St Stephen's was the parish out of which Saltash, Cornwall’s most easterly town, was carved in medieval times. Now, the boot firmly on the other foot, Saltash devours its parent in turn as Plymouth’s commuter belt greedily siphons up south east Cornwall’s countryside. St Stephen's church before World War One. It's not advisable to walk … Continue reading St Stephen’s by Saltash: selling insurance and saving souls
St Stephens by Launceston: Draper and caterer
After consolidating their control over England the Normans cautiously extended their rule westwards, reaching the Tamar by 1070. A few decades later, they were busy building a border castle to awe the natives at what is now Launceston. Except that it wasn’t Launceston before the 1150s. The name Lansteffan, meaning the holy site of Stephen, … Continue reading St Stephens by Launceston: Draper and caterer
St Stephen in Brannel: a million-selling author
In earlier times, inland parishes such as St Stephen in Brannel in mid-Cornwall were places where the fiercely independent tinner-farmers of Cornwall flourished. This class had energetically enclosed the downs, carved out their smallholdings and built their cottages. However, from the early nineteenth century their way of life was being progressively undermined by the expansion … Continue reading St Stephen in Brannel: a million-selling author
St Sampson: saints on the move
On the west bank of the Fowey River, the small parish of St Sampson with Golant lies at the southern end of the ‘Saints’ Way’ trail from Padstow to Fowey. In the sixth and seventh centuries this was the supposed route whereby scores of holy men and women crossed Cornwall from Wales on their way … Continue reading St Sampson: saints on the move
St Pinnock: the mines open, the mines close
St Pinnock just to the west of Liskeard, is another of those east Cornish parishes touched by the mining boom of the 1840s and 50s. Although on the periphery of the lead mining district nonetheless a quarter of St Pinnock’s adult men in 1861 found employment in local mines, the majority no doubt at Herodsfoot … Continue reading St Pinnock: the mines open, the mines close
St Neot: leaving for town and new jobs
St Neot is a large parish in east Cornwall stretching from the valley of the River Fowey in the south onto empty moorland as far as Dozmary Pool, to which the Arthurian tale of Excalibur and the Lady of the Lake were attached in the nineteenth century. More prosaically, St Neot shared a little of … Continue reading St Neot: leaving for town and new jobs
St Minver: Second homes and servants
Walking through the coastal communities of St Minver on the Camel estuary in the dead of night in winter can be unnerving. The place is eerily quiet, not a light to be seen in the empty houses staring out to sea. The parish now exists in a curious limbo – in Cornwall but eerily not … Continue reading St Minver: Second homes and servants
St Michael’s Mount: A life near the ocean wave
Our third St Michael is even smaller than the other two. One of Cornwall’s iconic views and subject of many thousands of paintings and photographs, it’s the only Cornish parish that can comfortably be captured in one camera shot. St Michael’s Mount, where a Benedictine Priory was founded in the 1100s, had been granted in … Continue reading St Michael’s Mount: A life near the ocean wave
St Michael Penkevil: Closing the door on the closed parish
Like the Williamses at Caerhayes, the dominant family at St Michael Penkevil had amassed a fortune from Cornish mining in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The difference was that the Boscawens, raised to the peerage in 1720 as Viscounts and then Lords Falmouth, were an established family and already one of Cornwall’s elite. They … Continue reading St Michael Penkevil: Closing the door on the closed parish
St Michael Caerhays: mock-Gothic brings money problems
The next three parishes in the list share several characteristics in addition to their names. All three were small and owned virtually by a single family, examples of the ‘closed’ parish type, also seen in Cornwall at Boconnoc. All three hosted an impressive great house, home to members of the upper echelons of Cornwall’s landed … Continue reading St Michael Caerhays: mock-Gothic brings money problems
Cornish studies resources 