About the Author

Hello! My name is Sylvia Joyce, and I am a long-term resident of Saltash. I was born in Wales, but came to Saltash as a newly-wed in 1981 and have lived ever since in the same Victorian house overlooking the River Tamar. My children were born and raised here, and I regard Saltash as my home town.

I'm married, with five grown-up children and ten grandchildren, and since 2009 (when I was 52) I have worked part-time at a Nursing Home just a couple of minutes' walk away from my house. My two main hobbies are reading and the Internet (not necessarily in that order). My first website, Salamanders Young Burn Survivors, went online in 2000, and I'm currently working on a site about the myths and legends of Cornwall.

I'm a firm believer in opportunity for all, and I deplore any form of discrimination, so I try to make my websites easy to read, simple to navigate, user-friendly, and accessible for everyone. If you have any comments or suggestions to make about this site, I would love to hear from you.

If you want to contact me you can email me at kernoweb@blueyonder.co.uk, or you can use this contact form (but please note that the contact form will open an acknowledgement in this tab, and you will need to use your browser's 'back' function to return here)

I try to answer all emails within seven days, but this website is run by just me, from one computer. If I am ill or have a family crisis, or if my computer crashes, I may not be able to reply as quickly as I would like, so please be patient with any delay. If you are looking for ways other than email to contact me, my apologies, but (because of the present dangers of identity theft and harrassment) I am not prepared to disclose my street address or phone number on this or any other non-secure website. If you personally are concerned about privacy and safety on the web, I am sure you will understand my position.

I recently discovered a possible ancestral connection with Saltash! Many years ago, a cousin of mine traced our lineage back to a Norman ancestor who purportedly fought alongside William the Conqueror, and whose family name was Rousel. (My cousin's papers documenting his research were all destroyed during WW2, and no-one else from my branch of the family has since had the time, money, and inclination to repeat his work, so that is all I know.) While researching the history of Saltash for this website I discovered that one Hugh de Rousel, a man of Norman extraction who was alive in 1064, was the ancestor of John de Russell, who became the porter (keeper) of Trematon Castle when the de Valletorts were Lords of the Manor. John was thereafter referred to as Russell the Porter of Trematon, and was granted an area of land which became known as Porters Park and included Shillingham Manor. Although Russell the Porter cannot himself have been my ancestor (his descendants being Porters, and my ancestors still being Russells for many centuries after), he and I seem both to have been descended from the same man. A very distant connection this may be, but it is still a connection!

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page updated 2016-06-07