(Including the modern parish of Carbis Bay)

• Statistics
• “Online Parish Clerk”
• Links
• Glebe terriers 1679 & 1727
• Tonkin’s Natural History of Cornwall (1739)
• Lysons’ History & Topography (1814)
• The Topographical Dictionary of England (1831)
• Kelly’s Directory (1856)
• Blight’s Churches of West Cornwall (1864)
• Lake’s Parochial History (1868)
• Kelly’s Directory (1873)
• Kelly’s Directory (1883)
• Matthews’ Guide (1884) has chapters on Carbis Bay and Lelant
• Matthews’ History (1892)
• Kelly’s Directory (1893)
• Detailed Map of the Parish
• The Parish in Context (44K)
• Gazetteer
• Picture Gallery
• Baptism Registers
• Marriage Registers (transcript 1813–1837, transcript 1837–1906)
• Burial Registers
• Monumental Inscriptions (Index to Longstones Cemetery, Carbis Bay)
• Methodist Chapels

Statistics

Using the old boundaries the area is 3,524 Acres. Since 1924, the civil parish has been incorporated into St. Ives and Ludgvan. [GENUKI 1997]. In 1868, Polsue had a very similar figure of 3757A.

The later figures were obtained from from the Country Socio-Economic Statistics as the sum of Carbis Bay, Lelant and Lelant Downs sub-parishes.

Online Parish Clerk

A new (Jan 2001) initiative that has started in Cornwall is the Online Parish Clerk. One person is encouraged from the CORNISH-L or CORNISH-GEN-L mailing list to be the custodian of historical records, including transcripts of registers, for each parish and will supply extracts to researchers as they need them. This person may be geographically distant from the parish, but their heart will be there. Parish information

Links

There is a dedicated Lelant web site which has some interesting articles about the parish. There is another run by Chris Uphill, the OPC.

See also the general West Penwith Links

Tonkin’s Natural History of Cornwall—1739

The following description is quoted from [Tonkin 1739] and must be read in the context of that date. The extract is taken from [Polsue 1868]. Other extracts are available online.

Lelant is in the hundred of Penwith, and hath to the west, Towednack; to the north, S. Ives; to the east, the river Hayle and S. Ives Bay; to the south, S. Earth and Ludgvan.

I take Lelant to be compounded of Le, a place, and Lan a church, so as to signify the church place. It is dedicated to S. Uny, and therefore hath the adjunct of Uny Lelant, mostly used in writings. But Leland calls it Lannant; and if that be the right name, it is a church in a valley. In the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas, Lanvanta or Laventa is rated at £15 13s. 4d.

It is a vicarage valued in the King’s book together with S. Ives and Towednack, which pass in the same presentation, at £22 11s. 10d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. The sheaf and tithe of fish in Lord Hobart, as heir to Sir John Maynard, who got possession of them from Edward Noseworthy, Esq.

S. Uny, to whom not only this church, but also that of Redruth, and a ruined chapel in S. Wendron, are dedicated, is by Leland called S. Unine.

Lysons’ History & Topography—1814

The following description is lifted directly from [Lysons 1814]. It must be read in the context of that date.

Lalant or Lelant, in the deanery and in the east division of the hundred of Penwith, is written in old records La Nant: it lies on the Hayle, three miles to the south-east of St. Ives, which is the post-office town. The principal villages in this parish, exclusively of the church-town, are Brunian, Trecroben, Tredreath of Lower Lalant town, Trembetha, and Trink. Norden speaks of Lalant as having been “somtyme a haven towne, but then of late decayed, by reason of the sande which had choaked the harbour and buried much of the lands and howses: many devises,” say he, “they use to prevent the obsorpation of the churche.” The principal population of this parish is now at Lalant town, higher up the Hayle, towards Trevethow. The tradition is yet current, that there was a considerable town near the church, and that the trade of the Hayle was on the Lalant side, till the sands drove the inhabitants farther to the south. So lately as the year 1780, the sand was almost as high as the church-yard wall, and its boundaries scarcely discernible; but by planting rushes, hat sands have become stationary, and the fence is now visible. There is a cattle-fair at Lalant on the 15th of August.

Samuel Stephens, Esq. of Tregenna, has a manor which is called Lalant and St. Ives. This we suppose to have been the estate which was confirmed to the monastery of Tywardreth, by Robert de Cardinham, in the reign of Richard I., by the name of Villa de la Nanta and Tredtait.

The Trevethow estate, called the manor of Lalant and Trevethow, belonged to the baronial family of Bottreaux^p,, and afterwards successively to those of Godolphin^q and Praed. The great-grandfather of the present proprietor (William Praed, Esq., M.P.) being a younger son of the Mackworths of Glamorganshire, took the name of Praed, on succeeding to the estates of the last heir male of the last mentioned family, who died in 1717. Trevethow, the seat of the Praeds, has of late years been mostly uninhabited, except a part which is occupied by the tenant of the demesnes; the present owner residing chiefly at his seat at Tyringham in Buckinghamshire.

The manor of Trembethow is said to have been the seat of John Hals, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry V., and to have been by him sold to the Godolphins^r: in the reign of Queen Elizabeth is was in the family of Mohun: it is now in severalties, one-third being the property of William Praed Esq., another of Arthur Champernowne, Esq., and the remaining third divided between Samuel Stephens, Esq., the Rev. H. H. Tremayne, and F. H. Rodd, Esq., as heirs of the family of Hearle.

Goonwin or Gunwin, formerly a seat of the Pawleys, fo whom there are memorials in the parish-church, (bearing date 1625, 1721, &c.) passed afterwards to the Praeds: the old mansion has been taken down, and two farm-houses built on the site.

The church of St. Uny Lalant, said to have been the burial-place of that saint to whom it is dedicated, (a brother of St. Herygh,) is the mother-church of St. Ives and Tawednack. The church was given or confirmed by Robert de Cardinham to the monastery of Tywardreth, in the reign of Richard I.^s, but afterwards became appropriated to the college of Crediton in Devonshire. The rectorial estate having been in the seventeenth century vested in the Maynard family, was inherited by the Hobarts: the late Earl of Buckinghamshire sold it to Humphrey Mackworth Praed, Esq., and it is now the property of William Praed, Esq., except the great tithes of St. Ives, which were purchased by Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart. The vicarage is in the gift of the Bishop of Exeter. The glebe consists of fifty acres; but of these only about eight are cultivated, the remainder being covered with hillocks of sand.

p Esch. 2 Edw. IV.

q Bowles’s “Short Account of the Hundred of Penwith.”

r Esch.

s Dugdale’s Monasticon, I.586.

Topographical Dictionary of England—1831

The following is from [Lewis 1831] and must be read in the context of that date.

LELANT (UNY), a parish in the hundred of Penwith county of Cornwall, 3 miles (S.E.) from St. Ives, containing 1271 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of St. Ives, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king’s books at £22. 11. 10½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Exeter. The church, dedicated to St. Ewny, is surrounded by banks of sand. There are two places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parish is bounded on the north by St. Ives bay, and on the east by Hayle harbour and the river of that name, which is crossed by a bridge. A considerable quantity of granite is raised here, and there are several tin mines in the neighbourhood, the principal of which are Wheal Reath and Wheal Speed. A fair for cattle is held on August 15th.