St Austell Cornwall Family History Guide

St Austell is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Cornwall.

Other places in the parish include: Petewan, Tregangeeves, Trethurgy, and Pentewan.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1564
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1611

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Bible Christian Methodist, Christians, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, Society of Friends/Quaker, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

AUSTELL (St.), a market-town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Cornwall. The town stands adjacent to the Cornwall railway, 1¾ mile NW of a bay of its own name, and 39¼ W by S of Plymouth. Its site is the side of a hill, which descends to a narrow vale watered by a rivulet. The original town, or rather village, stood a short distance to the E, and is still represented by a few cottages. The present town dates from about the time of Henry VIII.; was taken by Charles I., in 1644, from the parliamentarian forces; and has risen to importance in connexion with neighbouring tin-mines, and as a centre of great mineral traffic. It has narrow streets, and a somewhat gloomy aspect, yet shows interesting features, and is skirted with pleasant villas. The market house and the town hall are large granite buildings. The Devon and Cornwall bank is a tasteful edifice of granite and marble. The parish church is a spacious ancient structure, of nave, chancel, and aisles, with a remarkably fine tower, and many curious sculptures; the chancel early English, the nave and the tower perpendicular. A communion cup used in the church is very ancient; was found by tinners, in 1774, about 17 feet below the surface of the ground, in the neighbourhood of the town; and contained several costly personal ornaments of silver and gold, and a large collection of curious Saxon coins. The town has a station on the railway, a head post office, four banking offices, three chief inns, seven dissenting chapels, an alms-house, a workhouse, and several blowing-houses, not now worked, for grain tin; and it is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place. A weekly market is held on Friday; and fairs, on the Thursday before Easter, Whit-Thursday, the Friday after 23 July, 16 Oct., and 30 Nov. A small manufactory of serges is carried on; a fishery for pilchards, in St. Austell bay, is extensive; and the mineral traffic embraces a large tract of surrounding country, and includes tin, copper, nickel, porcelain clay, china-stone, porphyry granite, and Pentuan stone. The principal mines are Polgooth, Carclaze, Crinnis, Pembroke, Lanescot, and Pentuan. Harbours exist at Pentuan and Charlestown; and railways go down to them from the town. The name St. Austell is of uncertain origin, but most probably is a corruption of St. Auxilins. Pop., 3,825. Houses, 777.

The parish comprises 12,125 acres. Real property £37,325; of which £14,010 are in mines, and £2,157 in quarries. Pop. in 1841, 10,320; in 1861, 11,893. Houses, 2,369. The property is subdivided. St. Austell bay is 4 miles wide and 5 miles long; and forks in the N into the bay of St. Blazey. Hensbarrow hill, about 2½ miles N of the town, is one of the loftiest heights in Cornwall. The general surface of the parish, together with that of adjacent tracts, is bleak and desolate, and acquires increase to its ruefulness from the appearance of the mines and miners. The quarries in Pentuan vale supply a famous building-stone, which has been used in the construction of many churches and mansions. One of the best tin-stream works, not far from the quarries, has thrown out fossil bones of men, of a whale, of enormous oxen, and of extinct species of animals. An ancient holy well, with remains of a small chapel or baptistry, occurs in a pretty spot, beside a cataract, at Menacuddle hill, on the grounds of Mr. Martin. Penrice, 1½ mile S of the town, on the road to Pentuan, is the seat of Sir B. G. Sawle, Bart. Polruddon and Treverbyn were ancient residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £537. Patron, the Crown. The vicarages of Charlestown and Treverbyn are separate charges.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Parish Registers

Marriages Out of Parish

Details	Place of Marriage
Richard Estybrook, of St. Austell, & Elizabeth Taylor 2 Feb. 1767	Lanteglos by Camelford
James Bray, of St. Austell, & Philippa Brown 16 Oct. 1797	Lanteglos by Camelford
Joseph Barber, of St. Austell, & Mary Mann, sojourner 27 May 1805	Lanteglos by Camelford