Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1893

MADRON, or St. Madron, is a parish and village, 1½ miles north-west from Penzance, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, petty sessional division of Penwith West, Penzance union and county court district, rural deanery of Penwith, archdeaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro. The ecclesiastical parishes of St. Mary and St. Paul and St. John, Penzance, have been taken out of this parish, which is the mother parish of Penzance. The parish is governed by a local board of nine members, formed May 12, 1863, under the “Local Government act of 1858.” The church of St. Madron (commonly called “Madderne”) is an ancient building of granite, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave of six bays, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells: the chancel is of an earlier date and retains a piscina and sedile: the former incorporates a fragment of alabaster, carved with angelic figures armed: on the north wall is a fine late brass to John Clies, merchant and twice mayor of Penzance, ob. November 27, 1623, and Blanch (Trevanion) his wife; there are effigies of both, and others of six children and 12 English verses, the whole being surrounded by a marginal inscription: there are several mural monuments, including one in the chancel to the Rev. Duke Pearce, a former vicar, ob. 1716: the font, of granite, is Norman: the original church was built by Henry de Pomeroy in 1131, and is mentioned in the taxation of Pope Nicholas in 1291 as dedicated to St. Madderne: Bishop Grandison consecrated the high alter in 1336: the church was thoroughly restored in 1887 at a cost of £2,800, when it was refloored and reseated with carved oak benches: during the restoration portions of an ancient oak screen were discovered and are incorporated in the screen erected in 1889 after the old design: six handsomely carved oak bench ends, found under the floor, have been set up in the south aisle: there are 600 sittings. The register dates from the year 1577. The living is a vicarage, with that of Morvah annexed, average tithe rent-charge £679, joint gross yearly value £600, with residence, in the gift of Misses Bolase and Mrs. Tonkin, and held since 1880 by the Rev. Franklin Tonkin M.A. of Corpus Christi college, Cambridge. St. Thomas’ mission church, Hea, erected in 1892, is a plain building of stone, consisting of nave and chancel, and affords 300 sittings. There are five Wesleyan chapels, situated respectively at Church Town, Hea Moor, Tregavarah, Boswarthen and Bosullow; a Bible Christian chapel at Hea Moor and one for Primitive Methodists at Church Town. A Cemetery of three-quarters of an acre was formed in 1880, at a cost of £500, and is under the control of a burial board of nine members. The Penzance Union Workhouse is in this parish. St. Madron’s Well, situated in a moor, about a mile north-west of the church, was once noted for its healing properties: about 200 yards from it, in a secluded spot, are the ruins of an ancient chapel, or baptistry, with the sanctuary step, well basin and granite altar still remaining; portions of the wall inclosing a chapel yard are also still standing. Tregwainton Cairn consists of the round head of a cross, fixed in a rude circular base: at Trembath is a cross with mutilated head in a similar base, in the church tower another: the head of a third is built into a wall at Hea: at Boswarthen there remains a fourth, also on a circular base, with a graceful Maltese cross in relief on the head; the remains of others are standing at Boscathnoe and Tremethick. Lanyon Quoit, or Cromlech, consists of three upright stones, 5 feet high, supporting a huge monolith 18½ feet long and 9 wide and of an average thickness of 18 inches; Mulfra Cromlech he been overthrown, and the top stone, a circular monolith, 4 feet 10 inches in diameter and 5 inches thick, is now partially on the ground. “Men-an-Tol,” or Hole stone, on Anguidal Down, is a monolith about 4 feet in diameter and 1 foot thick, pierced by a rounded hole about 1 foot across: parallel to it, at a distance of 7 or 8 feet, are two other stones, from 4 to 5 feet high: the Men Scryfa is an inscribed stone 9 feet high and about 2 wide; it is stated by Dr. Borlase to be one of the oldest Cornish remains; the inscription reads, “Rialobranus Cunovali filius.” The Rev. John Wesley preached here at intervals from 1742 to 1760. Castle Horneck, the seat of the Misses Borlase, is one mile west from Penzance; Poltair is the residence of Lieut.-Col. Otho Glyn Bolitho; Nancealverne, of Mrs. Armstrong; Trereiffe, of Mrs. Downing; Trewidden, of Thomas Bedford Bolitho esq. M.P., D.L., J.P.; and Trengwainton, of the Misses Bolitho. Charles Day Nicholls Le Grice esq. D.L., J.P. is lord of the manor. Lord St. Levan, Mrs. Scobell, Edward Bolitho esq. J.P. John Borlase esq. and Thomas Robins Bolitho esq. D.L., J.P. of Penalverne, Penzance, are the chief landowners. The soil is killas, or clayey-slate; the subsoil is granite and killas. The chief crops are wheat, oats and barley, and large quantities of broccoli and potatoes are grown. The acreage, exclusive of Penzance, is 5,475 of land and 30 of water; rateable value, £15,833; the population in 1891 was 2,810, likewise exclusive of Penzance, and including officers and inmates in Penzance workhouse. The hamlets, with the distance from Madron, are Hea Moor, three-quarters of a mile south-east; Jamaica three-quarters of a mile south-east; Boswarthen, 1 mile north-west; Tolcarne, 2½ miles south; Bossullow, 3 miles north-west; Ninnis, 2 miles north; Burryas, 2½ miles south-south-west; Mulfra, 2 miles north.

