English and to
2032-504: A number of verbs commonly found in other languages, including modals and psych-verbs; examples are 'have', 'like', 'hate', 'prefer', 'must/have to' and 'make/compel to'. These functions are instead fulfilled by periphrastic constructions involving a verb and various prepositional phrases. The grammar of Cornish shares with other Celtic languages a number of features which, while not unique, are unusual in an Indo-European context. The grammatical features most unfamiliar to English speakers of
2159-542: A range of water sports, including sailing , water skiing , windsurfing , surfing and kite surfing . Golf courses close by include Trevose and Saint Enodoc and St Kew . The gentleman scientist and surgeon Sir Goldsworthy Gurney , who invented the Bude-Light , lived in Wadebridge from 1814 to 1820. A street (Goldsworthy Way) has been named after him. Francis Hurdon (1834–1914), a prominent figure in Canadian politics,
2286-590: A study by Kenneth MacKinnon in 2000. Jenefer Lowe of the Cornish Language Partnership said in an interview with the BBC in 2010 that there were around 300 fluent speakers. Bert Biscoe , a councillor and bard, in a statement to the Western Morning News in 2014 said there were "several hundred fluent speakers". Cornwall Council estimated in 2015 that there were 300–400 fluent speakers who used
2413-517: A study commissioned in 1831 by local landowner Sir William Molesworth of Pencarrow . The line was intended to carry sand from the Camel Estuary to inland farms for use as fertiliser . It was opened on 30 September 1834 with the locomotive Camel pulling a train load of 400 passengers (one of the first railways in Britain to carry passengers). When the company ordered its second locomotive it came with
2540-421: A vacuum system was installed to load Presflo wagons. The last loco-hauled passenger train, a 7-coach special from the midlands hauled by Class 25 number 25080, ran on 30 September 1978; a DMU shuttle from Bodmin, organised for charity, was the last passenger train of all on 17 December 1978. The station featured in poet laureate Sir John Betjeman 's film of his verse autobiography Summoned by Bells . He
2667-525: A variety of reasons by Jon Mills and Nicholas Williams , including making phonological distinctions that they state were not made in the traditional language c. 1500 , failing to make distinctions that they believe were made in the traditional language at this time, and the use of an orthography that deviated too far from the traditional texts and Unified Cornish. Also during this period, Richard Gendall created his Modern Cornish system (also known as Revived Late Cornish), which used Late Cornish as
SECTION 20
#17328515444792794-513: A very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language . Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, and an increasing number of people are studying
2921-639: A weekend of free children's activities. The Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show is held at the Royal Cornwall Showground, 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.5 kilometres) west of Wadebridge over three days in early June each year. The show began in 1793 at Bodmin and was then held every year in East and West Cornwall alternately until 1960 when it came to its present site. The showground, run by the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association,
3048-434: Is taken into account, this figure for the entire corpus drops to 8%.) The many English loanwords, some of which were sufficiently well assimilated to acquire native Cornish verbal or plural suffixes or be affected by the mutation system, include redya 'to read', onderstondya 'to understand', ford 'way', hos 'boot' and creft 'art'. Many Cornish words, such as mining and fishing terms, are specific to
3175-504: Is 8,272. Originally known as Wade , it was a dangerous fording point across the river until a bridge was built here in the 15th century, after which the name changed to its present form. The bridge was strategically important during the English Civil War , and Oliver Cromwell went there to take it. Since then, it has been widened twice and refurbished in 1991. Wadebridge was served by a railway station between 1834 and 1967; part of
3302-524: Is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family . Along with Welsh and Breton , Cornish is descended from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. For centuries, until it was pushed westwards by English, it was the main language of Cornwall , maintaining close links with its sister language Breton, with which it
3429-507: Is based at Wadebridge Town Hall which was officially opened by Sir Paul Molesworth as the Molesworth Hall and Exchange on 23 May 1988. Historically Wadebridge was part of St Columb Rural District Council until the creation of Wadebridge Urban District Council in April 1898. The town straddles the River Camel , five miles (eight kilometres) upstream from Padstow ; the town centre being on
3556-620: Is inherited direct from Proto-Celtic , either through the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language, or through vocabulary borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at some point in the development of the Celtic proto-language from PIE. Examples of the PIE > PCelt. development are various terms related to kinship and people, including mam 'mother', modereb 'aunt, mother's sister', huir 'sister', mab 'son', gur 'man', den 'person, human', and tus 'people', and words for parts of
3683-578: Is now Bodmin Parkway , on the Cornish Main Line , which is served by services to Plymouth , Cardiff , London Paddington and Penzance . The Molesworth Arms is one of the oldest Inns in Wadebridge. Previously known as The Fox, The King's Arms and The Fountain, this coaching Inn got its current name in 1817. Since 2014 the first of the annual events in and around Wadebridge has been the MayPlay festival,
3810-513: Is seen standing on the derelict platform reciting his eponymous poem: On Wadebridge Platform what a breath of sea scented the Camel valley ! Cornish air, Soft Cornish rain, And silence after steam... The main station building, granite with slate tiles, still stands as the Betjeman Centre. Similarly the original part of the goods shed is in use as a youth club. A road, Southern Way, runs along
