Contents

Gwennap OPC

Kelly's Directory 1910

Spitfire Engine at Carharrack

GWENNAP is a large and populous parish and village off the road from Falmouth to Redruth, in the North Western division of the county, hundred of Kerrier, petty sessional division of Kerrier East, Redruth union and county court district, rural deanery of Carnmarth, arch-deaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro. Gwennap Church Town  is 3 miles south from Scorrier station on the main line and 3 miles west from Perran station on the Falmouth Branch of the West Cornwall section of the Great Western railway and 3 miles south-east from Redruth. The church of St Weneppa is an ancient building of granite in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, naïve, aisles, north and south porches and a detached tower with pyramidal roof containing 6 bells: there is a monument to James Pearrow, Gent of St Burian, ob, 1691, and John, his son, and a large number of modern memorials: the east window is to Sir William Williams bart. D. 24^th March 1870, and there are others to Col. Richard Williams, d 25^th December, 1867; Mrs Beauchamp Tucker of Trevince, to the Rev. S. B. Drury, a former curate, and to the Tabb family: the church was restored at intervals between the years 1863 and 1882 –91 at a cost of £800, the north porch, vestry, buttresses and the tracery of the windows being renewed and the font replaced by one of polished granite: during the process of restoration a piscine of Late Decorated work and the base of a five shafted font of Purbeck marble were discovered: in 1882 the gallery was removed and the church reseated throughout and a new organ erected: there are 300 sittings. The register dates from the year 1658. The living is a vicarage, net yearly income £222, including 68 acres of glebe, with residence in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Truro, and held since 1906 by the Rev. John Charles Frederic Brindley B.A. of Trinity College, Dublin. At Scorrier is a reading room. There are Wesleyan chapels at Frogpool, Sunny Corner, Gear and Carharrack, and for United Methodists at Carharrack and Hicks Mill. A cemetery of 2 acres was formed in 1855 at a cost of £1,200, and is under the control of the Parish Council. There are arsenic works at Point, 2 ½  miles east-by-north from the Church Town. Gwennap Pit, celebrated as the spot where the Rev. John Wesley addressed the miners of the district, is a spacious grassy amphitheatre formed in 1803, on the side of the eminence known as “Carn Marth,” and has been found very convenient for large outdoor assemblies; it has been entirely reconstructed, and is now encompassed by a wall about 8 feet high: the circumference at the top is 340 feet and the sloping sides are arranged in thirteen tiers of steps or seats about sixteen inches high and three feet wide, leaving a considerable area at the bottom: it has been found capable of seating about two thousand persons, and is now the property of the Wesleyans, who hold great meetings here on Whit Monday and other special occasions. Trevince is the residence of Edmond Beauchamp Beauchamp esq. D.L., J.P.

Dr J. C. S. Rashleigh of Menabilly, Par Station, Lt.-Col. The Hon. H.W. Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, the Rev. St. Aubyn Hender Molesworth-St-Aubyn M.A. of Clowance, Crowan and Edmund Beauchamp Beauchamp esq. Are lords of the manor and chief land owners.

The soil is partly granite and partly killas. The chief crops are oats, barley and green crops. The area of the parish is 6,615 acres of land and 15 of water; rateable value £14,416; the population in 1901 was 5,662 in the civil and 1,800 in the ecclesiastical parish.

Post & T. Office, Gwennap.- Henry Alfred Andrew, sub-postmaster. Letters through Redruth, by foot post, arrive at 9.15 a.m. & 7.30 p.m.; dispatched at 6.5 a.m. & 3.40 p.m.; Sundays, arrive at 10,30 a.m. St Day, 2 miles distant, is the nearest money order office. Wall letter box, Comford, cleared at 6.10 a.m. & 3.45 p.m. week days; 6.10 a.m. Sundays.

CARHARRACK is a large village 1 mile north, through which passes the mineral railway from Redruth to Devoran Quay n Key prish. The Church Mission chapel of St Piran, erected in 1884, is a building of local stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of cancel, nave, north porch and a western turret containing one bell. There are Wesleyan and United Methodist chapels, and a Mechanincs and Literary Institute.

Post Office, Carharrack.-George Buzza, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive through Scorrier by foot post at 8-20a.m. & 2-45 & 7 p.m.; dispatched at 8.15 a.m. & 4.35 & 7.35 p.m. St Day, 1 mile distant, is the nearest money order & telegraph office.

CROFTHANDY, 1 ½  miles north, has a Wesleyan chapel.

SCORRIER is a place in this parish. At Scorrier is a station on the West Cornwall section of the Great Western railway. At Crowgy are the kennels of the Fourburrow hounds. Truro, Redruth, Falmouth and Helston are convenient places for hunting visitors. Here the Four Hundreds of Powder, Pyder, Penwith and Kerrier meet. Scorrier House, the seat of John Williams esq. is a modern mansion standing in beautiful and extensive grounds; the house. Which was destroyed by fire on the 29^th February 1908, has since been rebuilt.

Post, M & T Office, Scorrier (letters should have Cornwall added(.- John Bawden, postmaster. Letters arrive here & are sorted for St Agnes, Blackwater, St Day, Chasewater, Mount Hawke & other surrounding places; London & all parts arrive 6.20 a.m. & 12.20, 2.35, 6.50 & 8.10 p.m. ; dispatched 5.45 a.m. & 12.8, 12.55, 6.20 & 7.5 p.m.; Sundays delivery, 7 a.m. ; dispatched 6.55 a.m. & 6.20 p.m.

Wall letter box , Tolgullow, cleared at 5.10 a.m. & 2.20 & 5.20 p.m.; Sundays, 5.40 p.m.

TREVARTH is half a mile west, and near it is an extensive bed of  fire clay. Here is a Wesleyan chapel.

TOLGULLOW is a village 2 ½  miles north-by-west in St Day ecclesiastical parish.

PENNANCE is a hamlet 1 mile west.

Parish Clerk Charles James.

Post Office, Lower Cusgarne.- John P. Richards, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Perranwell Station Cornwall, at 8.55 a.m. & 3.30 p.m.; & are dispatched at 10.5 a.m. & 4.10 p.m.; no Sunday delivery. Perranwell Station, 3 miles distant, is the nearest money order office & Gwennap, 1 ½  miles distant is the nearest telegraph office.

Wall Letter Box, Frogpool, cleared at 10.15 a.m. & 4.20 p.m. week days only.

Public Elementary School, Cusgarne (mixed), built in 1887, for 150 children; average attendance, 114; Hugh Jory Master.

This school is controlled by the Redruth & Camborne Education Committee; William mead Burchell B.Sc. Clinton Road, Redruth, clerk. 

Railway Station, Scorrier, John Mann, station master.

CONVEYANCE

The Great Western Railway have a motor car service from Reduth to Falmouth, calling at Comford, on week days only.