St Mewan

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Coordinates: 50°19′52″N 4°48′54″W / 50.331°N 4.815°W / 50.331; -4.815
St Mewan
Cornish: Sen Mewen
St Mewan

 St Mewan shown within Cornwall
Population 3,071 (Civil Parish, 2001)
OS grid reference SW998517
Civil parish St Mewan
Unitary authority Cornwall
Ceremonial county Cornwall
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ST. AUSTELL
Postcode district PL26
Dialling code 01726
Police Devon and Cornwall
Fire Cornwall
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament St Austell and Newquay
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
Converted Methodist chapel at Trelowth

St Mewan (Cornish: Sen Mewen) is a civil parish and village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

The village is approximately one mile (1.6 km) west of St Austell.[1] It is a small settlement, comprising the parish church, rectory, a school and nearby farms. St Mewan parish includes the villages of Sticker, Trelowth, Trewoon, and most of Polgooth.[2]

Parish church

The church is dedicated to Saint Mewan, a sixth-century Celtic saint who was born in Wales, visited Cornwall, and is mostly venerated in Brittany. The current building dates from the 13th century and is mentioned in a bishops' inquisition of 1294 as the 'Ecclesia de St Mewany'.[3] It was, however, substantially rebuilt in 1854 by George Edmund Street[4] and enlarged in 1890.[5] The church tower is of only two stages and is built of granite blocks. Local legend suggests that the original builders were prevented from raising it higher by the devil, who threw down their stones each night.[6]

Education

St Mewan Community Primary School[7] was founded (as St Mewan Board School) in the nineteenth century, the main building being designed by Silvanus Trevail in 1874. The schoolmaster's house had previously been the St Mewan Inn.[8] The school currently has around 400 pupils.[9]

St Mewan Beacon

St Mewan Beacon

This natural landmark lies some distance from the village, to the north-west of Trewoon. It is a tor exposure of quartz-topaz-tourmaline rocks that has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological characteristics.[10] St Mewan Beacon was studied by Cornish mining engineer and mineralogist Joseph Henry Collins who published an account of it in 1914.[11][12]

References

  1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 Newquay & Bodmin ISBN 978-0-319-22938-5
  2. http://www.stmewanparishcouncil.co.uk/idbuilder.nsf/ids/0004C2DA
  3. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~marcie/kernow/stmewan.html
  4. N. Pevsner, Cornwall, 2nd ed. p.191. Penguin Books (1970)
  5. http://www.caerkief.co.uk/Churches/Mewan.html
  6. W. Penaluna, An Historical survey of the County of Cornwall vol.2, p.93 (1838)
  7. ref>http://www.st-mewan.cornwall.sch.uk/
  8. http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/sts/schools.html
  9. http://www.school-index.co.uk/urn/111896.php
  10. "St Mewan Beacon". Natural England. 1993. Retrieved 11 November 2011. 
  11. J. H. Collins & F. Coon, "On the topaz rock of St Mewan Beacon, Cornwall", Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall; Vol. XV, 43-54 (1914)
  12. http://www.minersoc.org/pages/msinfo/Bristow%20Article%20on%20Collins.pdf

External links

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