The Traditions of Glastonbury II

The second chapter taken from E Raymond Capt’s The Traditions of Glastonbury looks at the historical evidence for the tin trade in Britain and the mentions of it by classical historians. A brief history of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall is given alongside an explanation of how it was used for trading tin with the Romans and Phoenicians. Britain was trading tin with the rest of the world over a thousand years before Christ and Capt offers compelling proof for this, alongside artefacts and iron ingots that can be dated to the Roman emperors in Britain.

There are legends that the boy Jesus accompanied his uncle Joseph of Arimathea to Britain and Capt asks whether the famous tunic crosses of Cornwall are proof of this. He also describes a scene depicted in a church which confirms a local story of Christ visiting, alongside it’s description in Ogham writing dated to the first century AD.

Cornwall is south and west of Glastonbury, but the Mendip hills were also used for mining and there are legends that Joseph went there after first visiting the Scilly Isles and Cornwall. Jesus supposedly visited the village of Priddy on the Mendips and there are carols and old saying that make mention of this such as ‘As sure as our Lord was at Priddy’.



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