The parish of

CHARLESTOWN

© Charles Winpenney, October 2003

was created from part of St. Austell parish in 1850; at the same time, the parish of Treverbyn was also formed from the northern section. Records before 1850 are included in St. Austell. The village of Charlestown was conceived in 1779 by Charles Rashleigh, an entrepreneur and lawyer from St. Austell, who realized the need for a port to service the newly developing china clay industry. He bought the village of West Polmear (pop. 7), and hired men to hand-carve the port from solid rock. While completing this vision, he created a new Georgian town of great charm. The parish of Charlestown extends from Par, south to Porthpean, encompassing Carlyon Beach and St. Austell bay, with the village as the centre. While no longer used for shipping china clay, the port is in use by movie crews, visitors, and residents, and is the home port for 3 'tall' sailing ships. For more photographs, see the link below.

The Online Parish Clerk for Charlestown is Julia Mosman, who can be contacted by Email.

Please visit my website for extensive records, photographs (historic and current), maps, and information about the parish (including history). Charlestown records after 1850 are shown in separate categories.

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:

Transcriptions can be found at COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project), which is complete for 1841 to 1891 and validated, FreeCens at Rootsweb - both are free, searchable databases - or check GenUKI for other alternatives.

REGISTERS:

For Parish Register information, please see the OPC's index of completed transcriptions or our online searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated frequently. The C-PROP coverage page is here.

Additionally, transcriptions are available in the IGI, For the latter, choose the area "British Isles", and enter "P016511, C05361, OR C065351" in the batch number space. The first results has records of Holy Trinity, C. of E.; the second, Wesleyan registers, and the third, other non-conformist records.

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 further information, see GenUKI (link below) or visit the University of Leicester's Directories website, which has many directories online to view for free.

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. The index page is here.

For more information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a Parish Locator map, please click here. Charlestown can be located at coordinates G/H - 4.

For further map information, please visit GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom & Ireland).

To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, visit MultiMap, or for maps and satellite images use Google Maps.

ADJACENT PARISHES:

St Austell, Treverbyn, St Blazey and Par.