Some records of the manors and mines shown on the detailed map are available for study.


Statistics

In 1817 it’s boundaries enclosed 3,647 acres, 133 houses and 671 inhabitants. With the current boundaries the area is now 4,359 acres plus 1 acres of water and 79 of foreshore. 75% is waste moorland [[Off Site]GENUKI 1997]. It’s population grew in the middle of the C19th in common with many western parishes due to the mining but subsequently and dramaticaly fell away again.

Year Population Year Population Year Population
1801 544 1901 332 1992 250
1811 671 1911 294 1993 255
1821 715 1921 298 1994 250
1831 811 1931 250 1995 260
1841 1,025 1996 255
1851 918 1951 257 1997 255
1861 933 (462) 1961 246 1998 260
1871 807 1971 202
1981 210
1891 496 1991 245

The later figures were obtained from from the [Off Site]Country Socio-Economic Statistics of Zennor civil parish.


Online Parish Clerk

A new (Jan 2001) initiative that has started in Cornwall is the [Off Site]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

[Off Site]SOSKernow (friends of Cornwall) have a [Off Site]detailed history of Zennor church.

The [Off Site]Zennor Wayside Folk Museum is a private museum which has more to offer that you could imagine possible from the outside.

The [Off Site]Images of England project has photographs of the Cornish Grid Stiles on the footpath from Trendrine to Churchtown and also a couple of the cottages at Treveal.

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.

Zennar is in the hundred of Penwith, is bounded to the west by Morva, to the north by the main ocean, to the east by Tawednack, to the south by Madderne.

This parish takes its name from its tutelar saint.

This is a vicarage, values in the King’s Book £5 5s.; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Oliver.


Hals’ History of Cornwall—c1730

The following description is quoted from [Hals 1750] and must be read in the context of about 1730 when it was written. The extract is taken from [Polsue 1868]. Other extracts are available online.

Zennar is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north, the Irish sea, north-east, Tywidneck, south, Maddarne. For the name, if it be compounded of Sen-nar, it signifies Holy Pool or Lake; otherwise, if it be a corruption of Se-nar or Seynar, English Cornish, it signifies the sea lake, or creek of the sea; and the church is situated in a valley near the sea, with a rivulet of water flowing by it.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trenwith, or of Alverton. When the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices was made, this church was not endowed if extant; however, in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it was rated by the name of Zennor or Sennor £5 5s. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. This parish was rated to the four shilling in the pound Land Tax in 1696, for one year, at £86 10s.

This church, I take it, was endowed by the prior of S. Michael’s Mount, and was formerly wholly impropriate. This parish is comparatively scattered all over with stones and rocks of great bigness; yet amongst those are found many fertile plots of ground for corn, grass and barley, as also many tin lodes, tending to the great profit of the farmers and tinners thereof.

In this parish are the ruins of an old free chapel called Chapel Jane, that is the narrow chapel.


Lysons’ History & Topography—1814

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

Zennor, in the deanery and in the west division of the hundred of Penwith, is situated on the north coast, about four miles nearly west-south-west from St. Ives, which is the post-office town, and about seven nearly north from Penzance. The principal villages in the parish, exclusively of the church-town, are, Boswednack, Treen, and Trewy. The greater part of this parish is a mass of moor-stone: the only cultivated land is a strip about half a mile in bredth, near the sea; the arable land is particularly noted for its abundant produce of barley.

The manors of Boswednack and Trereen or Treen, are the property of William Arundell Harris, Esq., in whose family they have been for a considerable time. The manor of Trewy belongs to Messrs. Grove and Cornish. The tenement of Treveglos belonged to a family of that name, whose heiress brought it to the Gerveyses: it is now the property of their representative, the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls.

The great tithes of Zennor were formerly appropriated to the college of Glaseney. The vicarage, of which the Bishop of Exeter is patron, is endowed with a portion of the great tithes; the remainder is vested in George John, Esq. of Penzance. There was formerly a chapel in a field called the Chapel-field within the barton of Kerrow and Cornelloe, belonging to the Rev. Anthony Williams, of Treneere, near Penzance, and another at Treen; both of which there are some remains.


Topographical Dictionary of England—1831

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

ZENNOR, a parish in the hundred of Penwith county of Cornwall, 4¼ miles (W.S.W.) from St. Ives, containing 715 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king’s books and £5. 5. 0½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Exeter. The church is dedicated to St. Sennar [sic]. There are some remains of two ancient chapels; and there is also a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The parish is bounded on the north by St. George’s channel. There are some tin mines here, but the substratum of the greater part of the parish is moorstone.