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Perranuthnoe Parish
Welcome to the Perranuthnoe Village history section. The aim of these
pages is to be an on-line history reference that can be added to and
preserved for present and future generations.
SITUATION
Perranuthnoe lies between Cudden Point and Marazion, with good views
of St. Michael's Mount to the West and of Acton Castle and Cudden
Point to the East.
Although the Church is situated in Perranuthnoe, the Ecclesiastical
Parish includes the village of Goldsithney and extends to the edge of
St.Hiliary and Rosudgeon, including the hamlets of Trenow, Trebarvah,
Perran Downs and Trevean.
HISTORY
It is believed the parish has been occupied since prehistoric days.
There is a field named 'Park-an-Chamber’ to the East of the village,
which suggests that a Bronze Age chambered tomb may have been there. Roman settlement in the village is indicated by the
names of the fields.
However the first documentary reference to the village was of that in
the Domesday Survey in 1086. In that, The Manor of 'Uthno' (Odenol),
is listed as being held by a man called 'Britric', with his
predecessor listed as 'Haemar' ( see Haemoor, a part of Penzance). At
that time the population of the village consisted of 8 smallholders, 7
villagers and 3 slaves!
The Manor of 'Uthno' is mentioned in several medieval documents with
references to 'little' and ' large' Uthno, suggesting that perhaps the
village was divided into two parts. From the early 13th Century the
Whalesboroughs were Lords of the Manor, with it passing to the
Trevelyans upon the marriage of Elizabeth Whalesborough to John
Trevelyan. The Trevelyan Court leet was held annually up until the
First World War and this was a major event among the tenants during
which their overseer was appointed.
By the mid 17th Century there were 22 households in Perranuthnoe, but
by fifty years later the population had greatly increased to 506
parishioners.
At this time in 1776 a poor house was built in Goldsithney. It’s
remains, minus roof, with walls partly demolished, can still be seen
in Poor Lane. The large door lintel had 1776 and WR carved on it.
Probably these were the initials of William Richards who with Thomas
Polkinhorne was overseer of the house. The prosperity of the copper
and tin mining increased the population to over a thousand around
1830, but as the price fell so the people emigrated in search of a
better living, thus reducing the numbers back to 742 in 1931. The
numbers of residents have recently increased again with people
retiring in the area and increased general trading.
With the coming of John Wesley, chapels were built in Perranuthnoe,
Goldsithney and Trevean in the early 1900's. The one at Trevean was
granted to John Wesley himself and he refers to it in his Journal as
the chapel on St.Hiliary Downs. The Weslyan Chapel in Goldsithney has
recently been rebuilt.
OCCUPATIONS
The main occupations in the area were of mining, farming, fishing and
local trading.
At Acton Castle there was someone a little different! Admiral John
Stackhouse was born near Truro in 1742. He became a Fellow of Exeter
College, Oxford at the age of 19. When 21 he inherited the Pendarves
estates near Camborne. He built Acton Castle at Cudden Point during
1775, specifically to research the seaweeds there. The architect he
employed also designed Tregenna Castle in St. Ives, now a hotel. The
house was given his wife's family name of Acton, and built so that she
could accompany him whilst he was doing his research. A slipway was
built and can still be seen, to bring the seaweed up from the cove. A
sea water bath was cut out of the granite for her to bath in close to
the slipway. His most important work, 'Nereis Britannica', ( on
seaweeds) was produced between 1795 –1801, and two of his manuscripts
of drawings of British crytogamic plants are housed in the library of
the Linnean Society. He is commemorated by a genus of seaweed named
after him, the Stackhousia.
Apparently his wife preferred life in London to that of Acton Castle,
so she did not spend much time there. John Stackhouse died in 1819.
FARMING AND FISHING.
These have been the mainstay of employment here since the first
occupation of the area, and were very necessary as a source of food
and livelihood. In 1883 Kelly’s directory lists wheat, barley, oats,
turnips, potatoes and broccoli were being grown, with potatoes and
broccoli the main crops as they are now. The fields were dressed with
seaweed as a fertiliser and sand, which was pulled up from the beach
by horses. There were dairy cattle. Fishing was mainly for pilchards
and mackerel, the boats being kept at Boat Cove and winched up from
the sea.
The 1902 Kelly's directory lists all the necessary shopkeepers for a
large village from a butcher to blacksmith and coal merchant.
