England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Winnow

The Parish

The parish of St Winnow lies in mid-Cornwall close to its southern English Channel coastline. St Winnow is located roughly 8 miles south of the town of Bodmin and sits on the banks of the River Fowey's drowned section. St Winnow sits a little over 3 miles south of the A390 road which connects St Austell with Liskeard. St Winnow, itself, is a tiny coastal settlement sitting rather attractively on the banks of the Fowey, the wider parish, in which most lived stretched way inland to beyond Lostwithiel. St St Winnow hamlet there are just a few buildings including the church whilst the wider parish is dotted with farmsteads and cottages. Whilst the course of the River Fowey, a ria in geographical terminology, would have provided opportunities for fishing, shell-fishing and transportation of goods, the wider parish would have largely been employed in pastoral farming supplemented by quarrying of the local stone for building. Modern developments encroached upon the wide parish too, the London to Penzance, Great Western Railway, line passes through the northern portion of the parish. All drainage heads to the River Fowey and hence to the nearby English Channel passing by Fowey on its way. St Winnow sits at sea level whilst within the wider parish land rises to 162 metres at Bofarnel Downs. Cornish parishes are often large in extent and St Winnow was one of these, it covered close to 5,000 acres and would have supported a population of a little under 1,100 parishioners. In Domesday times two manors were recorded in the modern parish's area, St Winnow, itself, was a holding of the Bishop of Exeter whilst Polscoe was with Count Robert of Mortain; collectively the two could offer very few resources, just 3 ploughs together with the usual pastures and woodland.

The Church

The parish church of St Winnow, the saint is believed to be a monk from St Omer originally of Welsh birth, lies in a breathtakingly situated position almost on the water-line of the River Fowey at the end of a line and narrow lane leading to it. Whilst the church has origins in the 12th century, the Norman Romanesque period, little remains beyond a few clues to that early church. Pevsner speculates from the church's northern side that it was of a cruciform layout characteristic of that period whilst in one of the transepts the arch is clearly reused fabric from that Norman church. That early 13th century re-layout was subsequently replaced by a major redesign in Perpendicular times to result in today's layout. Today we have the nave and chancel augmented by a extensive southern aisle, 6 bays in length, a southern porch and western tower. The Perpendicular period extended from the mid-14th through to mid-16th century but Pevsner chooses not to assign a precise date for the rebuild, historic England, however, place it in the 15th century. Like most churches a Victorian restoration took place, in this case in 1874, in which much of the northern face was restored and in places rebuilt. The narrow lane, which dead-ends at the church, widens to a small parking area outside the gates, metal gates lead to a curving pathway which descends to the church and the foreshore, the churchyard is devoid of all obstacles for the photographer.