Place:


St Buryan  Cornwall

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described St Buryan like this:

BURYAN (St.), a parish and a subdistrict in Penzance district, Cornwall. The parish lies 4¾ miles E by N of Lands-End, and 4¾ SW of Penzance r. station; and has a post office under Penzance. Acres, 6,964. Real property, £8,359. Pop., 1,428. Houses, 290. The property is divided among a few. ...


The surface consists largely of black granite hills. A small town, of ancient note, was here; but is now represented by only a few cottages. An oratory was founded at it, at an early period, by St. Buriena, a holy woman from Ireland. A secular college also was founded here in 909, by Athelstane; changed afterwards into an exempt deanery; and destroyed, in the time of the Commonwealth, by Shrubshall, governor of Pendennis Castle. A number of Druidical remains, including the Merry Maidens, the Boscawen-Un, and the Rosmodrevy circles, occur among the hills. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter; and till 1864 was united with Levan and Sennen. Value, £570.* Patron, the Crown. The church stands on a wild open eminence, 415 feet high; has a lofty tower, commanding a view to the Scilly Islands; is an ancient edifice, greatly altered by modern renovations; and contains a fine carved screen, and a curious coffinshaped monument with a Norman-French inscription. An ancient chapel, called the Sanctuary, stands about a mile to the SE. Attorney-general Noy, of the time of Charles I., was a native. The subdistrict contains three parishes. Acres, 11,592. Pop. 2,488. Houses, 502.

St Buryan through time

St Buryan is now part of Penwith district. Click here for graphs and data of how Penwith has changed over two centuries. For statistics about St Buryan itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of St Buryan, in Penwith and Cornwall | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5107

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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