In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described St Keverne like this:
KEVERNE (ST.), a village, a parish, and a sub-district in Helston district, Cornwall. The village stands on the coast, opposite the Manacles rocks, 8 miles S by W of Falmouth r. station; and has a post office under Helston, Cornwall, and fairs on 10 Jan., 6 March, 20 June, and 3 Oct. The parish contains also the seaport villages of Coverack, Porthonstock, and Porthalla or Pralla. ...
Acres, 10, 173; of which 15 are water. Real property, £10, 686. Pop. in 1851, 2, 239; in 1861, 1,892. Houses, 449. The decrease of pop. arose partly from emigration, partly from removal to the mining regions. The property is much subdivided. Lannarth belongs to the Sandys family; one of whom, with seven men, in 1702, in an open boat, was driven by a storm to the Normandy coast, and was sent home by Louis XIV. Ireland was the seat of the Hyames family. The rocks include hornblende, diallage, felspar, shale, soapstone, serpentine, and magnesian limestone; and possess much interest for geologists and mineralogists. Search for ore has frequently been made, but without success. A legend prevails than St. Keverne, the patron saint, put a ban on the parish for his having been disrespectfully treated; and that, in consequence, "no metal will run within the sound of St. Keverne's bells." But a belt of land between the village and Coverack is so remarkably fertile as to have been called the garden of Cornwall, and appears to owe its richness to the mingled disintegration of hornblende, diallage, and felspar. The ship Despatch was lost, in 1809, off Coverack; and the emigrant ship John was wrecked, in 1855, at the Manacles, with the loss of 191 lives. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £383.* Patron, M. J. Sutton, Esq. The church belonged to Beaulieu abbey; was struck with lightning in 1770; is now in very good condition; has a tower and spire; and contains several interesting monuments. There are chapels for Baptists, Wesleyans, and Bryanites, an endowed school, and charities, £33. Incledon, the singer, was a native.—The sub-district contains also eight other parishes. Acres, 28, 119. Pop., 4, 904. Houses, 1, 078.
St Keverne through time
St Keverne is now part of Kerrier district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kerrier has changed over two centuries. For statistics about St Keverne itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of St Keverne, in Kerrier and Cornwall | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2225
Date accessed: 14th May 2024
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