Sithney, Cornwall

Historical Description

Sithney, a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands 2 miles NW of Helston, and 2 from Nancegollan station on the G.W.R. The parish includes Porthleven chapelry, and is all within the Truro Helston parliamentary division. Post town, Helston. Acreage, 5826; population, of the civil parish, 3290; of the ecclesiastical, 1294. Penrose in Porthleven district, Truthal, Antron, Trevarno, and Newham are the chief residences. A preceptory of Knights Hospitallers of St John stood near Helston. Tin, copper, and lead ore were formerly mined. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Truro; net value, £250 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Truro. The church is ancient but good. The vicarage of Porthleven is now a separate benefice. There are two Wesleyan and three other chapels and a church mission-room. The Loe, the largest lake in Cornwall, a piece of fresh water fed by streams and noted for its trout, divides Sithney from Wendron and Gunwalloe; it was evidently at one time an estuary, but is now separated from the sea by a bar of shingle; the surplus water flows into the sea through a very ancient adit or tunnel in the rocks, made before gunpowder was used for blasting. The lake extends from the sea in three creeks towards Carminow, Penrose, and Helston respectively. An ancient logan stone, Men Amber, near Nancegollan railway station, was overthrown by one of Cromwell's officers.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The register of baptisms dates from the year 1667; marriages and burials, 1664.

Churches

Church of England

St. Sithney (parish church)

The church of St. Sithney is a building of granite, in the Pointed style, consisting of chancel with aisles, nave of four bays, aisles, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 3 bells, all cast in 1771: the porch retains a stoup: there are mural monuments to Richard Hoblyn esq. and Anne (Carew), his wife, both of whom died in February, 1692; and John Arundel, 1611; some fragments remain of a brass to Roger Trewythynnyk, one of the King's justices, c. 1410; the arms of the Penrose family are inserted in a window on the south side: there are 320 sittings: in the churchyard is a memorial to Edward Coode, of Treesa, gent. 1662, and one to John Oliver, of Trevarno, 1741.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Sithney from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Sithney (St. Sithney))

Maps

Online maps of Sithney 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.