3937-513: Is the Bailey Bridge. The newspaper is a local edition of the weekly Cornish Guardian . The town is twinned with Langueux (Langaeg) in Brittany , France. In April 2013 Wadebridge was short-listed as one of Britain's top eco-towns and is home to Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network a grass roots enterprise aiming to make the town the first solar powered and renewable energy powered town in
Wadebridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
4064-498: Is to support the language, in line with the European Charter. A motion was passed in November 2009 in which the council promoted the inclusion of Cornish, as appropriate and where possible, in council publications and on signs. This plan has drawn some criticism. In October 2015, The council announced that staff would be encouraged to use "basic words and phrases" in Cornish when dealing with the public. In 2021 Cornwall Council prohibited
4191-466: Is used for many different functions from Scout Jamborees to point-to-point horse racing. The Big Lunch , organised by the local chamber of commerce, is a free street party in the pedestrianised part of Molesworth St in the centre of Wadebridge, where around 500–750 people get together to share food, chat, and enjoy music and other entertainment. The idea grew out of a project by the Eden Project, and
4318-454: Is without doubt closer to Breton as a whole than the modern Breton dialect of Quiberon [ Kiberen ] is to that of Saint-Pol-de-Léon [ Kastell-Paol ]." Also, Kenneth Jackson argued that it is almost certain that Cornish and Breton would have been mutually intelligible as long as Cornish was a living language, and that Cornish and Breton are especially closely related to each other and less closely related to Welsh. Cornish evolved from
4445-633: The Tregear Homilies , was realized to be Cornish in 1949, having previously been incorrectly classified as Welsh. It is the longest text in the traditional Cornish language, consisting of around 30,000 words of continuous prose. This text is a late 16th century translation of twelve of Bishop Bonner 's thirteen homilies by a certain John Tregear, tentatively identified as a vicar of St Allen from Crowan , and has an additional catena, Sacrament an Alter, added later by his fellow priest, Thomas Stephyn. In
4572-525: The Cranken Rhyme , a corrupted version of a verse or song published in the late 19th century by John Hobson Matthews , recorded orally by John Davey (or Davy) of Boswednack , of uncertain date but probably originally composed during the last years of the traditional language. Davey had traditional knowledge of at least some Cornish. John Kelynack (1796–1885), a fisherman of Newlyn, was sought by philologists for old Cornish words and technical phrases in
4699-477: The Celtic language family , which is a sub-family of the Indo-European language family. Brittonic also includes Welsh , Breton , Cumbric and possibly Pictish , the last two of which are extinct . Scottish Gaelic , Irish and Manx are part of the separate Goidelic branch of Insular Celtic. Joseph Loth viewed Cornish and Breton as being two dialects of the same language, claiming that "Middle Cornish
4826-629: The Common Brittonic spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the British Iron Age and Roman period . As a result of westward Anglo-Saxon expansion , the Britons of the southwest were separated from those in modern-day Wales and Cumbria , which Jackson links to the defeat of the Britons at the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The western dialects eventually evolved into modern Welsh and
4953-521: The De Lank Quarries on Bodmin Moor towards the coast, as well as sand dredged from the River Camel and landed at the quays in Wadebridge inland to be used to improve the heavy local soil. The station is situated just upstream of Wadebridge bridge and almost next to the tidal River Camel; a fact that prompted the former Poet Laureate John Betjeman to write in his autobiography " On Wadebridge station what
5080-731: The Prime Stock Show and the Garden Produce Association and Chrysanthemum Show are held. A footbridge called the Challenge Bridge links the Egloshayle playing fields to the Jubilee fields on the other side of the river. The bridge was constructed in 1991 by Anneka Rice and her team for the TV series " Challenge Anneka ". Locally, the bridge is known as Anneka's Bridge, but its real name
5207-492: The 'glotticide' of the Cornish language was mainly a result of the Cornish gentry adopting English to dissociate themselves from the reputation for disloyalty and rebellion associated with the Cornish language since the 1497 uprising. By the middle of the 17th century, the language had retreated to Penwith and Kerrier , and transmission of the language to new generations had almost entirely ceased. In his Survey of Cornwall , published in 1602, Richard Carew writes: [M]ost of
Wadebridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
5334-601: The 1549 edition of the English Book of Common Prayer as the sole legal form of worship in England, including Cornwall, people in many areas of Cornwall did not speak or understand English. The passing of this Act was one of the causes of the Prayer Book Rebellion (which may also have been influenced by government repression after the failed Cornish rebellion of 1497 ), with "the commoners of Devonshyre and Cornwall" producing
5461-497: The 16th century, resulting in the nasals /nn/ and /mm/ being realised as [ᵈn] and [ᵇm] respectively in stressed syllables, and giving Late Cornish forms such as pedn 'head' (Welsh pen ) and kabm 'crooked' (Welsh cam ). As a revitalised language , the phonology of contemporary spoken Cornish is based on a number of sources, including various reconstructions of the sound system of middle and early modern Cornish based on an analysis of internal evidence such as
5588-429: The 18th century , although knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, persisted within some families and individuals. A revival started in the early 20th century, and in 2010 UNESCO reclassified the language as critically endangered , stating that its former classification of the language as extinct was no longer accurate. The language has a growing number of second-language speakers, and
