Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1873

ST. LEVAN is a parish, 8 miles south-west from Penzance, 2 south-west from St. Buryan, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, Penzance union and county court district, rural deanery of Penwith, Cornwall archdeaconry, and Exeter diocese. The church of St. Levan is a plain building, having chancel, nave, south aisle, north transept, recently restored, porch and a square embattled tower containing 3 bells: it is situated in a secluded dell opening to the sea. The register dates from the year 1700. The living is a rectory, gross yearly value £250, in the gift of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and held by the Rev. Charles Christopher Ausley, M.A. of Caius College, Cambridge. There is a National school for the parish of St. Levan. There are chapels for Wesleyans. Eastward on the coast is the celebrated Logan rock, an immense block of granite on the summit of three piles of rock rising from the sea; the weight of this stone is supposed to be 90 tons, yet it is so nicely balanced that it may be easily logged, or rocked to and fro in a certain direction. In 1820 it was displaced by some sailors in a frolic, but was replaced by the officer who had overthrown it. The lords of the manor and the principal landowners are Joseph Hockin, John Hockin, and Henry Hodge. The soil is killas, overlying granite. The chief crops are wheat and potatoes. The area is 2,328 acres; gross estimated rental, £3,684, rateable value, £3,416, and the population in 1871 was 536.

Parish Clerk, James Chapple.

Post Office.—Francis Wallis, sub-postmaster. Letters through Penzance, arrive at 11.55 a.m.; dispatched at 9.40 a.m. The nearest money order office is at St. Just

Insurance Agent.—Sovereign Life, J. Jeffreys

National School, James Johns, master

Porthcurnow is in this parish; it is bounded on the east by magnificent rocks, which rise to a great height, shooting far out into the waves, and heaped one upon another in magnificent disorder. These rocks are wholly granitic—no trace of limestone to be found; and here is some of the most romantic and bold scenery in the south of Cornwall. Here is a station of the Eastern Telegraph Company, having direct submarine communication with Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Malta, Egypt, India and Australia &c.