Hingston Down

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title: "Hingston Down" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["battles-involving-the-cornish", "hills-of-cornwall", "military-history-of-cornwall", "sites-of-special-scientific-interest-in-cornwall", "sites-of-special-scientific-interest-notified-in-1995"] description: "Hill in Cornwall, England" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hingston_Down" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Hill in Cornwall, England ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/The_Northern_Slope_of_Hingston_Down_-geograph.org.uk-_317830.jpg" caption="The northern slope of Hingston Down."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Engine_House_on_Hingston_Down_-geograph.org.uk-_34658.jpg" caption="Engine house on Hingston Down."] ::

Hingston Down is a hill not far from Gunnislake in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the subject of an old rhyme, due to the prolific tin mining that formerly took place in the area:

This Hingston Down should not be confused with the Hingston Down at , a hill spur about a mile east of the town of Moretonhampstead in the neighbouring county of Devon.

History

The hill is usually accepted as the place mentioned in an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 835 (corrected by scholars to 838) which says that Ecgberht king of the West Saxons defeated an army of Vikings and Cornish at the Battle of Hingston Down (Hengestdūn = "Stallion Hill").See, for example: {{cite book | last=Higham| first=Robert | title=Making Anglo-Saxon Devon | publisher=The Mint Press| location=Exeter| year=2008 | page=64 | isbn=978-1-903356-57-9}} In the October 2007 issue of Cornish World Magazine, Craig Weatherhill suggested the Hingston Down near Moretonhampstead in Devon as a more likely location.

Geology

The Hingston Down Consols mine on the hill is the type locality for the mineral Arthurite, which was discovered here. There is also a quarry on the hill, which forms the Hingston Down Quarry & Consols Site of Special Scientific Interest, noted for its mineralisation. Parts of the land designated as Hingston Down Quarry & Consols SSSI are owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.

References

References

1. [http://www.mindat.org/loc-879.html Hingston Down Consols, Gunnislake Area, Callington District, Cornwall, England, UK]
2. Embrey, P. G.. (1987). "Minerals of Cornwall and Devon". [[British Museum (Natural History)]].
3. [http://www.mindat.org/loc-880.html Hingston Down Quarry, Gunnislake Area, Callington District, Cornwall, England, UK]
4. (1995). "Hingston Down Quarry & Consols". [[Natural England]].
5. (2020-10-06). "Mapping the habitats of England's ten largest institutional landowners".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::