5715-448: The 1970s. Criticism of Nance's system, particularly the relationship of spelling to sounds and the phonological basis of Unified Cornish, resulted in rival orthographies appearing by the early 1980s, including Gendal's Modern Cornish , based on Late Cornish native writers and Lhuyd, and Ken George's Kernewek Kemmyn , a mainly morphophonemic orthography based on George's reconstruction of Middle Cornish c. 1500 , which features
5842-486: The 1980s, Ken George published a new system, Kernewek Kemmyn ('Common Cornish'), based on a reconstruction of the phonological system of Middle Cornish, but with an approximately morphophonemic orthography . It was subsequently adopted by the Cornish Language Board and was the written form used by a reported 54.5% of all Cornish language users according to a survey in 2008, but was heavily criticised for
5969-507: The 19th century. It is difficult to state with certainty when Cornish ceased to be spoken, due to the fact that its last speakers were of relatively low social class and that the definition of what constitutes "a living language" is not clear cut. Peter Pool argues that by 1800 nobody was using Cornish as a daily language and no evidence exists of anyone capable of conversing in the language at that date. However, passive speakers , semi-speakers and rememberers , who retain some competence in
6096-452: The 20th century, including the growth in number of speakers. In 2002, Cornish was recognized by the UK government under Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . UNESCO 's Atlas of World Languages classifies Cornish as "critically endangered". UNESCO has said that a previous classification of 'extinct' "does not reflect the current situation for Cornish" and is "no longer accurate". Cornwall Council 's policy
6223-544: The 9th-century colloquy De raris fabulis were once identified as Old Cornish, but they are more likely Old Welsh, possibly influenced by a Cornish scribe. No single phonological feature distinguishes Cornish from both Welsh and Breton until the beginning of the assibilation of dental stops in Cornish, which is not found before the second half of the eleventh century, and it is not always possible to distinguish Old Cornish, Old Breton, and Old Welsh orthographically. The Cornish language continued to flourish well through
6350-484: The Bridge Medical Centre. There has been a group practice in Wadebridge since the early 20th century; many of the early doctors had their surgeries operating from their homes. In the 1901 census the population of Wadebridge was 3470, while in 2001 the population was 6222. Wadebridge has been a centre for Cornish wrestling for centuries. Places used for Cornish wrestling tournaments include: Wadebridge hosted
6477-504: The Cornish Language . The publication of this book is often considered to be the point at which the revival movement started. Jenner wrote about the Cornish language in 1905, "one may fairly say that most of what there was of it has been preserved, and that it has been continuously preserved, for there has never been a time when there were not some Cornishmen who knew some Cornish." The revival focused on reconstructing and standardising
SECTION 50
#17328515444796604-889: The Cornish language ceased, and responsibility transferred to Cornwall Council. Until around the middle of the 11th century, Old Cornish scribes used a traditional spelling system shared with Old Breton and Old Welsh, based on the pronunciation of British Latin . By the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum , usually dated to around 1100, Old English spelling conventions, such as the use of thorn (Þ, þ) and eth (Ð, ð) for dental fricatives , and wynn (Ƿ, ƿ) for /w/, had come into use, allowing documents written at this time to be distinguished from Old Welsh, which rarely uses these characters, and Old Breton, which does not use them at all. Old Cornish features include using initial ⟨ch⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨k⟩ for /k/, and, in internal and final position, ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, and ⟨g⟩ are generally used for
6731-438: The Cornish orthography within them. Around 1700, Edward Lhuyd visited Cornwall, introducing his own partly phonetic orthography that he used in his Archaeologia Britannica , which was adopted by some local writers, leading to the use of some Lhuydian features such as the use of circumflexes to denote long vowels, ⟨k⟩ before front vowels, word-final ⟨i⟩, and the use of ⟨dh⟩ to represent the voiced dental fricative /ð/. After
6858-572: The Cornish-speaking area was largely coterminous with modern-day Cornwall , after the Saxons had taken over Devon in their south-westward advance, which probably was facilitated by a second migration wave to Brittany that resulted in the partial depopulation of Devon. The earliest written record of the Cornish language comes from this period: a 9th-century gloss in a Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius , which used
6985-503: The Cornishmen should be offended by holding the service in English, when they had before held it in Latin , which even fewer of them could understand. Anthony Fletcher points out that this rebellion was primarily motivated by religious and economic, rather than linguistic, concerns. The rebellion prompted a heavy-handed response from the government, and 5,500 people died during the fighting and
7112-678: The Interceltic games in 1965, 1967, 2006, 2008 and 2010. Wadebridge is home to sporting clubs including Wadebridge Town Football Club who play at Bodieve park, Wadebridge Camels , who play at the Molesworth Field in Egloshayle , and Wadebridge Cricket Club, whose main ground has been in Egloshayle Park since the 1950s. The town has a leisure centre with a programme of sports and pursuits including Cornish wrestling . The Camel estuary offers
7239-555: The Middle Cornish ( Kernewek Kres ) period (1200–1600), reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers in the 13th century, after which the number started to decline. This period provided the bulk of traditional Cornish literature , and was used to reconstruct the language during its revival. Most important is the Ordinalia , a cycle of three mystery plays, Origo Mundi , Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini . Together these provide about 8,734 lines of text. The three plays exhibit
