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Gwennap |
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Gwennap |
What is a Parish?
A parish consists of an area of land under the Church of England's establishment and it only ever has one parish church. In Gwennap's case this is St Wennapa’s Parish Church in Gwennap Churchtown. Each parish had a church situated in a 'Churchtown', which is sometimes no more than a farm and a pub. The whole parish is named for that church town and historically some grew into villages and market towns; in others the town grew some distance away, leaving the church in splendid isolation. Later there were also to be “Daughter” & “Mission” churches, or “Chapels of Ease”, created to enable congregations in large parishes to attend a regular service when the distances were great and travel difficult. Curates were usually employed by the Vicar or Rector of a parish to perform the services at these minor places of worship.
Chapel of Ease St Day
A grand “Chapel of Ease” was built at St Day village in 1830. It was created to accommodate the fast growing population of the once tiny villages of St Day & Carharrack during the great mining boom. Only baptisms could take place here as well as the occasional church service on "Feast Days”. In 1835 St Day was made a parish in its own rite when as well as baptisms it could also perform the services of marriage and burial.
Chacewater
parish was created in 1828 from parts of Kenwyn & Kea. Gwennap parishioners now
living just on the boarder of the northern sector of Gwennap Parish but closer
to the new Chacewater parish then took their children there to be baptised. When
St Day “Chapel of Ease” opened for baptisms many in the same area, but
now living within the new St Day Parish, reverted to using its facilities. This
might explain the scattered locations of baptisms of children within the same
family group who had probably never moved their household at all, at least no
great distance. Lanner parish was formed c1845 from the southern part
of Gwennap to serve the village of Lanner.
Carharrack parish was created much later in 1985.
None of the records for these diverse fractions of Gwennap
parish are on the Gwennap OPC website as, strictly speaking, they are not of our
parish. People living in these villages prior to their creation as a
separate parish are included in the Gwennap records of that date. We have few church records after 1837 when civil records began. As far as I know Gwennap
records after this date have never been filmed so it would mean transcribing
from the original parish books lodged at Cornwall Records Office at Truro.
This is beyond our capabilities at present. However, some of St Day and
Lanner records have recently been transcribed onto the OPC central data base.
Gwennap
parish originally covered a very large and widespread area that was sparsely
populated. It only had the one parish church in Gwennap Churchtown. As the
mining villages grew larger many of its residents were drawn to the new
non-conformist faiths and worshipped at the various chapels that had recently
been built in the district. They did not think it strange to attend both
these and a church service on Sunday. Some even had their children christened by
the local preacher; a few also made the decision to have them baptised in their
local parish church.
Before 1837 many residents of Gwennap although attracted to the Wesleyan
movement in all its diverse sects still relied on the local Church of
England establishment to provide all alms and assistance when in financial need.
This was perhaps why some less affluent non-conformists had their
children baptised in both church & chapel to ensure they were eligible for
'parish relief’ should they fall on hard times. It was NOT permitted by law
get married elsewhere and burials ALL took place within the sanctified ground of
the parish churchyard walls.
The exceptions were murderers and suicides who were buried in un-consecrated ground, usually at crossroads.
When Civil Registration began in 1837 some non-conformist chapels were
licensed to perform marriages and a few were licensed to perform burials. Church
officials began to feel that if a family were of non-conformist calling they
supported their own religious establishment and so it should take care of them
when in need. Churchmen began to refuse burial rights within the parish
churchyard for those not baptised into the local congregation of the Church of
England. Few chapels had a licensed a burial ground so families were
forced to bury bodies in un-licensed and un-consecrated land. This caused such
uproar and the inevitable risk to public health soon resulted in a
law establishing civil cemeteries. These were to be run and administered by
the new local civil authorities. St Day Road Cemetery is he nearest such cemetery
to the mining villages of Gwennap and it is situated on the northern
outskirts of Redruth Town. This is still in use and the Local Authority is
Kerrier District Council. Gwennap Parish churchyard is now closed for burials
and its regular maintenance is also the responsibility of Kerrier District
Council.
After 1837
finding where ancestors were buried gets more difficult as a Death Certificate
does NOT give details of burial place.
To learn
more about Gwennap Parish and various links to other records see Genuki Parish
pages at:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/Gwennap/index.html
To obtain burial records for the Municipal Cemetery at St Day Road contact:
https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/advice-and-benefits/deaths-funerals-and-cremations/cornwall-council-cemeteries/
Burials at Gwennap Parish church prior to 1837 are transcribed on this site.
For more details on the above see "The Old Parish Of Gwennap" on this site at
http://gwennap-opc.com/The%20Old%20Parish.htm
