Indian Queens

Indian Queens is a village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated close to the villages of Fraddon and St Columb Road.

Who was the Indian Queen?

There are a number of stories which try to explain who the Indian Queen was. Each version concurs that the name comes from the name of a coach house or inn. The name cannot be traced earlier than the 19th century. The inn itself was built on a plot of land known as White Splat in the late 18th century. The Indian Queen Inn stood beside the road leading from Goss Moor to Fraddon, just below the top of the hill. [ [http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jlsymo/symfam2.htm Symonds Story 2 ] ]

*The pub had a small porch and displayed as a sign the portrait of an Indian queen. An inscription on the porch told the story of a Portuguese princess who landed at Falmouth in packet days, and slept one night at this inn on her way to London. Her swarthy appearance gave the impression that was an Indian.

*It has also been suggested that the royal lady was Pocohontas (1595-1617), an American Indian princess. She was the younger daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Indian tribes who lived along the Virginia coast. There is very little evidence to support this story and seems to some to be the least likely to be the true origin. However, it is still commonly given as the origin of the name. Her name has been given to a modern street known as Pocohontas Crescent.

*Up to April 1780, the inn had the name The Queen's Head. Sometime thereafter and definitely by 1787 it had become The Indian Queen. It seems that the name became The Indian Queens around the end of the 18th Century. The signboard displayed an American Indian on one side and Victoria as Queen of India on the other. The old sign resides in the Truro Museum.

Trivia

Indian Queens is the site of a Victorian era preaching pit constructed out of a disused quarry. The pit comprises large stepped rings and a preaching area the size and shape of half a bandstand.

The village was located on the A30 until the construction of a bypass.

On his 2001 CD "The Convincer", singer Nick Lowe wrote and sang a song called "Indian Queens," about a drifter who yearns to return there after a lifetime of travelling.

Reading

*"A History of Cornish Mail and Stage-Coaches". ISBN 0-85153-056-7 by Cyril Noall,
*"Old Cornish Inns and their place in the social history of the County" by H.L. Douch (1966).
* "Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries" No.416 article by C.G. Vigurs

ee also

*Goss Moor

References