Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1883

TOWEDNACK is a parish within the parliamentary borough of St. Ives, 6 miles north-east from Penzance, 2½ miles south-west from St. Ives railway station, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, Penzance union and county court district, Penwith rural deanery, Cornwall archdeaconry and Truro diocese. The church of St. Twinnock is an ancient building of stone, in the Perpendicular style, restored and reseated in 1870; it consists of chancel, nave, south aisle, divided from the nave by an arcade of five arches, south porch and a low embattled tower, containing 3 bells: the first two are dated 1667 and 1744; the tenor bears an invocation to the Holy Spirit: 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, warden, and Matthew Trenwith, warden, with the date 1633: the monuments are modern, and include one to the Rosewalls, of Hellesvear, St. Ives, 1829–41: there is a chalice dating from 1576: there are 200 seats, all free. 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 £440, with a residence and 10 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Bishop of Truro, and held by the Rev. Richard Frederick Tyacke M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin, and surrogate; the Rev. James Frederick Lemon M.A. of Keble Collage, Oxford, is the resident curate. A house and field are given by the Hon. Mrs. Gilbert for the use of the curate. There are Wesleyan chapels at Lady Downs, Nancledrea and Coldharbour: others for Bible Christians and Teetotal Methodists at Lady Downs; and one for Primitive Methodists at Georgia Lane. Carminnis 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, which belong to Mr. Baker. Amalveor, now a farmhouse, was anciently the seat of the Hingstons. The Duke of Cleveland, the Hon. Mrs. Gilbert and Willaim Betten Praed 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, £2,542; the population in 1881 was 644.

Parish Clerk, Joseph W. Tyacke

Letters through Penzance. St. Ives is the nearest money order & telegraph office

There is a Letter Box at Nancledrea, which is cleared at 12.30 p.m

Schools:—

National (mixed), Church Town, erected in 1876, for 58 children; average attendance, 37

School, Nancledrea (mixed), for 90 children; average attendance, 85; & supported by the Hon. Mrs. Gilbert, a Government grant & school fees; Henry Wilcock, master; Mrs. Wilcock, mist