Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1883

ST. BURYAN is a parish, 6 miles south-west-by-south from Penzance railway station, and 3 east from the Land’s End, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, Penzance union and county court district, rural deanery of Penwith, archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Truro. The church of St. Buriana, said to occupy the site of one founded by Athelstan, as a collegiate church, in honour of St. Buriana, in the year 930, is situated on an eminence 400 yards [feet] above the level of the sea and is a building of granite, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, consisting of a chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, porch and an embattled tower 90 feet in height, containing 3 bells, the remains of a chancel screen of exceedingly rich workmanship, carved, coloured and gilt, with four ancient stalls still exist: the church formerly possessed a chantry of two chapelries; there were also three prebendaries in the parish church; the ruins of one of these chapels are still to be seen at Bosliven. The register dates from the year 1653. The living, which until the death of a former rector, Dean Stanhope, was a deanery and peculiar, including the adjoining parishes of St. Levan and St. Sennen, is a rectory, tithe rent-charge £586, net yearly value £413, with house and 3 acres of glebe, in the gift of H.R.H. the Duke of Cornwall, and held since 1882 by the Rev. Richard James Martyn M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge. There are Wesleyan chapels at Borah and Crows-an-wra and Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels at Church Town. There was a college here, but it was destroyed in the time of Cromwell. In Domesday book there is mention made of a college of canons at St. Buryan. At Crows-an-wrah stands a rude circular-headed cross about five feet high, in the Church town stands a portion of another, on a square base, and in the churchyard, the quatre-foiled head of another cross, raised on three steps; opposite Boskenna gate, stands a round-headed cross with a boldly carved Latin cross upon it, its height being about 4 feet; at Vellansager is a similar cross on a circular base and 3 feet in height and at Nûn Careg a well-preserved cross with a double incised cross on the round head; there are also, in this parish, several Druidical remains, consisting of circles, cromlechs, cairns, pillars and logan stones; the Druidical circle at Boscawenûn consists of 19 stones and is 73 feet in diameter. At Trewoofe, in this parish, are the remains of an old mansion of the Levelis family, which from its extent and situation show that it must have surpassed anything of its kind in the county. Trewoofe passed by the heiress of the Levelis family to the Vospers of Liskeard, who disposed of it in 1704. A fair is held on the first Tuesday in March, yearly, for sheep and cattle. The Rev. John Tonkin B.A. of Treverven, who is lord of the manor; Viscount Falmouth and Mrs. Paynter, are the chief landowners. The soil is killas; the subsoil is granite. The chief crops are wheat, barley and potatoes. The acreage is 6,964; rateable value, £9,610; and the population in 1881 was 1,366.

Parish Clerk, William Thomas.

Post Office.—John Richards, sub-postmaster. Letters through Penzance, arrive at 10 a.m.; dispatched at 2 p.m. The nearest money order office is at St. Just & telegraph office at Porthcurnow.

Registrar of Births & Deaths for St. Buryan, Sennen & St. Levan sub-districts, William Thomas.

National School (mixed), Edward Kissell, master