is in the Hundred and deanery of Pydar, just inland from the North coast and the Bristol Channel, and lies to the North of Redruth. (see our locator map link, below). It is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, as it was considered part of Perranzabuloe until 1846. It is now in the Carrick district, with civil registration for the parish being in the Truro Registration District continuously from 1st July 1837. There were sub-districts at Kea, Kenwyn, Probus, St. Agnes, St. Clement and St Just-in-Roseland, but these have now been abolished.
Villages in the parish include the Churchtown, Trevaunance Cove, Towan Cross, Mithian and Mingoose. The town of Perranporth is to the North East of the parish. Currently the area is mainly farmland, but St Agnes Parish was one of the great mining districts in Cornwall, abounding in tin and copper. As a result, the parish is scant of trees. The Earl of Cornwall once had a manor at Tywarnhayle. The northern boundary of the parish is the rugged Northern coastline of Cornwall. St Agnes Beacon is a raised area of land which was chosen as one of the principal western stations of the Ordnance Survey. There have been concerted efforts to build a harbour at Trevaunance (now called Trevaunance Quay) over the centuries, but the efforts have been discontinued. Blackwater is a village 3 miles south-east, in the ecclesiastical parish of Mithian, which is on the road between Redruth and St Columb. Goonbell, with a "halt" on the Perranporth and Newquay rail motor car branch of the Great Western railway, is also located in this parish.
From earliest times until 1846, St. Agnes, while being the chief centre of population of the large parish of Perranzabloe, was but a chapelry to that parish. It was not until 1846 when St Agnes was constituted an independent ecclesiastical parish and the first Vicar was appointed replacing the previous curates. By 1846, the population had increased to such an extent that the church building was too small, and authority was given to pull down the old church and build a new one. Only the lower stages of the old tower was incorporated into the new building. Further history of the church and parish is available on-line. The "new" parish of Mount Hawke was created from part of parish 1847; it is located in the West of the older St Agnes parish.
The Roman Catholic Parish developed a Mass Centre, which was started in the time of the Irish immigration in the mid-nineteenth century. A Catholic chapel had been built in 1882 on Trevellas Downs, near Cligga Head, and was served from Camborne. Between the two world wars, people had to walk to the nearest Mass centre at Perranporth. The present Church, Our Lady, Star of the Sea in Trevaunance Road, St Agnes, was built in June 1958 as a Chapel-of-Ease to Redruth Parish.
There was a Wesleyan Methodist church in St
Agnes, as well as Primitive Methodist and United Methodist chapels. A
municipal cemetery of two acres was formed in 1876 which included two
mortuary chapels.
The Online Parish Clerk for St Agnes is Janice Brooker, who may be reached via Email.
Please visit my
website for transcriptions, photographs, and much more
information.
Janice
Information can be found at COCP - the Cornwall Online Census Project - which is almost complete for 1841 to 1891 and has been verified, FreeCen at Rootsweb, which has a very good search engine and information from COCP, as well as GenUKI, which has more reference information and alternate resources.
Please click here to see a list of persons on the St. Agnes Wesleyan Tablet Mural.
For Parish Register information, please see our online searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated frequently and GenUKI (link above).
For information, see GenUKI. Link below.
For more information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.
For a Parish Locator map, please click here. St. Agnes can be located at coordinates 4 - D/E.
For further map information, please visit GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom & Ireland).
To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, please visit
MultiMap, or for maps and satellite
images use
Google Maps.