MINING
Although tin has been traded from this area since around 2,000BC, the
Bronze Age, mining expanded rapidly in Perranuthnoe for the copper, in
the middle of the 18th C. Equally its decline in value was as rapid at
the end of the 1800's. There are the remains of several mines in the
area. One of the most successful was Wheal Neptune owned by the
Gundry's who became so prosperous that they issued their own bank
notes.
Wheal Charlotte, Wheal Caroline, Wheal Jenny at Trebarvah, and the
north lode at Tregurtha were all successful mines. It is said that at
one time a 100 windlasses could be seen turning above the shafts, many
developed by small local companies. Prince Albert came by steamer to
Trenow Cove to inspect the 85-inch cylinder engine and to see the
copper. In the early 1900's silver was produced from a branch of the
Tolvadden/Neptune lode, 14 tons of ore producing 3,440 ounces of
silver. It was a very hard life for the miners who often walked great
distances to the mines on a basic diet of bread and pilchards and, if
they were lucky, a pasty!
There were many accidents, one of note in Perranuthnoe was that at
Wheal Charlotte when the boiler blew up trapping and killing many men.
SCHOOLS
There is not much record of schools in the parish before 1840 when
there was a private school run by Lady Carrington, Lady of the Manor,
situated beside Perran Cross Roads where Trevelyan Farm now is sited.
This school had 75 boys and girls whose fees ranged from 1 to 3 d. (
one to three pennies in our old money) per week!
In 1870 the Trevelyan school was transferred to the Parish and four
years later divided into boys at Trevelyan, and girls at the old
chapel in Goldsithney which was purchased for that purpose. In 1876
the Goldsithney Board school was opened with an average number of 66
pupils who were taught by Miss Emily Lanyon, (perhaps a relative of
Peter Lanyon the painter?).
In 1902 the Board School became an Elementary School until the early
1950's when it became a Primary school which is now closed.
GOLDSITHNEY CHARTER FAIR
Goldsithney Fair is still held annually , on August 5th, in the main
street of the village. An event that has continued since the 11th
Century and probably was held before then.
The name Goldsithney comes from 'goyl ' meaning Festival and Sithney
named after a Celtic Saint where the festival was originally held. The
tradition says that the Fair was stolen from Sithney by Perranuthnoe
folk who ran off with the glove suspended from a pole which was a form
of Royal Charter, indicating that free trade prevailed. It was also a
token of freedom from arrest during the period of the Fair. Another
version of the story is that miners of Goldsithney won the glove in a
wrestling match and with it the right to hold the Fair in their
village! Early documentary sources seem to indicate that there is
substance in both the stories. The old name for the Fair was Mether
Sithney Fair, but for most of its time it was held in the parish of
Perranuthnoe under the Earldom and Duchy of Cornwall by the
Whalesborough family and later by the Trevelyans. Before the Norman
Conquest 'Mether Sithney Fair' was in the Parish of Sithney which was
held by the Bishops of Exeter in their Manor of Methleigh. The Fair is
one of only two markets named in the Cornish Domesday survey in 1086,
and according to that the half brother of William the conqueror, Count
Robert of Mortain, a most important landowner in Cornwall, seized the
Fair and transferred it to his own land near Marazion. The Lord of the
Manor of Uthno continued to pay a shilling a year to the churchwardens
of Sithney. There are many references to the Fair in the manorial
records from 1377 onwards. It seems to have continued to thrive until
towards the end of last century when its popularity declined and there
was no longer cattle dealing.
(Sir Walter Trevelyan, the last Lord of the Manor, discovered a lease
dated 1694 in the 1930's, in which Sir John Trevelyan granted to John
Davys of St. Hiliary, all the Goldsithney Fair for £70 and an annual
rent of 20 shillings, (£1now!) on a 99 year lease. This included all
the equipment for the erection of the stalls, which he had to provide
for the stallholders, with the necessary utensils and implements. For
that he could collect 'salary' from each stallholder.
One of the two Public Houses in Goldsithney is called the Trevelyan
Arms.
Today some members of the family are living in Australia and in
Somerset and they have reclaimed St. James’s church room in
Goldsithney which was leased to the church on a peppercorn rent for 99
years but had recently become derelict. As it was in a dangerous
condition it was pulled down, and a house has been built on the site.)
Joyce Knowles,
2008
With thanks to
• Cornwall Family History Society.5, Victoria Square, Truro, TR1 2RS
• Domesday Book. British Library, London...... http:www.bl.uk
• Perranuthnoe Parish. An Illustrated Historical Guide.
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