Zelah, Cornwall

The A30 London-Land's End road used to pass through Zelah until 1992 when a bypass was built south of the village to divert the trunk road away from the "High Road" that ran through the village. This typical ridge road runs from Carland Cross to Chiverton with barrows and burial cemeteries along its length gives some idea of the age of this old way. The public house in Zelah is an old coaching inn named The Hawkins Arms in the 19th century in honour of a descendant of the West Country seafarer Sir Richard Hawkins who gave it patronage. E. R. Kelly's Directory of Cornwall lists two public houses in the village in the 1883 edition and shows on the map both The Hawkins Arms – licensee Mr John Borlase and just behind to the east the Half-Moon Public House – licensee John Jose. This second pub stood right up to the turn of the century until it was demolished along with a wheelwrights smithy (one of three in the village at that time – the two others being blacksmiths) and a larger barn in the Hawkins car park nearby. The old pub site is now occupied by Half Moon House.(Kelly's Directory of Cornwall; 1883. London: Kelly & Co.)

Zelah is named after a place in ancient Judea which was the burial place of King Saul, his father Kish and his son Jonathan.[2] The Rev. John Bannister (1816–1873) Vicar of St Day wrote in his Glossary of Cornish Names in 1869 the entry for Zelah as Ze-Alla or Ze-Lah meaning dry (seek) enclosure, (lan).

3. Kelly's Directory of Cornwall; E. R. Kelly, ed. (1883) Lincoln's Inn Fields London: Kelly & Co. 4. Bannister, John, Rev. (1869). A Glossary of Cornish Names. Truro: Netherton.

Media related to Zelah, Cornwall at Wikimedia Commons

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