The parish of
PAR
Par Sands, © 2004, Charles Winpenny
The parish of Par has existed since 1849, when it was created by
consolidation of portions of Tywardreath and St. Blazey parishes.
At the time of the Doomsday Book, it was part of the territory owned
and controlled by the Tywardreath Priory – which owned a very large
area of land. But by the 1300s, the parishes of St. Blazey and St.
Austell had developed out of this territory. Both were considered
"daughters" of Tywardreath.
Much of the current-day parish of Par was created by the deposit of
soil and mine tailings carried by the Par river to its outlet on the
English Channel. Historically, the parish has been divided by the
river, and the river shaped it’s nature. Up to the 1700’s, St.
Blazey was considered a seaport, and sea-going schooners berthed
there under the wall that now fronts the parish church. But as
mining increased, more tailings were deposited in t he stream, the
land formed - and St. Blazey became land-locked. The area of deposit
became known as Par Sands.
The centre of the village is Par Green on the eastern shore of the
river but there are several properties on the west side of the river
spreading up Par Lane and on toward Middle Way and St Blazey.
However, the whole was part of Tywardreath parish until 1849.
Joseph Thomas Austen, later Treffry, an engineer and entrepreneur,
purchased the ferry operating across the river in 1824 and then
replaced it with a bridge in 1826. By 1840, on the western side of
the river, he had created state-of-the-art port facilities including
facilities for ship building, a foundry and a smelter, the stack for
which became a navigational aide for mariners until 1909 when it was
pulled down. Due to the development of Fowey Consols mines and to
the construction and maintenance requirements of the port, during
the early 1800s, the population increased considerably. In St.
Blazey it was reported as being 467 in 1801, and 3,570 by 1840.
Initially, cargoes were principally to and from Austen's mines and
quarries above St Blazey and Tywardreath; later further mines and
china clay dries were opened on Par Moors adjacent to the harbour.
In 1858, 15,154 tons of china clay were shipped out of Par. However,
the new harbour was tidal with a maximum depth at high water of only
16 feet and it was becoming increasingly expensive to operate due to
the need for regular dredging caused by continued silting from the
river. Fowey, just around the promontory, whilst also tidal, was a
deep water port with access for a longer period. As the railways
were extended in the area, more of the copper and tin ores and china
clay for export where sent to Fowey in preference to Par.
Up until 2002, Par was still busily handling thousands of tons of
china clay shipments, as well as other mineral products. But in
2006, after the company operating the port was sold, plans to
greatly reduce the operations of the port were announced;
development plans are still being considered.
Treffry also built the Par Canal to serve the harbour from Ponts
Mill in St Blazey, also utilising the water in concert with a new
breakwater, for purposes such as controlling sedimentation. Tramways
also linked Fowey Consols mine and Carbean quarry to the port via
the Treffry Viaduct.
The church of St. Mary’s at Biscovey serves the area and there is a
Methodist chapel in the village standing beside the railway arch at
the end of Par Green. Burials have for many years been held at the
local cemeteries in Tywardreath, St Blazey, Charlestown and even St
Austell.
Since this area has had fluctuating boundaries and
management, Julia Mosman, the OPC for St. Austell and St. Blazey, and David
Stick, the OPC for Tywardreath, have joined to act as co-OPCs for the parish
of Par and for all family history matters associated with the area.
Please contact
Julia if you cannot find needed BMD records, and
David, as he
lives nearby and has compiled an extensive library of local publications, if
you require current-day information about the area itself.
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:
Transcriptions of Parish Registers are in our online searchable database
(C-PROP) which is updated frequently. The parish coverage page is
here.
Burial, marriage, and baptismal records (1849-1900)
in spreadsheet form for Par have been put on the
St. Austell District website, as have St. Blazey marriages
(1813-1837) and an index which links to the LDS FamilySearch website for
St. Blazey burials and baptisms. More records from St. Blazey and and
all of Tywardreath will be added as they become available.
DIRECTORIES:
Entries from various Directories 1793 to 1856 are
available on the
St Austell District website. For for further information, visit the
University of Leicester's Historical Directories website.
OTHER:
Also on the
St.
Austell District website are newspaper references from 1836-1856, a
history of the area written in 1856 and photographs of the area. For further resources see 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 Par 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.
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