England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Lesnewth St Michael & All Angels

The Parish

The parish of Lesnewth lies in northern Cornwall roughly 6 miles north of the small town of Camelford. Lesnewth sits just over a mile west of the A39 road which links Camelford through Stratton and onwards to Bideford. Lesnewth is a tiny place little bigger than a hamlet with most properties lying close to its church or in scattered farmsteads and cottages across its deeply incised landscape. Lesnewth sits on the upper slopes of a steep hill, rising by almost 140 metres in height from the small stream to its summit, this landscape in the west and close to the Irish Sea is largely made for pastoral farming although early gazetteers suggest some arable existed. Modern developments have come and gone from Lesnewth, a meandering branch railway line one linked Camelford with Launceston but has closed, the section nearest to Launceston being a heritage steam line. Lesnewth sits high above the River Valency, most of the time a fast flowing stream but following a long period of heavy rain in 2004 it turned to a torrent causing widespread damage and loss of life to downstream Boscastle. The Valency takes water to the Irish Sea at that small port. Lesnewth is sited at around 180 metres above the sea but some 80 metres above the Valency and a further 130 metres below the highest land in the parish which lies at the A39 by Tich Barrow and its tumuli. Lesnewth parish was typically sized for this area covering close to 2,700 but supporting on around 150 parishioners. Domesday Lesnewth was perhaps even smaller than today, it mustered just a single plough and tiny meadows and pastures for its landholder Count Robert of Mortain.

The Church

St Michael's church, note that some sources give the dedication as St Knet, sits on steeply sloping ground below the main lane through the hamlet, the grounds falls so steeply it is barely visible, only the tower can be seen from the roadside. St Michael is a church which began life in the 12th century in the fashionable Norman layout of a cruciform plan with transepts, the church was relaid out to the later medieval style and the transepts removed during changes both of the 15th and more particularly the 19th century when those transepts were removed. Whilst fabric from the 12th century remains it is almost always reset rather than original in situ, a lancet window in the chancel, a capital & base reused in a chancel arcade and a scalloped capital which has been hollowed out to form a trough are all examples. The western tower was added in the 15th century using the Perpendicular style. The major changes came about in the large Victorian restoration of the 1860s which besides removing the transepts virtually rebuilt the main body of the church. On level ground above the site the verge is widened to permit on-verge parking, the entrance sits just west of the public footpath headed northwards. The site is unfortunately rather well wooded which markedly restricts the views available to the photographer.