Probus, Cornwall
Historical Description
Probus, a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands from 200 to 250 feet above sea-level, 2½ miles SSW of Grampound Road station on the G.W.R., and 5½ NE of Truro; is an ancient place; was once a market-town; and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish contains also part of Grampound, and comprises 8096 acres; population of the civil parish, 1225; of the ecclesiastical, 1301. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. There was at one time a college of priests, a dean, and several canons. Trewithen and Trehane are the chief residences. Golden was forfeited in the time of Queen Elizabeth by Tregian. A Roman camp of 7 acres is near Carvoza. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Truro; net value, £390 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Truro. The church is Perpendicular, all of wrought granite, covered with sculptures; has a very fine tower, somewhat similar to that of Magdalen College, Oxford, and 125 feet high; has been partly rebuilt and thoroughly restored; contains monuments of the Hawkinses and others, and is considered one of the finest churches in Cornwall. There are Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels, and some large charities.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Cornwall | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Probus St. Probus | |
Hundred | Powder | |
Poor Law union | Truro |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Probus 1641-1812, Cornwall is available to browse online.
The register dates from the year 1644.
Churches
Church of England
SS. Probus and Grace (parish church)
The church of SS. Probus and Grace, made collegiate by King Athelstan A.D. 926, for a dean and four prebendaries, but dissolved as a college in 1547 by Edw. VI. is an edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, with north chapel, and on the south side a new vestry and organ chamber, nave of five bays, aisles, north and south porches and a tower containing a clock and 6 bells: the tower, regarded by some as the finest in Cornwall, is constructed of St. Stephen's granite and 105 feet 6 inches high to the battlements: the angles are supported by double buttresses, embellished with embrasures, and above these rise eight crocketed pinnacles, those at the angles being 13 feet in height, with lesser intermediate pinnacles; the plinth, cornices and upper storey are ornamented with small figures, foliage, fleurs-de-lis, animals and other carvings: the belfry has two traceried windows on each face, and single windows in the stage below, and on the north and south sides are canopied recesses for figures: an ancient oak screen divides the tower from the nave: in the Golden aisle is a brass with effigies to John Wulvedon, ob. 6th November, 1514, and Cecilia, his wife, ob. 20th April, 1512, and on the floor is a stone inscribed to the Rev. William Cornish, 1789, and Jane, his wife, first cousin and heiress of John Kelly esq. of Exeter and Washbourne, in the county of Devon, 1773: in the chancel is a monument to Thomas Hawkins esq. J.P., M.P. who died in 1766; there are also various modern monuments: the chancel screen, of elaborately carved oak, was erected in 1897 at a cost of £100, from designs by Mr. J. P. St. Aubyn, architect, of London: the lower part is formed of portions of the ancient screen and bench ends, with the date 1691, and bears an inscription as follows:-"Jesus, hear us, thy people, and send us grace and good for ever": there are eight stained windows, chiefly memorials, including the east window, erected by the Rev. Prebendary Barnes, in memory of his parents, and the west window, erected in 1851 by the clergy of the neighbourhood, in memory of the Rev. Robert Lampen; in 1893 a memorial window was placed in the Golden aisle to William Trethewy esq. of Tregoose, by the tenantry on the Trewithen estates: the font is a memorial to Sarah, wife of the Rev. William Stackhouse, ob. March 7th, 1845, and the pulpit of Caen stone to William and Mary Stackhouse, ob. 1830 and 1806: the rood stairs, open and in good condition, remain in the north wall, and in a reliquary in the north wall of the chancel are preserved two skulls, discovered under the altar during the restoration in 1851, and supposed to be those of the patron saints of the church: a new organ was provided in July, 1884, at a cost of £500, and reconstructed in 1904, and in 1886 a reredos with a representation of the Crucifixion in opus sectile, the gift of Mrs. Barnes, was erected and the roof of the chancel decorated, from designs by Mr. J. P. St. Aubyn, architect, of London, as a memorial to the Rev. Prebendary R. W. Barnes M.A., late vicar 1849-85; in 1851 the church was partly rebuilt and thoroughly restored, under the direction of the late G. E. Street R.A. architect, at a cost of £1,500; in 1888 the roof of the north aisle and chancel were again restored, and the nave, south aisle and porch re-roofed in 1893 at a cost of £250; in 1904 a memorial chapel was added on the north side of the chancel at the cost of Mrs. Hawkins, of 10 Portland Place, London W. as a memorial to her husband, C. H. T. Hawkins esq. of Trewithen, and the east window of the chapel is a memorial to Sir Christopher Hawkins bart. d. 6 Ap. 1829; John Hawkins esq, of Bignor Park, Sussex, d. 1841, and Christopher H. T. Hawkins esq. d. 1903; in the chapel is also a bronze tablet erected by the same lady to the late W. John Heywood Johnstone esq. M.P. also of Trewithen and of Bignor Park, Sussex. There are 500 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Probus from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Probus (St. Probus))
Maps
Online maps of Probus are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cornwall papers online:
- Royal Cornwall Gazette
- Cornishman
- West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser
- Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser
Visitations Heraldic
We have a copy of The Visitations of Cornwall, by Lieut.-Col. J.L. Vivian online.