7366-665: The South West and further afield. Wadebridge Carnival is held annually in August, with a Carnival Queen and there is the Eglos Craft Fayre at Egloshayle Church. The Cornwall Folk Festival , one of the UK's longest-running folk festivals started in 1972, now runs for fives days around the August Bank Holiday. The focus is on contemporary folk music , bluegrass music , Americana (music) , celtic music and acoustic music, with
7493-433: The UK. Wadebridge and District Museum opened in 2007 and moved to their current location on Chapel Lane in 2013. The town has two primary schools which have academy status, Wadebridge Primary Academy which OfSTED graded as a ‘GOOD’ school in November 2012 and St. Breock Primary School. There is also a secondary school , Wadebridge School . There are two health care practices: the Wadebridge and Camel Estuary Practice and
7620-475: The authorities came to associate it with sedition and "backwardness". This proved to be one of the reasons why the Book of Common Prayer was never translated into Cornish (unlike Welsh ), as proposals to do so were suppressed in the rebellion's aftermath. The failure to translate the Book of Common Prayer into Cornish led to the language's rapid decline during the 16th and 17th centuries. Peter Berresford Ellis cites
7747-409: The basis of revived Cornish ( Kernewek Dasserghys ) for most of the 20th century. During the 1970s, criticism of Nance's system, including the inconsistent orthography and unpredictable correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, as well as on other grounds such as the archaic basis of Unified and a lack of emphasis on the spoken language, resulted in the creation of several rival systems. In
SECTION 60
#17328515444797874-476: The beginning of the Celtic Revival in the late 19th century, provided the groundwork for a Cornish language revival movement. Notwithstanding the uncertainty over who was the last speaker of Cornish, researchers have posited the following numbers for the prevalence of the language between 1050 and 1800. In 1904, the Celtic language scholar and Cornish cultural activist Henry Jenner published A Handbook of
8001-617: The body, including lof 'hand' and dans 'tooth'. Inherited adjectives with an Indo-European etymology include newyth 'new', ledan 'broad, wide', rud 'red', hen 'old', iouenc 'young', and byw 'alive, living'. Several Celtic or Brittonic words cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European, and are suggested to have been borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at an early stage, such as Proto-Celtic or Proto-Brittonic. Proposed examples in Cornish include coruf 'beer' and broch 'badger'. Other words in Cornish inherited direct from Proto-Celtic include
8128-450: The bridge itself is long gone. On the Padstow side of Wadebridge bridge a road occupies the space previously occupied by both the railway trackbed and an adjacent lane, but the lines which curved away from this towards the quays along the river cannot now be discerned. Once the limit of development on the riverside is reached the old trackbed, in the form of the Camel Trail , becomes visible again. Efforts are being made to return trains to
8255-421: The bridge. When the bridge was first completed tolls were charged for its maintenance. In 1853, it was widened from 3 to 5 metres (10 to 16 feet). A second widening took place in 1952 and then in 1963 it was again widened taking it to 12 m (39 ft). The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway from Wadebridge to Wenfordbridge with branch lines to Bodmin and Ruthernbridge was built at a cost of £35,000 following
8382-439: The central portion of Wadebridge town by the Polmorla brook. The single long platform contained the buildings that still exist: a one-storey station building incorporating a ticket office and waiting rooms, and a tall goods shed which was near enough to the rather squat station building to dominate it in height. In addition, a signal box was built immediately beyond the end of the platform. In 1899 construction works commenced on
8509-455: The creation of Unified Cornish Revised, a modified version of Nance's orthography, featuring: an additional phoneme not distinguished by Nance, "ö in German schön ", represented in the UCR orthography by ⟨ue⟩; replacement of ⟨y⟩ with ⟨e⟩ in many words; internal ⟨h⟩ rather than ⟨gh⟩; and use of final ⟨b⟩, ⟨g⟩, and ⟨dh⟩ in stressed monosyllables. A Standard Written Form , intended as a compromise orthography for official and educational purposes,
8636-560: The culture of Cornwall. Examples include atal 'mine waste' and beetia 'to mend fishing nets'. Foogan and hogan are different types of pastries. Troyl is a 'traditional Cornish dance get-together' and Furry is a specific kind of ceremonial dance that takes place in Cornwall. Certain Cornish words may have several translation equivalents in English, so for instance lyver may be translated into English as either 'book' or 'volume' and dorn can mean either 'hand' or 'fist'. As in other Celtic languages, Cornish lacks
8763-440: The dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, a usage which is unique to Middle Cornish and is never found in Middle English. Middle Cornish scribes tend to use ⟨c⟩ for /k/ before back vowels, and ⟨k⟩ for /k/ before front vowels, though this is not always true, and this rule is less consistent in certain texts. Middle Cornish scribes almost universally use ⟨wh⟩ to represent /ʍ/ (or /hw/), as in Middle English. Middle Cornish, especially towards
8890-462: The dock for the barges bringing sand for onward movement there was another dock capable of holding 5 vessels and construction of a breakwater was considered, while in 1880 there were quays on both sides of the river below the bridge with that on the west bank being served by the railway although the "sand dock" had been filled in by 1895. In the 1900s vessels such as the M.V. Florence brought cargos including slag (for fertiliser), grain and coal, and flour
