Landewednack Parish, Cornwall - Genealogy & History

Is the most southerly parish in Great Britain. It is washed on three sides by the sea, and adjoins Mullion, Ruan Minor and Grade.
The vicar of Landewednack is said to have been the last parson in Cornwall who preached his sermons in the Cornish language. The church possesses a Norman doorway. Inside is a very old Norman font, which has been placed on serpentine colums.
The southern extremity of this parish forms the famous promontory called the Lizard Point. A double Lighthouse stands on the extreme point, and serves to distinguish this beacon from the single light at Scilly, and the three lights at Guernsey Point. Formerly fires of wood were kept up on this point to warn mariners off the shore, then for many years coal fires were used, and the flames kept bright with large bellows. Next lamps fed with oil were resorted to, twenty seven in each tower. For some years past siemens electric lights have shed there rays across the sea to a distance of 40 miles. A steam fog signal is also placed here, which was sometimes required to be kept in operation for a week. Not far from the Lighthouse was the Lizard Signal Station, erected by Messrs. Fox of Falmouth for the purpose of signalling homeward and outward bound vessels. Off the coast are the dangerous low rocks called "The Stags."

Cornwall Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project

Margaret Bauer is the OPC for this parish. If you need any assistance with your research for this area please do contact Margaret who will assist in any way that she can.

Census records:

Another large volunteer project is the "FreeCen" project. The goal of this project is to publish online for free access, transcripts of all the English Census Records. The Cornwall section of this country wide project is well advanced and the links to the left lead to current records available online for Landewednack. Also making good progress is a project by "Archive CD Books" to digitise actual images of the various Census Records by agreement with "The National Archives" (formerly, The Public Record Office). Do visit there website for details on purchasing the CD's of the census records. Also available to make the searching of census records easier are indexes put out by the "New Zealand Society of Genealogists" (1851 index) and the "Cornwall Family History Society" and a visit to the respective websites will give details on how to go about obtaining these indexes.

The 1871 census is also online at Kindred Konnections One can use the search engine on the main page or click on "searches" under free guest services to the left and then click on "Cornwall Census" in the centre panel

Parish Registers

At this time, none of the parish registers have been transcribed. There are other sources where microfiche copies of orginial registers can be obtained from, or where transcripts of the registers can be purchased on CD. Use the link to the left to visit the information page, where details can be found on what is available, online, from the LDS Family History Centres, from the Cornwall County Archives, and from other sources.

Links (Off Site)

The following are links to other resources for the Landewednack Parish:
Cornish Surname Index - by Place. hosted by Jon Rees - A list of Researchers with Landewednack Families. (scroll down)
Photos of Landewednack Church - from Truscott Family webpages

Can You Help?

I am continually searching for more information to add to this section about Landewednack and other Meneage Area (The Lizard) Parishes. If you have any records, especially extracts of the Parish Registers or Trade Directories or any other records relating to Landewednack or articles about the history of the district or even old photographs, then I would very much appreciate receiving a copy to add to this website. Or if you can help with the transcribing of records, then please do contact one of the OPC's covering the parish of your interest or contact myself for information.