Rinsey Explained

Country:England
Static Image:Cornish stone barn, Rinsey Hamlet - geograph.org.uk - 864245.jpg
Static Image Caption:Cornish stone barn, Rinsey
Coordinates:50.097°N -5.366°W
Official Name:Rinsey
Cornish Name:Rynnji
Civil Parish:Breage
Unitary England:Cornwall
Lieutenancy England:Cornwall
Region:South West England
Constituency Westminster:St Ives
Post Town:HELSTON
Postcode District:TR13
Postcode Area:TR
Dial Code:01736
Os Grid Reference:SW593270

Rinsey (Cornish: Rynnji) is a hamlet in the civil parish of Breage, in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is located off the main A394 road between Helston and Penzance. The nearby hamlet of Rinsey Croft is located 1 km to the north-east.[1] The nearby cliffs and beach are owned and managed by the National Trust and part of Rinsey East Cliff is designated as the Porthcew Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological interest. The South West Coast Path passes through the property. Rinsey lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The name Rinsey is an anglicisation of the Cornish language Rynnji, which contains the words rynn 'point of land' (as in Penryn), and chi 'house'.[2]

History

Rinsey, in the Hundred of Kerrier, is mentioned in the Domesday Book as one of four manors in the parish of Breage, under the name of 'Rentis'.[3] The population in 1086 was 9.5 households.[4]

In the 29 April 1880 edition of The Cornishman Rinsey was listed as one of the places in the Helston area with a fishing fleet.[5]

Mining

Wheal Prosper, on Rinsey East Cliff, started operating in 1860 possibly as an extension of Wheal Trewavas mine, 800m to the east on Trewavas Cliff . The mine is on the southern end of the Tregonning granite within the Wendron Mining District. By the time Prosper closed in 1866 it had produced mostly tin and a little copper from the Porthcew lode.[6] The prominent house on Rinsey Head is often said to have been the mine's count house (offices), it was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s by Mr G A Gibb, a London stockbroker, after he bought the land from Mr Bucket, a local farmer. Designed as an Arts and Craft style holiday home, rock had to be blasted in order to build the foundations, taking four years to build with stone from a local quarry.[7]

The New Penrose Tin and Copper Mining Company Ltd, which mined Trewavas Head went into liquidation in 1882.[8]

Natural history

In 1990 part of Rinsey Cliff was notified as the Porthcew SSSI for the mineral assemblage caused by the granite contact zone on the Upper Devonian Mylor Slates. The contact zone is also a Geological Conservation Review site of national importance.[9] [10]

Trewarvas Head is the site of a black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) colony usually with thirty-five nesting pairs although numbers can vary with just six active nests (all failing) in 2013.[11] [12] Other breeding birds include European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and European herring gull (Larus argentatus).[13]

In popular culture

The house on the Rinsey Head was a setting for a Rosamunde Pilcher story.[7]

Notes and References

  1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End
  2. https://www.akademikernewek.org.uk/place-names/content/rinsey Akademi Kernewek place names - Rynnji
  3. Book: Polglase, Stephen . The Book of Breage & Germoe . 2003 . Halsgrove . Tiverton.
  4. Web site: Rinsey. Open Domesday. 26 February 2012.
  5. News: Helston. The Cornishman. 94. 29 April 1880. 4.
  6. Web site: Iclok. Wheal Prosper (Rinsey) Tin Mine (United Kingdom). AditNow. 26 February 2012.
  7. News: Williams. John. Home's TV role brings back fond memories. The Cornishman. 8 January 2015. 19.
  8. News: Mining . The Cornishman . 193 . 1 June 1882 . 203 . 5.
  9. Web site: Porthcew SSSI. Natural England. 1990. 26 February 2012.
  10. Book: Penzance Sheet 351/358. 1984. British Geological Survey.
  11. Web site: Grantham. Mark. Rinsey Kittiwakes. West Cornwall Ringing Group. 28 June 2015.
  12. Web site: Grantham. Mark. Nest recording in 2013. West Cornwall Ringing Group. 9 August 2015.
  13. Web site: Gratham. Mark. 22 April 2014 Rinsey Shags six weeks late. West Cornwall Ringing Group. 28 June 2015.