England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Newlyn East St Newlyn the Virgin

The Parish

The parish of St Newlyn East, or Newlyn East for short, lies in western central Cornwall, as such it is not too far from its western coast with this part of the county being rather thin from northwest to southeast. St Newlyn East is located roughly 8 miles north of the city of Truro and sits just under 2 miles east of the A3075 road which links Newquay through to the major trunk road of the A30 a few miles north of Redruth. St Newlyn East is a mid-sized and compact village centred around an almost unique oval of lanes within which resides the church, lanes head predominantly south and east of this feature and most properties sit on or off these lanes. St Newlyn East has a long history, as early as 1213 it was granted the right to hold  a market but those functions dwindled in the face of competition from Truro. The local economy was dominated by the extractive mining industry of the area, the parish's lead mine, of East Wheat Rose also yielding silver of value, employed many before the inevitable exhaustion. The wider parish supports pastoral farming on the poor soils of the district. Modern developments have come and largely gone from St Newlyn East, a branch railway from Newquay now becoming a heritage steam line, the Lappa Valley Steam Railway. That valley holds the stream which drains the parish, the River Gannel, this heads north to reach the Irish Sea to the south of Newquay. St Newlyn East is sited, on the crest of a ridge, at around 90 metres above the sea, the landscape whilst not too high is deeply cut by the river valleys but rises to the south to almost 140 metres on Newlyn Downs. St Newlyn East parish was rather extensive, a feature of upland parishes but not uncommon in Cornwall too, covering almost 7,400 acres albeit with 2,300 acres described as "common or waste", it would have supported a population of close to 1,450 parishioners. Whilst St Newlyn East is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book the manor of Cargoll, within the bounds of the parish, manages an entry; held by the Canons of Bodmin it could muster 9 ploughs, pastures & woodland and there was a mill.

The Church

The church of St Newlyn sits within the above described circular feature at the heart of the village, enclosed by the ring of lanes around its churchyard. The church is of early origins but was much altered during the great church-building era of the 14th & 15th centuries leaving few traces of the early church. Pevsner notes the imprint of what would have been a cruciform Norman Romanesque church underlying today's more typical layout. Traces of Norman Romanesque work from the 12th century can be found in both the chancel and northern transept where a reused and widened Norman window can be found. Such was the changes made to the church that it was, in fact, rededicated in 1259 following the commencement of its transformation into a nave, chancel & western towered layout. The little work immediately following that 13th century re-dedication is overlaid by later work too, the northern doorway and chancel aisle being from the 14th century whilst the 3-stage western tower is stolidly Perpendicular of the 15th century. To this medieval rebuild one must also add the Victorian work from what Pevsner described as a "comprehensive but sensitive restoration" of 1883 which largely re-roofed the building as well as adding some excellent carved woodwork. Whilst the lanes surrounding the churchyard are rather narrow in typical Cornish style, The Cross heading out to the west is probably the easiest for parking. Several entrances make their way into the churchyard, the church has trees rather too close to the eastern end to gain satisfactory landscape images but other angles are available to the photographer.