Pelynt is a civil parish and village in
CornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is situated 20 miles (32 km) west of
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
and four miles (6.5 km) west-northwest of
LooeLooe is a small coastal town, fishing port and civil parish in the former Caradon district of south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 . Looe is divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe and West Looe being connected by a bridge...
. Pelynt has a population of around 1,124 (2001
censusA census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
).
The
parishA parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Pelynt is mentioned in the
Domesday BookDomesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
when it was valued higher than Looe. The name derives from
CornishCornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
plu (parish) and the name of
Saint NonNon was, according to Christian tradition, the mother of Saint David , the patron saint of Wales.-Legend:...
, the mother of St David.
The
parish churchA parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
is dedicated to St Nonna and built in the Perpendicular style. In about 1680, one of the arcades was remodelled in Tuscan Doric style. The tower is of the 14th century, earlier than the rest of the church. There are a number of interesting memorials including that to Bishop Jonathan Trelawny, whose pastoral staff is preserved in the church. Other notable members of the locally resident Trelawny family are also commemorated.
The village has a school, founded in 1882, and a 16th-century
innInterNetNews is a Usenet news server package, originally released by Rich Salz in 1991, and presented at the Summer 1992 USENIX conference in San Antonio, Texas...
,
The Jubilee. There is an ancient
barrowA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
cemetery nearby: ten barrows still exist and others have been destroyed. The
Rillaton CupRillaton barrow is a Bronze Age round barrow in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The site is on the eastern flank of Bodmin Moor in the parish of Linkinhorne approximately four miles north of Liskeard....
and the Pelynt Dagger are two artifacts that have been found in Cornwall that show contact with the
Mycenaean GreekMycenaean Greece was a cultural period of Bronze Age Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in northeastern Argolis, in the Peloponnese of southern Greece. Athens, Pylos, Thebes, and Tiryns are also important Mycenaean sites...
world.
The first mention of a
post officeA post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
in Pelynt was in May 1852, when a type of
postmarkthumb|USS TexasA postmark is a postal marking made on a letter, package, postcard or the like indicating the date and time that the item was delivered into the care of the postal service...
known as an undated circle was issued. Details of some of the people who have run the post office, including William Churchill (1856), Harriet Andrews (1910) and Samuel Harvey (from 1929) appeared in a book published in 1988.
Notable residents
- Geoffrey Grigson
Geoffrey Edward Harvey Grigson was a British writer. He was born in Pelynt, a village near Looe in Cornwall.-Life:...
, poet and author of Freedom of the Parish. London: Phoenix House (1954)
External links