Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1873

HALSETOWN is an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1846 out of the parish of St. Ives, 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 Exeter, 1 mile west of St. Ives. The church of St John is a beautiful Gothic structure of granite: it consists of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch, and turret containing 1 bell: it was built in 1858, and will seat 500 persons. The register dates from the year 1860. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £180, with residence and small glebe, in the gift of the Rev. Frederic Hichens, of Speldhurst, Kent, and held by the Rev. William Hinton Drake, M.A. of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. There is a National school for both sexes, supported by Government grant and children’s pence. There are also chapels for Wesleyans and Bible Christians. The soil is light; subsoil, granite. The crops are oats, barley, wheat and roots. The principal landowners are Messrs. Bolitho and Earl Cowley. The population in 1871 was 1,810.—Letters through St. Ives, arrive at 11 a.m. There is a letter-box in the wall of the Wesleyan Chapel. St Ives is the nearest money order office.