Mullion Parish, Cornwall - Genealogy & History

The rocky coast of Mullion extends from Gunwalloe to Landewednack. Before the lighthouse on the Wolf Rock was erected, in 1871, this coast was the scene of many shipwrecks. In 1873 the Vicar wrote, "In six years and a quarter there have been nine wrecks, with a loss of 69 lives, under Mullion Cliffs, on a bit of coast line not more than a mile and a half in length." The frequency of these occurrences added not a little to the smuggling that was formerly carried on to a great extent on every part of the western coast of Cornwall.
The serpentine caverns here are notable. Dean Alford writes of the cove, "It is vast in extent and unites in itself almost all the characteristics of Cornish coast scenery." It was here that the "Nautilus," a small American boat, landed in 1878, having made the passage from Boston in 45 days. Immediately opposite the cove lies Mullion Island.
At Claher Garden in this parish are remains of an ancient British chapel, as also at Pradanack, where the interesting stone cross which marked the place for a preaching station still stands.
The parish church (restored in 1870), contains some admirably carved benches of 15th century date in good preservation, together with some few remains of a much earlier date. Beyond, several tumuli and the remains of two British villages, one at Penhale and the other at Kynance, were discovered in 1877 by Corporal Norgate of the Ordnance Survey.
About midway between Mullion Cove and Kynance is Gue Graze or the Soapy Cove, the cliffs of which were worked at the end of last century [1800] for steatite or soap rock (a stone of a soft unctuous touch) by Messrs. Chaffers and Thomloe of Worcestor, abd used for making porcelain.
The beautiful little bay called Kynancw Cove is in this parish. It has been called "a palace of rocks," and is well known to every tourist. Here are the curious rocks known as "the Bellows" and "the Post-office," as interesting to the geologist as they are wonderful and fairy-like to the child visitor.
Native copper occurs disseminated in the serpentine in this parish, a large mass of which, from Wheal Trenance, may be seen at the museum of Protical Geology in London.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project

Pat Banks is the OPC for this parish. If you need any assistance with your research for this area please do contact Pat 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 Mullion. 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 Mullion Parish:
Cornish Surname Index - by Place. hosted by Jon Rees - A list of Researchers with Mullion Families. (scroll down)
Photos of Mullion Church - from Truscott Family webpages
Wills & Admons for Mullion, Cornwall 1660 - 1773 - can be found on Kathy Weigel's website

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.