9017-452: The early 16th century he wrote that the piers were resting on packs of wool. Begun in 1468 and completed in 1485, the bridge was traditionally known as the "Bridge on Wool" because it was reputedly built on wool sacks. In fact, however, it has been proven to be founded directly on the underlying bedrock. The bridge was a strategic position in the English Civil War as in 1646 Oliver Cromwell came with 500 Dragoons and 1,000 horsemen to take
9144-431: The end of this period, tends to use orthographic ⟨g⟩ and ⟨b⟩ in word-final position in stressed monosyllables, and ⟨k⟩ and ⟨p⟩ in word-final position in unstressed final syllables, to represent the reflexes of late Brittonic /ɡ/ and /b/, respectively. Written sources from this period are often spelled following English spelling conventions since many of the writers of the time had not been exposed to Middle Cornish texts or
9271-404: The engine shed and the sand dock were also installed, the latter allowing access to the sand dock without having to use the lifting bridge which had been a hindrance as it was not strong enough to take the weight of a locomotive. From this date changes were few. The wooden LSWR pattern footbridge was replaced by a utilitarian pre-cast concrete model of Southern Railway design during the 1920s and
9398-436: The evidence of this rhyme, of what there was to lose by neglecting John Davey." The search for the last speaker is hampered by a lack of transcriptions or audio recordings, so that it is impossible to tell from this distance whether the language these people were reported to be speaking was Cornish, or English with a heavy Cornish substratum , nor what their level of fluency was. Nevertheless, this academic interest, along with
9525-475: The existence of multiple orthographies was unsustainable with regards to using the language in education and public life, as none had achieved a wide consensus. A process of unification was set about which resulted in the creation of the public-body Cornish Language Partnership in 2005 and agreement on a Standard Written Form in 2008. In 2010 a new milestone was reached when UNESCO altered its classification of Cornish, stating that its previous label of "extinct"
9652-548: The extension was latterly open after a shunting accident demolished a large portion of the end wall. The date of installation of the turntable is unclear, but by 1930 a 50-foot (15 m) turntable was in existence behind the engine shed; a larger turntable was never installed and engines such as the West Country pacifics had to run down to Padstow where a 70-foot (21 m) turntable was provided. The North Cornwall line closed on 1 October 1966 and Wadebridge station, along with
9779-400: The individualised nature of language take-up. Nevertheless, there is recognition that the number of Cornish speakers is growing. From before the 1980s to the end of the 20th century there was a sixfold increase in the number of speakers to around 300. One figure for the number of people who know a few basic words, such as knowing that "Kernow" means "Cornwall", was 300,000; the same survey gave
9906-402: The inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their own, as to a stranger they will not speak it; for if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way, or any such matter, your answer shall be, " Meea navidna caw zasawzneck ," "I [will] speak no Saxonage." The Late Cornish ( Kernewek Diwedhes ) period from 1600 to about 1800 has
10033-938: The language are the initial consonant mutations , the verb–subject–object word order, inflected prepositions , fronting of emphasised syntactic elements and the use of two different forms for 'to be'. Cornish has initial consonant mutation : The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. As in Breton, there are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared with three in Welsh , two in Irish and Manx and one in Scottish Gaelic ). These changes apply to only certain letters (sounds) in particular grammatical contexts, some of which are given below: Cornish has no indefinite article . Porth can either mean 'harbour' or 'a harbour'. In certain contexts, unn can be used, with
10160-407: The language despite not being fluent nor using the language in daily life, generally survive even longer. The traditional view that Dolly Pentreath (1692–1777) was the last native speaker of Cornish has been challenged, and in the 18th and 19th centuries there was academic interest in the language and in attempting to find the last speaker of Cornish. It has been suggested that, whereas Pentreath
10287-624: The language regularly, with 5,000 people having a basic conversational ability in the language. A report on the 2011 Census published in 2013 by the Office for National Statistics placed the number of speakers at somewhere between 325 and 625. In 2017 the ONS released data based on the 2011 Census that placed the number of speakers at 557 people in England and Wales who declared Cornish to be their main language, 464 of whom lived in Cornwall. The 2021 census listed
10414-438: The language, including coining new words for modern concepts, and creating educational material in order to teach Cornish to others. In 1929 Robert Morton Nance published his Unified Cornish ( Kernewek Unys ) system, based on the Middle Cornish literature while extending the attested vocabulary with neologisms and forms based on Celtic roots also found in Breton and Welsh, publishing a dictionary in 1938. Nance's work became
10541-480: The language. Recent developments include Cornish music , independent films , and children's books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in schools and appears on street nameplates. The first Cornish-language day care opened in 2010. Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic language, a branch of the Insular Celtic section of
10668-519: The likes of Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Gretchen Peters , Scotland's Eddi Reader MBE and Dougie Maclean OBE, The Unthanks , Martin Carthy MBE and Irish singer Cara Dillon rubbing shoulders with Cornish and bands. The "musician's musician" Wiz Jones and father of the Lakeman clan ( Seth Lakeman , Sam Lakeman and Sean Lakeman ) Geoff Lakeman are the festival's patrons. The festival
