England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Madron St Madern

The Parish

The parish of Madron lies in the extreme west of Cornwall forming a large part of the Penwith peninsula and also a section of Cornwall's English Channel coast. Whilst Madron, itself, is a mid-sized village the parish incorporates Penzance making for a sizable population. Penzance is located about 25 miles southwest of the county town of Truro. Madron village sits inland just over 2 miles from the port of Penzance. Penzance sits on the A30 road which runs from London to Land's End whilst Madron sits a mile north of the latter's bypass around Penzance. Whilst Cornwall, and Penwith in particular, is famous for tin production there appears to have been little mineral activity within this parish, the port of penzance providing most employment in transportation of goods as well as the usual fishing and shell-fishing activities. Inland employment was in pastoral farming as well as quarrying the local stone. Apart from its port functions Penzance would also have been the market town for western Cornwall. Modern developments reached this extreme end of Cornwall, the London to Penzance rail line being an essential lifeline to upcountry As a coastal community many small streams flow down the short distance to the nearby English Channel. Penzance is sited at sea level, rising to around 40 metres in the higher, modern suburbs, Madron village is sited at around 120 metres in a rising landscape where local heights top out at 224 metres on nearby Boswens Common. Parishes in this area of Cornwall tend to be quite extensive, Madron parish covering almost 6,000 was typical, it would have supported a population of around 11,000 parishioners, mostly within the town of Penzance. Madron is not mentioned in Domesday Book which has scant coverage of this area..

The Church

St Madern's church sits within Madron village at the junction of Church Road & Bellair Road. The church is a mixture of 14th & 15th century periods with both Decorated and Perpendicular styles on show. The southern arcade of six bays, made in limestone from Beer in Devon, is described by Pevsner as "spacious and lofty" and is a fine representation of the Decorated style within the church. Documentary evidence dates the rededication of the altar to 1336 and that is a credible date for this period's style. It's opposite number to the north is 15th century and Perpendicular in style and represents a major rebuild at that time. The western tower is odd in having unmatched stages, the lower being much taller than the upper, the whole lacking buttresses in a confident gesture. As is usual the Victorians did their usual restoration, in this case the major work took place in the late 1880s when the chancel was also extended. Cornish lanes are notoriously narrow and the two mentioned are likewise, thankfully to the south of the church lies the village car park only a short walk away. A nest lychgate leads through the stone walls surrounding a churchyard that has a few trees grouped to the south of the church which limit the angles available to photography.