The parish of Mawgan Meneage is situated in
the deanery and hundred of Kerrier. It is bounded to the north by the parish
of Wendron, and the Helford Estuary, which separates it from Constantine.
To the east lies St. Martin,
to the south is Cury, and to
the west is Gunwalloe.
The parish contains 5,273 acres.
The church is dedicated to S. Mauganus. It comprises a chancel, nave, north
aisle, north transeptal recess, south transept, and vestry. The chancel
window displays the arms of Trevelyan, Reskymer, and others. The arcade
consists of seven four centred arches, with monolith pillars, the material
is porcelain stone, probably from the neighbouring parish of Germoe. The
woodwork of the roof of the north aisle is richly carved and in good preservation.
Attached to tho west end of this aisle is the Trelowarren mausoleum.
About a quarter of a mile from the church, on the Helston road, stands what
is generally called the Mawgan Cross, which however, is simply an inscribed
stone, and bears no resemblance to the figure from which it is denominated.
The insciption is preserved in two or three publications. |
|
Churchtown is the chief village in the parish. Near it was a chapel for
the Wesleyan Methodists and there were also chapels for the United Methodist
free church at Garras and Bowgyhere.
Photo Courtesy of Ron
Williams - click photo for more
Mawgan Church |
Photo Courtesy of Ron
Williams - click photo for more
Trelowarren House |
More about Mawgan in Meneage: - Is so called
for distinction from Mawgan in Pydar, is bounded northward by the River Helford.
Three noble Cornish families, the Roskymers, Carminowes, and Vyvyans, were once
settled in this parish. The latter only remain (1894). Their seat is a fine
old castellated building with a chapel, called Trelowarren. The family of Vyvyan
dates from the time of Edward VI. In the civil wars they attached themselves
with the most devoted loyalty to the royal cause, and suffered severely from
the Parliamentary forces. In testimony to the eminent services of Sir Rd. Vyvyan,
then the head of the family, there hangs in there house a large painting, by
Vandyke, of King Charles I on horseback, presented to the family by Charles
II.
Another Sir Richard Vyvyan , a lineal descendent of this brave old cavalier,
was imprisoned in the tower by George I, on suspicion of being concerned in
favouring the design of the Pretender.
Still another Sir Richard Vyvyan died at Trelowarren on August 15th, 1879. He
was a Tory of the old school, and represented Bristol in Parliament after the
passage of the Reform Bill in 1832 until the dissolution of 1837. In 1841 he
was returned as Member for Helston, which borough he continued to represent
up to 1857, when he finally retired from public life.
At Mawgan Cross, in this parish, is a very oldstone, with an inscription in
Cornish, which has been thus interpreted "What lieth here is not the soul."
The Rectory of Mawgan forms one benefice with St. Martin's.
In the church is a stone effigy of a recumbent crusader, one of the Carminowes,
and in the north isle are hung the helmet and sword used by Sir R. Vyvyan in
the Civil Wars.
At Gear, Gweek Wood and Carvallock, are remains of extensive earthworks. On
Goonhilly Downs, which extends into this parish , are many barrows, in which
have been found coins and weapons of war. A "fogou" or cave exists
at Trelowarren near the entrance to an ancient entrenchment, the remains of
which can still be traced.
This parish was well wooded, and the walks and drives along and about the Helford
River are scarely to be equalled for variety and picturesque beauty in the county.
Numerous Roman coins have from time to time been found in this parish.
Cornwall Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project
I myself (Roger Shirley) am the OPC for this parish. Currently I only
have on the site the records that have links in the left frame. I do have
most copies of most of the parish registers, so please do contct me if you
need any assistance and I will help as much as I can.
Parish Records:
Baptisms: - Can be looked up
on the LDS website using the IGI Index by entering surname, changing region to "British
Isles", and then entering one of the following, in the batch number box.
C053571 or C053572 or C020931 and press enter. These index entries are actual
extractions from the Parish Records. Am now gradually transcribing the baptisms,
follow the links in the left panel.
Marriages: - Phillimore's Marriage
Transcripts are available on CD from Archive
CD Books and United
Kingdom Genealogy. This covers the period from 1563 up to 1812.
Transcriptions on this site -- 1563 to 1850 (Use links in panel
to left)
Phillimore's
Transcripts 1563 to 1812 - hosted by United Kingdom Genealogy
Burials: - At this time there
is no access to these records, so they are gradually being transcibed and
placed on this website. Follow the links to the left for what is presently
available.
Other Information: - Please
follow this link
to see where Parish Registers are available for viewing and where, plus what
is for sale.
BDM Certificates:
Civil Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages began in England from
July of 1837. Copies of certificates can be obtained from two sources, the
central archive maintained by the General
Register Office (GRO) or the local District
Registration Office which is Kerrier
for Mawgan. The information required to obtain a copy of a certificate is
different for both Offices and is explained in more detail here.
Also visit Mark
Howells website for more information on ordering certificates and check
Barbara
Dixon's Tutorials for details on what information appears on birth,
death
and marriage
certificates.
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 Mawgan. 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" (Not currently available)
and a visit to the respective websites will give details on how to go about
obtaining these indexes.
Also the 1871 census is online at Kindred Konnections
One can use the search engine on the main page or click on "UK Genealogy"
under Extracted Vital Records in the panel on the upper left side of the main
page.
Links to other Records and Information:
An excellent Search Engine
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