10795-400: The line from Bodmin, closed to passengers on 30 January 1967. The line to Padstow remained for a quarter of a mile beyond the level crossing to allow access to the lines serving the quays on the river, but the remainder of the track to Padstow, and the whole of the line to Okehampton, were lifted. Even the quay lines did not last long, with the ancillary sidings being removed in November 1971 and
10922-421: The line now forms the Camel Trail , a recreational route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. The town used to be a road traffic bottleneck on the A39 road until it was bypassed in 1991, and the main shopping street, Molesworth Street, is now pedestrianised. The town has a secondary school where several notable sports-people were educated. The Royal Cornwall Show is a three-day agricultural show held at
11049-436: The meaning 'a certain, a particular', e.g. unn porth 'a certain harbour'. There is, however, a definite article an 'the', which is used for all nouns regardless of their gender or number, e.g. an porth 'the harbour'. Cornish nouns belong to one of two grammatical genders , masculine and feminine, but are not inflected for case . Nouns may be singular or plural. Plurals can be formed in various ways, depending on
11176-414: The nearby Royal Cornwall Showground every June, and the 5-day Cornwall Folk Festival takes place around the August Bank Holiday. The initial settlement of Wade (the name of Wadebridge before the bridge was built) came about due to a ford in the River Camel (Camel probably meaning "crooked one"). The early crossing had a chapel on each side of the river, "King's" chapel on the north side and "St Michael's" on
11303-439: The noun: Wadebridge railway station Wadebridge railway station ( Cornish : Ponswad ) was a railway station that served the town of Wadebridge in Cornwall, England. It was on the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway . It opened in 1834 to transport goods between Wadebridge , the limit of navigation on the River Camel , and inland farming and mining areas. The railway was built to take stone from local quarries such as
11430-459: The now extinct Cumbric , while Southwestern Brittonic developed into Cornish and Breton, the latter as a result of emigration to parts of the continent, known as Brittany over the following centuries. The area controlled by the southwestern Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the next few centuries. During the Old Cornish ( Kernewek Koth ) period (800–1200),
11557-547: The number of Cornish speakers at 563. A study that appeared in 2018 established the number of people in Cornwall with at least minimal skills in Cornish, such as the use of some words and phrases, to be more than 3,000, including around 500 estimated to be fluent. The Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter is working with the Cornish Language Partnership to study the Cornish language revival of
11684-410: The number of people able to have simple conversations as 3,000. The Cornish Language Strategy project commissioned research to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for the number of Cornish speakers: due to the success of the revival project it was estimated that 2,000 people were fluent (surveyed in spring 2008), an increase from the estimated 300 people who spoke Cornish fluently suggested in
11811-466: The old trackbed where the main platform was. The engine shed area is now a housing estate, and the sand dock is now a Co-op store although the road access still uses the railway bridge over the Polmorla Brook with the original railings still extant; Standing on this bridge looking towards the river Camel, the location of the railway siding giving access to the old sand dock can still be discerned although
11938-415: The orthography and rhyme used in the historical texts, comparison with the other Brittonic languages Breton and Welsh, and the work of the linguist Edward Lhuyd , who visited Cornwall in 1700 and recorded the language in a partly phonetic orthography. Cornish is a Celtic language, and the majority of its vocabulary, when usage frequency is taken into account, at every documented stage of its history
12065-826: The other Brittonic languages. The first sound change to distinguish Cornish from both Breton and Welsh, the assibilation of the dental stops /t/ and /d/ in medial and final position, had begun by the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum , c. 1100 or earlier. This change, and the subsequent, or perhaps dialectical, palatalization (or occasional rhotacization in a few words) of these sounds, results in orthographic forms such as Middle Cornish tas 'father', Late Cornish tâz (Welsh tad ), Middle Cornish cresy 'believe', Late Cornish cregy (Welsh credu ), and Middle Cornish gasa 'leave', Late Cornish gara (Welsh gadael ). A further characteristic sound change, pre-occlusion , occurred during
12192-413: The phonemes /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/ respectively, meaning that the results of Brittonic lenition are not usually apparent from the orthography at this time. Middle Cornish orthography has a significant level of variation, and shows influence from Middle English spelling practices. Yogh (Ȝ ȝ) is used in certain Middle Cornish texts, where it is used to represent a variety of sounds, including
12319-447: The publication of Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language , the earliest revivalists used Jenner's orthography, which was influenced by Lhuyd's system. This system was abandoned following the development by Nance of a "unified spelling", later known as Unified Cornish , a system based on a standardization of the orthography of the early Middle Cornish texts. Nance's system was used by almost all Revived Cornish speakers and writers until
12446-481: The quay lines themselves in April 1973, the line then being terminated short of the level crossing at Molesworth Street. In keeping with its reduced status, the buildings on the island platform and the engine shed were demolished in the years after closure with the remains of the concrete footbridge being dumped unceremoniously in the turntable pit. Wadebridge continued in use for freight until 1978, particularly sending out powdered slate from Delabole quarry for which
