CORNWALL ONLINE PARISH CLERKS - helping bring the past alive


The parish of

PADSTOW

Padstow  Padstow 
Padstow, ©2004, Charles Winpenny
  		 Padstow, ©2000, Charles Winpenny
  
Top photograph: Padstow 2009, © Malcolm McCarthy

The parish of Padstow is located on the west bank of the River Camel approximately 12 miles northeast of Newquay and includes the stretch of coastline from Stepper Point west to Harlyn Bay. Now a popular tourist destination, the town of Padstow has long been economically significant as a fishing port, lying in a sheltered position about 2 miles inland from the open sea, and having the largest harbour on the north coast of Cornwall, although the presence of the Doom Bar, a dangerous sand bar at the approach to the harbour, has made it a notorious area for shipwrecks. The town is well known for its “ 'Obby ‘Oss ” (Hobby Horse) festival which starts on May Eve and may have had its origins in the Celtic festival of Beltane.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks

The Online Parish Clerk (Genealogy) for Padstow is Heather Carbis, who can be contacted by Email.

For information about, and contact details for, the current town council please see this website.

PARISH INFORMATION

CENSUS:

Information can be found at COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project) which is 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.

REGISTERS:

For further Parish Register information, please see our online searchable database (C-PROP), GenUKI (link above) and the LDS website, Library section. The C-PROP parish coverage page is here.

DIRECTORIES:

Extracts from the following are available-

  1. Pigott's Directory 1830
  2. A description of Padstow from Slater's Directory, 1852-3
  3. Kelly's Directory 1893

For further information, see GenUKI.

OTHER:

1. Voters Lists:

  1. 1851/52
  2. 1852/53
  3. 1856/57
  4. 1864/65

2. Bastardy Bonds, Filiation Orders etc: many also name local J.P.s, Churchwardens and / or Overseers of the Poor.

3. Wills:

3. Accounts, Invoices etc:

  • Two bills/invoices regarding gas supplies, dated 24 May 1869 and 9 Mar 1870.
  • An account for KESTELL of Trethillick, dated 23 Mar 1895.
  • An Account Book for New Street Dairy, dates from 1892-98. The dairyman was Richard ROLLING and he appears to have doubled as the local jeweller, clock and watch repairer.

4. Indentures:

  1. dated 12 November 1519 and mentioning John KESTELL, Jacob KESTELL, Henry JEFFREY, John VYELL, Thomas HYKKS, Thomas LOURE(?, John RONALD, John CAWBSDLE, Jacob DIER, Richard WHYTE and Richard BAWDYN.
  2. dated 27 Dec 1813 and naming Elizabeth PETER of Padstow.
  3. dated 28 Dec 1813, similar to (b).
  4. A document concerning right to property, dated 1827-8. Names mentioned include William and Catherine HAMBLY.

5. Miscellaneous Documents:

  • A list of deaths from cholera in 1832.
  • A Re-settlement Order, dated 10 May 1833, naming Samuel BREWER and his wife, Joan.
  • A poster, dated 22 Apr  1837, regarding May Day 'celebrations'. Contains the names of several inhabitants of the town.
  • Correspondence regarding the estate of the late Mrs Eliz. PETER, dated 29 Aug 1840.
  • Two documents referring to the employment of Henry MAY, born Padstow c. 1869
  • A letter to the Rev. NUGENT, dated 19 May 1900, concerning a donation by Queen Victoria to the Padstow Lifeboat Disaster fund.

The website for Padstow Town Council can be accessed here.

For information regarding History, Population, and much more, visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a zoomable and printable map of Cornwall please visit Cornwall Council’s mapping website. To see the Parish boundaries, click on the Layers Tab for Government Boundaries.

For maps and satellite images use Google Maps.

To enjoy a "walk" around this parish, search for Padstow at http://maps.google.co.uk/, then drag the person icon from above the zoom commands and place it at a specific location on the map.

ADJACENT PARISHES:

St Issey, Little Petherick, St Merryn and (across the river estuary) St Minver.

SUGGESTED READING:

Padstow - Pocket Images by Malcolm McCarthy. ISBN: 9781845881672.

ONLINE BOOKS:

  1. Padstow is included in The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume III by Davies Gilbert, William Hals, Thomas Tonkin, Henry Samuel Boase, originally published in 1838. Also downloadable as a pdf from here.
  2. The Cornwall Register by John Wallis, A.M. F.S.S., then Vicar of Bodmin, printed 1847. If the in-built search produces no results, use the index pages (474-476) to find your parish of interest. Tables of statistics and other data can be found at the beginning of the book, starting at page n9.