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

The Parish

The parish of Padstow lies on Cornwall's western coastline with the Irish Sea roughly halfway along its length from tip to tail. Padstow is located roughly 14 miles west of the town of Bodmin and sits at the terminus of the A389 which links Padstow with the coastal route of the A39 just to the southwest of Wadebridge. Padstow is a port, market town and tourism centre which sits on the western banks of the Camel estuary. Padstow has a long history with a settlement here from potentially the 5th century and a monastery founded in 513. Padstow's position within the shelter of the Camel estuary, a rare haven along this wild and windswept coastline, gave it prosperity primarily as a port, it expanded through trade across to Wales and ireland as well as through fishing for the local pilchard shoals. Later trade developed more widely exporting Cornish tin, lead and slate whilst importing timber from Scandinavia, wine from France and hemp & jute from Russia. The 19th century saw it become a ship-building port and centre for the departure of the Cornish diaspora. The wider parish is poor quality agricultural land suitable only for pastoral farming with salt-laden winds detrimental to arable crops. Today Padstow is still a fishing port, a market town and regional shopping centre as well as a picturesque harbour attracting visitors, a valuable stopping point for hikers on the South West Way National Trail and a foodie haven lead by the TV chef Rick Stein. As a coastal town water drains readily into the adjacent estuary. Padstow is sited between sea level and 60 metres above the same, land rises inland to the south and east to local high points of close to 130 metres east of nearby St Issey. Covering a little over 3,300 acres the parish would have supported a population of close to 2,100 parishioners. Domesday Padstow was altogether a much smaller place, held by the Canons of Bodmin, which had superceded Padstow as the centre for the cult of St Patrick by then, its assets were merely 2 ploughs and some pasture.

The Church

St Petroc's church lies on Church Street above the town to its west and built into a steep slope. All traces of the early monastery are gone so the earliest fabric remaining is the western tower of the early English Gothic style from the 13th century which stands above an equally 13th century tower arch. The church received a major rebuild in the 15th century when both nave and chancel were rebuilt in the Perpendicular style. The nave also carries both northern and southern aisles built contemporaneously, the aisles have 5-bays making for a lofty and spacious-feeling interior. The impressive 4-light Perpendicular window of the nave is only outshone by the even more impressive 5-light window of the chancel also in Perpendicular style. The 17th century saw both northern and southern doors replaced with panelled equivalents. Two phases of Victorian restoration impacted the church, the first of 1847 - 1855 removed the western gallery as well as carrying out a major refresh whilst the 2nd of 1889 targeted mainly the chancel. The churchyard site is best visited on foot from one of the town's car parks as there is no easy parking close by. The churchyard is a challenging one for the photographer given it is beset by trees, Pevsner terms it "a lovely embowered situation" but it requires some careful choice of aspects to adequately record this church.