Parish Clerk, William Henry Walters.

Post Office.—John Rowe, sub-postmaster. Letters through Penzance (which is the nearest telegraph office), arrive at 11.30 a.m. 3.30 & 7 p.m.; dispatched at 9.30 a.m. 3.30 & 7 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Hea Moor

Post & M.O.O. [Money Order Office], S.B. [Savings Bank] & Insurance & Annuity Office, Hea Moor (Railway Sub-Office. Letters should have R.S.O. Cornwall added).—John Richards, postmaster. Letters arrive at 9.25 a.m. & 5.30 p.m.; dispatched at 10 a.m. 4.5 & 7.10 p.m. Penzance is the nearest telegraph office

Post Office, Buryas Bridge (Railway Sub-Office. Letters should have R.S.O. Cornwall added).—Miss. Esther Rowe, postmistress. Letters arrive at 8.20 a.m. & 5 p.m.; dispatched at 9 a.m. 4 p.m. Newlyn is the nearest telegraph office. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid

Wall Letter Box, Trengwainton, cleared at 9.30 a.m. 3.30 & 7 p.m

Local Board

Board day, fourth monday in each month, at the Board room, Church town, Madron.

Clerk, W. A. Taylor, Church town

Treasurer, Thomas R. Bolitho, Penzance

Medical Officer of Health, John Quiller Couch, Chapel street, Penzance

Surveyor, Inspector of Nuisances & Collector, William H. Nicholls, Church town

Public Officers:—

Assistant Overseer, Wm. Thomas White, jun. Hea villas

Inspector of Nuisances to Penzance Rural Sanitary Authority, Josephus Nicholas

Relieving Officer, Western district, Penzance union, Richard White Tregoning

Surveyor of Highways, W. F. Nicholls, Church town

Schools:—

A School Board of 5 members was formed June 20, 1879; William Thomas White, jun. Hea villas, clerk to the board & attendance officer

The Endowed School is governed by a special board of 11 members Daniel’s Endowed Church of England Elementary (boys, girls & Infants), for 220 children; average attendance, 54 boys, 50 girls & 50 infants; established on the former Endowed School, founded by George Daniel in 1704; yearly income from endowment, £98; William Henry Walters, master; Miss Harriet Connolly, mistress; Miss Matilda Stevens, infants’ mistress

Board, Bosullow (mixed), built in 1880, for 36 children; average attendance, 20; Miss Rebecca Vingoe, mistress

Board, Hea Moor (mixed), built in 1887, for 140 children; average attendance, 120; Miss Wilmot Noy, mistress