Nancledrea folk owe their nickname of “rats” to their mill, or rather
to their millers. This may be understood by such scenes as the
following, which often occurred:—The “loader” (miller’s boy) having
brought the grist to a farmhouse, the good wife would “peze” (weigh by
hand) the sacks of flour, bran, &c.—looking very wise, or sour the
while,—then relieve her mind by saying, “Look here, thou ‘pilyack’
(good-for-nothing rascal), thee hast broft me up ‘tummals’ enow to be
sure, but more than hafe of en es secands and brand, that a es; and
what thee hast broft for brand es most of am barley hulls and ‘ishan’
(corn husks and dust,) but thee dosn’t care. The cunan old Nancledrea
rats have eat the best flour agen and left all the secands and brand.
Dost a hear me, you? I spose, too, that after the sacks had been twice
tull’d, the millar’s old wife dipped in her dish agen, for doubtan that
they hadn’t ben tull’d enow before.”
The loader, very unconcerned, lets the dame talk on, and she
continues:—
“Now, tell the old rat from me—dost a heer me?—ef a don’t sarve me
better next time, I’ll carry my corn to ‘four parishes round’ before
I’ll be cheated so; that I will; the devil take the hungry old rat and
his wife too.”
After some rough talk the boy was generally dismissed with a good slice
of bread thickly spread with cream and treacle.
It is said that Zennor people obtained their nickname of “Goats” from
the great number of these animals which were formerly kept on the high
rocky hills, amongst them Carn Galva (goat’s carn), on the western side
of this parish.
It was also said that Zennor people would contrive, by their thrifty
habits, to live like goats, where other animals and ordinary human
beings would starve. “As careful as Zennor people” was a common saying
in neighbouring parishes. Yet their care or stinginess was often
mistaken for economy, when their rearing cattle, and working beasts as
well, were so badly fed in winter that they came to “heaving” time, if
not before, in the spring.
It was what we call “funny but whist” to see, of a morning, men or
women, out in their “crafts” (where such cattle were usually wintered)
helping a poor, half-starved beast to rise, and holding on to its tail
until it could stand steady enow to devour the little jerffel (armful)
of straw, put before it. Yet, when they contrived to keep alive their
poor yearlings until summer, these hardy young cattle, then turned to
lanes, would often wander away for miles and get at the grass, or any
crop to be found on a remarkably fertile strip of land between the wild
hills and the sea-shore, in spite of all their spanning or steeping
(tying the head down to a leg), or “mopping,” by a piece of board hung
before the eyes.
On this strip of land, forming the morrab of Zennor, the principal
farms of this parish are situated.