Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1893

TOWEDNACK is a parish 2½ miles south-west from St. Ives station on the Great Western railway and 6 miles north-north-east from Penzance, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, petty sessional division of Penwith West, Penzance union and county court district, rural deanery of Penwith, archdeaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro. The church of St. Tewennoc is an ancient building of stone chiefly in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, divided from the nave by an arcade of five arches, south porch and a low embattled western tower, containing 3 bells: the first two are dated 1667 and 1744; the tenor bears an invocation to the Holy Spirit: the chancel arch is Early English; the aisle retains an aumbry, and there is a curiously carved font, which bears the date 1720: two ancient bench ends, the only ones surviving, display medallion profiles of James Trewhila and Matthew Trenwith, churchwardens, with the date 1633: the monuments are modern, and include one to the Rosewalls, of Hellesvear, St. Ives, 1829–41: the church plate includes a chalice dating from 1576: the church was restored and reseated in 1870, and has 200 sittings. The register of baptisms dates from the year 1676; marriages, 1677; burials 1683. The living is a chapelry, annexed to the vicarage of Uny Lelant, tithe rent-charge (Towednack) £150, joint net yearly value £215, including 10 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Bishop of Truro, and held since 1869 by the Rev. Richard Frederick Tyacke M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, and surrogate, who resides at Lelant. There are Wesleyan chapels at Lady Downs, Nancledra and Coldharbour: and for Bible Christians and Teetotal Methodists at Lady Downs; and one for Primitive Methodists at Georgia Lane. Trendrine Hill, a short distance from the church, is 805 feet above the sea level. There is an ancient intrenchment called “Tre-crag-an,” on the borer of the parish. Adjoining Ludgvan are extensive china clay works and quarry. Amalveor, now a farmhouse, was anciently the seat of the Hingstons. The Duchess of Cleveland, the Hon. Mrs. Gilbert, of Tresillick, and R.G. Tyringham esq. are the owners of the manor and chief landowners. The soil is killas; the subsoil is granite. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and roots. The area is 3,035 acres; rateable value, £2,454; the population in 1891 was 363.

Parish Clerk, J. W. Tyacke; deputy, W. V. Pearce.

Post Office, Nancledrea.—Thomas Eddy, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Penzance at 9.35 a.m.; dispatched at 2.45 p.m. weeks days only; Postal orders are issued here, but not paid. Ludgvan is the nearest money order & telegraph office

Letter Box at Church Town, cleared 10.50 a.m. week days only

Schools:—

National (mixed), Church Town, erected in 1876, for 60 children; average attendance, 28; John Skelton, master

School, Nancledrea (mixed), for 60 children; average attendance, 58; W. V. Pearce, master; Mrs. Pearce mist