England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Philleigh St Filius

The Parish

The parish of Philleigh lies in southern Cornwall forming a stretch of the county's intricate coastline, here with the course of the ria of the River Fal and at the eastern end of the parish with the English Channel. Philleigh is located roughly 4 miles southeast of the city of Truro as the crow flies but one which would take almost 15 miles to achieve by road such is the intricacy of the coastline. Philleigh sits at the head of the Roseland Peninsula just over a mile northwest of the A3078 road which connects Probus with St Mawes. Philleigh is a compact village sitting along a meandering lane which heads for the ferry crossing of King Harry Ferry, a summer only service crossing the Fal. Much of the parish is set to pasture but there is also much woodland which would have been coppiced for forest products, the Fal, of course, was exploited for transportation of goods and produce, one feature of this was the transportation of locally quarried stone to Truro, and also for its fish and shell-fisheries. Like many Cornish villages Philleigh has been impacted by tourism and suffers some of the effects of the second-home boom. Philleigh is drained by the Fal which runs down to the English Channel arriving through the port of Falmouth. Philleigh is sited at around 60 metres above the sea in rolling countryside characterised by steeply incised valleys, the highest point around lies west of the village and reaches 84 metres. Philleigh parish was typically sized for its area covering just under 2,400 acres which would have supported a population of close to 450 parishioners. Philleigh is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

The dedication of the parish church has many forms (Fili, Filius, Felix and the signboard says  St Philleigh) but all reference a 7th century Irish Monk who traveled from Glastonbury to the Roseland Peninsula. The church sits in the heart of the village tucked away behind the farm-shop, Inn & brewery of the Roseland Inn. Whilst the church is largely one of the 14th & 15th centuries Pevsner does point out a 13th century pointed-headed door indicating earlier origins. The western tower is probably the earliest portion being definitively of the 14th century, Pevsner calls it 2 1/2 stages as the top-most stage holding the battlements is a fraction of the size of the other two. The main body of the church has both nave and chancel under a single roof and augmented with a northern transept, a southern aisle and porch. Most of the windows date from either the late Perpendicular period, 15th century, whilst some venture into the 16th century Tudor era. Much of the dating detail was lost during the thorough Victorian restoration of 1867 which also replaced the roofs and many windows albeit keeping to the Perpendicular style. The church is accessed just to the east of the inn where a signboard and triangular parking space lead to a shady path headed to the churchyard. This is a church where views are restricted by thick tree cover to those purely from the south, both ends and the northern side being lost to the photographer.