England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Bodmin St Petroc

The Parish

The parish of Bodmin lies almost centrally within Cornwall and roughly 30 miles west of the Devon port of Plymouth and 25 miles northeast of the city of Truro. Bodmin stands on the former route of the A30 road which connects London all the way through to Penzance in western Cornwall, that road now bypasses to the south & east. Bodmin is the administrative capital for its county and a major market town. Bodmin is reputed to have been founded as early as c800 with the arrival of St Petroc, by around the 10th century a monastic settlement had grown up around his cult, it was seated near to the present parish church. Bodmin's importance was a religious centre has always been superceded by Truro but it became home to both Augustinian and Franciscan monasteries by the end of the 13th century. As the relics of St Petroc were revered Bodmin became a major pilgrimage site bringing wealth to those foundations and enabling the monasteries to control the early trade of the town which was dominated by the processing of tin extracted from neighbouring Bodmin Moor. Even by 1198 Bodmin had become s"coinage town". This designated status granted it the exclusive legal privilege to test, stamp, and tax tin blocks (bars) before they could be sold or exported greatly increasing the income of the town. In addition Bodmin became the major market town for central Cornwall and the moor, the wider parish being large pastoral and dominated by sheep the weaving and textile manufacture also became important alongside traditional country town trades such as brewing & tanning. Following the dissolution there was a period of decline but this was stabilised by the wool & leather trades and by the granting of self-governing status by Queen Elizabeth in 1563. The later medieval period saw the town acquire the paraphernalia of county capital status, the county administrative facilities as well as the courts and gaol. The early modern period, however, saw something of a decline, textiles manufacturing at the hands of northern industrialisation and the tin business transforming from streaming-based to deep-shaft mining in the far west. Modern developments arrived with the construction of the turnpike from the east crossing the moor in 1769, this was followed by the arrival of the railway (Great Western) from London in 1887, in addition today the A30 has been upgraded to modern dual-carriageway highway speeding visitors onwards to Cornwall's crowded coastline. Today Bodmin remains the administrative centre for its county, a prominent market town and a centre for light industry, the town is wrapped around the knoll of "The Beacon" and spreads over a width of nearly 3 miles from west to east. Bodmin is drained by the River Camel which takes water northwestwards the short distance to the Irish Sea arriving through Wadebridge and the Camel's extensive estuary, Bodmin is sited at 90 metres above the sea at the parish church, the Knoll standing at 162 metres dominates the town but higher ground in this strongly undulating area rises to over 200 metres on Racecourse Downs, a precursor for the moor to the east. Bodmin parish was extensive covering almost 4,600 acres, the population was growing significantly during the transcript period being below 2,000 for most of the 18th century and rising to 4,200 by the end of this transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded is typical of an average of closer to 3,000 over the 1754 - 1837 period. Even by Domesday times Bodmin was important enough to be ranked in the top 20% of settlement by population, held by the Canons of St Petroc it only offered 2 ploughs, some pasture & woodland indicating its religious significance rather than its agricultural one.

The Church

St Petroc's church is the largest parish church in Cornwall, measuring 151 feet long by 65 feet wide, it stands to the east of the main commercial centre of the town on the northern side of Priory Road. Whilst the original church was founded as the priory church of the monasteries that early church is long gone and only represented by the 12th century font. It is likely that church No1  was 10th century Saxon church this was replaced in the 12th century by the second version the priory church which was a substantial Norman church, parts of that structure still survive as the lowest 3-stages of today's northern tower. Between 1469 & 1472 the remainder of that church was demolished and systematically rebuilt over those 3 years in the Perpendicular style. The church features a vast, light, and wide interior layout. It consists of a six-bay nave, a three-bay chancel, matching north and south aisles of equal length, a two-story battlemented south porch, and an attached tower on the north side positioned exactly at the junction of the nave and chancel. The church originally came with a 150-foot spire but in 1699 this was struck by lightning and collapsed through the roof of the church, whilst the main body was repaired the spire was never re-erected. Restoration began early for St Petroc in the Georgian era the Norman western front wall was demolished and rebuilt in 1814 whilst through the Victorian era numerous phases of work are documented restoring the church which also ran on into the 20th century. Priory Road has on-street parking for the fortunate otherwise a town car park is advised. The churchyard is well-wooded from the northwest to the southeast and the church stands close to the southern edge, the better views are actually from the surrounding streets.