BolventorAltarnun

Bolventor at a glance

Bolventor: the Bodmin Moor hamlet of Jamaica Inn

Bolventor (Bedhashardh in Cornish) is a hamlet on Bodmin Moor in the civil parish of Altarnun, between Launceston and Bodmin. The A30 runs through it, and a dual carriageway bypass now goes round the hamlet, which before the bypass straddled the main road.

Bolventor is best known for Jamaica Inn, a coaching inn beside the main road that has stood there since 1547. Daphne du Maurier set her novel about Cornish smugglers there. The moorland of the surrounding parish runs west towards Rough Tor and south towards Dozmary Pool.

The name is often linked to a bold venture, a farm built on the moor, but the source calls that probably folk etymology. It is more likely to come from the Bold Adventure tin working area, which operated near Jamaica Inn in the 1840s and 1850s.

Bolventor became a parish in 1846, formed from parts of St Neot, Altarnun and Cardinham, and has since merged with Altarnun. The former Holy Trinity Church, east of the hamlet, has closed. About a mile away stood the Chapel of St Luke, in use from the 13th to the early 16th century, and its font is now at Tideford church.

On 14 September 1945 an RAF Halifax bomber flying from Dorset to the Azores crashed near Bolventor after an electrical fault. All 21 people on board died.