Why ‘Mengwyden’?

Why ‘Mengwyden’?

Mengwyden is a Cornish word for White Stone, referring to the village in which Mengwyden is based.

The village of Whitstone was an Anglo-Saxon settlement and as far as we know there was never a Celtic Cornish settlement here, but its situation is west of the Tamar – firmly in Cornish territory.

What is the significance of white stone?

We don’t know to which white stone the name of the village might originally have referred but, in the ancient world, white stones were used as ‘tickets’ to public events. There is a reference to ‘White stone’ in the Bible, in the book of Revelation which is an allusion to Jesus being a kind of ‘ticket’ to heaven.

Similarly, since the village of Whitstone is right on the border between Cornwall and Devon (or England, as some Cornish men will tell you!), it is something of a gateway – into the ancient Celtic Kingdom.