Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1883

PENDEEN is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1845 [1846], from the parish of St. Just-in-Penwith, 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. John the Baptist, erected in 1852 from the designs and under the superintendence of the Rev. Robert Aitken, at a cost of about £2,000, is a cruciform building of granite in the Early English style, modelled on the plan of the ancient cathedral of Iona, and consists of chancel, nave, transepts, and a tower containing 1 bell: there are 20 windows in the church, all of which are stained: on the north side of the chancel is a handsome marble tablet to the children and grandchildren of the late vicar, the Rev. Robert Aitken. The church contains 500 sittings, all of which are free. The register dates from the year 1849. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value Ecclesiastical Commissioners, £165, in the gift of Mrs. Aitken, and held since 1873 by the Rev. Charles Edwin Meeres B.A. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford. Here are chapels for Wesleyans and Bible Christians. The Rev. William Borlase D.C.L., F.R.S. author of the “Natural History and Antiquities of Cornwall,” was born at the old manor house of Pendeen, February 2nd, 1695; and in honor of him the parish is named; he was vicar of Ludgvan from 1732 and died there 31st August, 1772. The principal landowners are Viscount Falmouth, and John Borlase esq. Mrs. Scobell and Thomas Robyns esq. The population in 1881 was 2,311.

Parish Clerk, James Hosking.

Post Office.—William Oats White, sub-postmaster. Letters through Penzance arrive at 12.25 p.m.; dispatched 1.10 p.m. St. Just is the nearest money order & telegraph office.

Insurance Agent:—

Sun Fire, E. White

National School (mixed), John Toman, master; Mrs. Elizabeth Toman, Mistress

Omnibuses to Penzance.—William Williams & James Henry Williams, daily