12573-482: The railway initially linked with river traffic well having been designed to distribute sand from the river to the local farms via a "sand dock" constructed upstream of the bridge at the point where the Treguddick Brook (Polmorla Brook) flows into the River Camel. This commodity, brought up from Padstow in barges, had previously been taken as far as Michaelstow and Blisland using pack animals. In 1843 apart from
12700-459: The railway ran along the valley floor, leaving the town environs past Guineaport quay, and then hugging the south side of the Camel valley. This station remained in use until 3 September 1888 when the railway closed so that the track, still laid on the granite blocks used in its construction in 1834, could be relaid using the more usual transverse wooden sleepers. On 1 June 1895 the Bodmin and Wadebridge
12827-467: The rebellion's aftermath. Government officials then directed troops under the command of Sir Anthony Kingston to carry out pacification operations throughout the West Country. Kingston subsequently ordered the executions of numerous individuals suspected of involvement with the rebellion as part of the post-rebellion reprisals. The rebellion eventually proved a turning-point for the Cornish language, as
12954-499: The reign of Henry VIII, an account was given by Andrew Boorde in his 1542 Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge . He states, " In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche. And there be many men and women the which cannot speake one worde of Englysshe, but all Cornyshe. " When Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity 1549 , which established
13081-506: The river separated it from the neighbouring parish of Egloshayle. At some time the ford was supplemented by a ferry until the Reverend Thomas Lovibond (the vicar of Egloshayle ) became distressed at the number of humans and animals that died during the crossing of the River Camel so he planned the building of a bridge which was completed in 1468. Wade then became known as Wadebridge. When John Leland travelled through Cornwall in
13208-492: The signalbox at that location closed. This meant that the two lines going in the Up direction from Wadebridge (towards Launceston and Bodmin respectively) were actually two parallel single-track lines once the points at Wadebridge East Signal Box had been passed. This was sited adjacent to the farm crossing that allowed access to Jubilee meadow, the field which separated the station from the river. At this time further lines were installed to
13335-406: The signalling was replaced in late 1931. Platform 1 was extended by some yards in the direction of Bodmin, a noticeable feature as the extension was higher than the original platform and of brick construction rather than local stone. An annex to the goods shed was built in 1941 out of concrete blocks, taking most of the space between the original goods shed and the station building, although the end of
13462-399: The south side. People would pray for a safe crossing at one of the chapels before wading across at low tide, once they had made it the other side they would give thanks to God in the other chapel. In 1312, a licence was granted for a market at Wade by Edward II who also granted two fairs annually; on the feast of Saint Vitalis and at Michaelmas . Wade was part of the parish of St Breock and
13589-415: The west bank of the river. On St. Swithin's day 1965, there was a flood in Wadebridge town centre after five and a half inches of rain fell in four and a half hours around high tide. The Swan Hotel on The Platt was flooded to a depth of one and a half feet. For many years, Wadebridge was a traffic-congested town, through which the route of the A39 trunk road passed; however, in 1991, the Wadebridge bypass
13716-502: The westward extension of the North Cornwall Line towards Padstow via the salt marsh and the tidal Camel estuary to the port of Padstow . In order to accommodate the extra traffic anticipated, an island platform 105 yards (96 m) in length was added between the existing platform and the engine shed, both sides of which were in use as platforms 2 and 3; the original platform being Platform 1. Access to this new island platform
13843-529: The words ud rocashaas . The phrase may mean "it [the mind] hated the gloomy places", or alternatively, as Andrew Breeze suggests, "she hated the land". Other sources from this period include the Saints' List , a list of almost fifty Cornish saints, the Bodmin manumissions , which is a list of manumittors and slaves, the latter with mostly Cornish names, and, more substantially, a Latin-Cornish glossary (the Vocabularium Cornicum or Cottonian Vocabulary),
13970-532: The years 1550–1650 as a century of immense damage for the language, and its decline can be traced to this period. In 1680 William Scawen wrote an essay describing 16 reasons for the decline of Cornish, among them the lack of a distinctive Cornish alphabet , the loss of contact between Cornwall and Brittany , the cessation of the miracle plays, loss of records in the Civil War, lack of a Cornish Bible and immigration to Cornwall. Mark Stoyle , however, has argued that
14097-402: Was mutually intelligible , perhaps even as long as Cornish continued to be spoken as a vernacular. Cornish continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th century, and there is some evidence for traditional speakers of the language persisting into the 19th century. Cornish became extinct as a living community language in Cornwall by the end of
14224-486: Was also a regular cargo brought from Ranks at Avonmouth. However, in the 1950s the river silted badly so that the ketch Agnes was possibly the last vessel to bring cargo to Wadebridge when she was recorded there in 1955. In 1877, after cracks appeared in the rock on which the Eddystone Lighthouse was positioned, a new lighthouse was commissioned from James Nicholas Douglass . Granite quarried from De Lank quarry
14351-504: Was born in Wadebridge. In sport, Olly Barkley , the England rugby union international player, was raised in the town, as was Michaela Breeze , the Commonwealth weightlifting champion. Both were educated at Wadebridge School , as was Annabel Vernon , the 2007 World Rowing Champion Women's Quad Sculls. Cornish language Cornish ( Standard Written Form : Kernewek or Kernowek , pronounced [kəɾˈnuːək] )
