England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Veryan St Symphorian

The Parish

The parish of Veryan lies on Cornwall's southern, English Channel, coastline roughly 7 miles southeast of the city of Truro, as the crow flies but a journey of 13 by road due to the intricacies of Carrick Roads and the associated rias. Veryan sits a half mile southeast of the A3078 road which links St Mawes with the A390 (St Austell to Truro) road. Veryan village is just one of the 2 major villages within the area of the parish, it holds the parish church and is a compact small cross-roads village sat around a junction of lanes, to the east nestled on the rocky coastline is the fishing port of Portloe which runs up a steep-sided valley from its quay. It was Portloe which offered the variety in the parish economy being a fishing port which specialised in the pilchard fishery and employed many of the parish. The wider parish would have been, and still is widely farmed under pastoral methods, the salt-laden air being detrimental to most arable crops. The local stone was also quarried extensively but mainly used locally for walling and cottage building. Today, like much of coastal Cornwall, it is tourism which drives the local economy whether that is visitor rentals, hikers on the strenuous South West Way National Trail or beach lovers headed for Pendower & Carne beaches. A fast flowing beck runs down a steep sided valley to the west of the village forming the main drainage, it reaches the English Channel at Pendower Beach. Veryan parish covers land from sea level to just over the 100 metre contour with strongly incised valleys notable landscape features. Veryan parish was extensive covering just over 4,800 acres which would have supported a population of close to 1,600 parishioners, most living in the 2 main settlements but a substantial proportion spread around in isolated farms and cottages. Veryan is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Symphorian's church stands on the northern edge of the village of Veryan on the eastern side of Green Lane and immediately north of The Square. Relic such as a Celtic wheel head cross indicates that this site has very early, perhaps as early as the 5th century, origins as a Christain site of worship, of course nothing survives in stone of the church's fabric from that time. Today's church is documented as having been consecrated in 1281 and a Norman corbel table and the base of the curiously placed southern tower are all dateable to this early medieval period, the basal stages of the tower carrying Decorated styled windows. It is likely the basic plan of nave, northern aisle and southern transept had also been established by this date but changes were subsequently made in 14th century, the construction of the 8-bay nave arcade, and 15th century the northern aisle was extended to full length and the southern tower completed with Perpendicular styled top stage, battlements and pinnacles. The church received a most substantial Victorian restoration between 1847 & 1850 during which work the entire western front and the southern transept were rebuilt, the outer masonry walls of the north aisle were entirely dismantled and rebuilt higher, resetting the 15th-century Perpendicular windows into elevated positions to allow more natural light into the building and much of the interior refreshed. Whilst most Cornish lanes are tight and narrow, The Square has sufficient width to allow on-street parking, the churchyard, set back from the road behind a triangular green is entered through a lychgate, the churchyard, however, is not amenable to the photographer being much beset by trees and formally laid out gardens, a challenge to find adequate angles for successful images.