CORNWALL ONLINE PARISH CLERKS - helping bring the past alive

THE PARISH OF

ST AUSTELL

is located in the Hundred of Powder, and is now part of the Restormel Borough Council. Originally quite large, the parish was divided into three 1848-1850; the northern section became Treverbyn, while the eastern became Charlestown. All records previous to 1850 for these "new" parishes can be found under St. Austell.

Villages in the parish include Pentewan, Bugle (which was called Carn Rosemary originally), Stenalees, Mulvra, Duporth, Par Sands, Resugga, Carthew, and Greensplat.

The parish was not mentioned in the Domesday Book; however, by 1259 it was mentioned as part of Tywardreath Priory. In that year, the original church of Holy Trinity was founded; the baptismal font dates from that time. The church was enlarged and revised in the late 1400's, and was again heavily revised/remodeled during Victorian times. The church tower still displays the 14th century carvings of Pentewan stone, and has been called "a bible carved in stone."

A market town, St. Austell was, for centuries, a small village, acting as a market centre for the tin mining, farming, and fishing interests in the surrounding area. Then the "secret" of Oriental porcelain production was discovered in the late 1700's, and St. Austell parish was found to be rich in the highest grade china clay in the world. (One of only 5 places in the world where clay of that purity could be obtained.)

Simultaneously, immense tin deposits were found at Carclaze mine, which for centuries had been returning a steady, if unspectacular, stream of tin. It soon became the largest open tin-mine in the world; eventually, the pit extended one mile across! After tin collapsed, in the 1860's, Carclaze was found to also contain huge quantities of china clay, one of the few mines to do so. Because the demand for china clay continued, miners throughout the County moved to the area as other mines closed. China clay is still a valuable resource to this day, being used in paper product and other industrial products.

For beer-lovers, Walter Hicks' St. Austell brewery with its traditional black and white colours has been active since 1845.

There have been Wesley Methodist churches and graveyards, Quaker meeting houses -one of which was moved for road expansion- Bible Christian chapels, and Roman Catholic churches over the years. Records for all of these may be obtained from CRO, and most of the records have been filmed by LDS. The Holy Trinity burial ground was closed in the 1880's; Restormel Borough Council offices have records for the cemeteries since then.

The Online Parish Clerk for St Austell is Julia Mosman, who may be reached via Email.

Please visit my website for extensive records, photographs, maps, and information about the parish (including history).

A Message from the OPC:

I've been an OPC since the inception of the project, and really enjoy helping people learn more about my parish, as well as providing parish record information. While I do not live in the parish, or nearby, I do have friends in the area who will be glad to help provide photos of specific areas. Please check my website for information; if you cannot find information there, please contact me and I'll be glad to offer whatever help possible.

Julia

PARISH INFORMATION

CENSUS:

1841, 1851, 1861, and 1891 Census data can be found at COCP - the Cornwall Online Census Project - which is regularly updated 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.

I'm transcribing the 1851 Census - St. Austell for FreeCen, and will be glad to do lookups from my manuscript upon request.

REGISTERS:

Marriages from 1612 to 1835,and burials from 1565 to 1854 are on the website. These are Holy Trinity, St. Austell, registers.
Charlestown burials 1850 - 1900 are posted. Treverbyn burials 1850 -1903 are also posted.
Transcriptions of Wesleyan, Bible Christian, and Quaker records are on the website.
Baptisms may be found at FamilySearch, by accessing the IGI, choosing the area "British Isles", and entering P016511, C05361, OR C065351 in the batch number space. the first results with records of Holy Trinity, C. of E.; the second, Wesleyan registers, and the third, other nonconformist records. The transcriptions of the official parish baptismal records were done by LDS volunteers.

For further Parish Register information, please see GenUKI - link below.

DIRECTORIES:

Pigott's 1831 and 1871 are indexed, and on the website.
Other directories are held by the OPC; please contact her via email.

For descriptive information, see GenUKI. Link below.

OTHER:

There are photographs, both historical and recent, excerpts and articles regarding parish living and history, and maps with lists of dwelling places - all on the OPC website. Please see link above.

Indentures:

a long and complex document, dated 21 Dec 1810 but referring to several previous legal documents of the 1700s, regarding Barton Farm and other property in Lanivet, naming Edward COODE of St Austell.
related indentures, dated 2 Oct 1811 and 1 Dec 1811, involving the people and land of a. above.
a draft indenture (dated 26 Jun 1840) made by Bennett and William MITCHELL, regarding John Pascoe BENNETTS and land in St Austell.
a transcription of Settlement Examinations, dated 7 Sep 1847, regarding James Every Beswarick.

MAPS

For a Parish Locator map, please click here. St. Austell can be located at coordinates G - 4.

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.