14478-466: Was brought down to Wadebridge where stonemasons dovetailed each segment of stone not only to each other but also to the courses above and below. As each layer was completed and checked to fit with the layer above, it was sent out to the Eddystone rocks by sea. The lighthouse was completed in 1882. This resulted in the road where the masons worked being called Eddystone Road. During World War I Wadebridge
14605-543: Was closed and replaced by two new signalboxes, "Wadebridge East" and "Wadebridge West". The first passenger train to use this stretch ran on 27 March 1899. In 1907 major alterations were made to Wadebridge station. The line towards Bodmin, up to this date single track, was doubled as far as the divergence of the North Cornwall Line from the Bodmin line, and soon after this the points at Wadebridge Junction were removed and
14732-403: Was educated in the town. In media, Michael White , journalist, associate editor and former political editor of The Guardian was born here in 1945. Andrew Ridgeley , member of the pop music duo, Wham! and his partner Keren Woodward , from the group Bananarama , lived in a converted farmhouse near the town. Sergeant Steven Roberts , the first soldier to die in the 2003 invasion of Iraq ,
14859-562: Was featured in the German travel documentary Wunderschön in Spring 2023. Depending on the tides, the Camel River Festival is held around August or September. The main attraction is a set of raft races on the river, with bar, food, stalls and more live music. In October, The Bikelights procession through the town centre showcases decorated bicycles and involves many youngsters. In November
14986-459: Was gained by a wooden lattice footbridge situated towards the Down (Padstow) end of the station. A waiting room and a generous canopy were also installed. The works also involved considerable re-arrangement of the track layout and signalling, with the original goods connection over Molesworth Street, using the existing level crossing , to the quay being upgraded to a passenger line. The original signalbox
15113-534: Was home to refugees from the Netherlands and Belgium . In order to support them, a property in Park Street was converted into a Calvinist chapel. Despite the rural nature of the area and the lack of military installations, during World War II there was a single recorded air raid when three bombs were dropped on the hill above Fernleigh Road. Residents report hearing the bombs whistling as they fell and landed in
15240-696: Was introduced in 2008, although a number of previous orthographic systems remain in use and, in response to the publication of the SWF, another new orthography, Kernowek Standard , was created, mainly by Nicholas Williams and Michael Everson, which is proposed as an amended version of the Standard Written Form. The phonological system of Old Cornish, inherited from Proto-Southwestern Brittonic and originally differing little from Old Breton and Old Welsh, underwent various changes during its Middle and Late phases, eventually resulting in several characteristics not found in
15367-533: Was linked to the London and South Western Railway 's North Cornwall Line which stretched away through the sparsely populated countryside of North Cornwall to Launceston and Okehampton , diverging from the Bodmin line at Wadebridge Junction at a point 48 chains east of Wadebridge station near the confluence of the River Allen and River Camel. At this time a new station was built slightly nearer to Bodmin, separated from
15494-516: Was no longer accurate. Speakers of Cornish reside primarily in Cornwall , which has a population of 563,600 (2017 estimate). There are also some speakers living outside Cornwall, particularly in the countries of the Cornish diaspora , as well as in other Celtic nations . Estimates of the number of Cornish speakers vary according to the definition of a speaker, and is difficult to determine accurately due to
15621-533: Was opened, together with the Egloshayle bypass, enabling the two settlements to regain much of their former charm. The main shopping street in Wadebridge (Molesworth Street) has subsequently been pedestrianised through construction of an inner link road, allowing traffic-free shopping. Local bus services are operated by Go Cornwall Bus and Kernow , with routes to Boscastle , Bude , Launceston , Padstow and Truro . Wadebridge no longer has its own national railway station , since its closure in 1967. The nearest
15748-567: Was probably the last monolingual speaker, the last native speaker may have been John Davey of Zennor, who died in 1891. However, although it is clear Davey possessed some traditional knowledge in addition to having read books on Cornish, accounts differ of his competence in the language. Some contemporaries stated he was able to converse on certain topics in Cornish whereas others affirmed they had never heard him claim to be able to do so. Robert Morton Nance , who reworked and translated Davey's Cranken Rhyme, remarked, "There can be no doubt, after
15875-403: Was probably the last prose written in the traditional language. In his letter, he describes the sociolinguistics of the Cornish language at the time, stating that there are no more than four or five old people in his village who can still speak Cornish, concluding with the remark that Cornish is no longer known by young people. However, the last recorded traditional Cornish literature may have been
16002-680: Was started by a former local councillor, Harriet Wild. In 2012 it also served as a celebration of the Queen's Jubilee. Later in June, the Wadebridge Lions organise a Beer Festival , with brews from across Cornwall, and plenty of live music. July sees the Rock Oyster Festival on fields just outside the town on the Camel River. Oysters are, of course, on the menu, along with bands from the local area,
16129-481: Was the highest navigable town on the River Camel providing the main trade route before the building of the railway, and coasters would bring goods from Bristol and coal from South Wales . Timber was also imported from the Baltic , while stone from inland was sent to destination throughout England. The first locomotives used on the railway were also imported through the quay, being manufactured by Neath Abbey Ironworks, and
#478521