Treknow is a small village in Tintagel

Tintagel

Tintagel is a civil parish and village situated on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The population of the parish is 1,820 people, and the area of the parish is ....

 civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall 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...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The 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 the second largest settlement, and is located between Trevena and Trebarwith.

It is situated 19 miles (30.6 km) north of Bodmin

Bodmin

Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...

, 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Camelford

Camelford

Camelford is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles north of Bodmin and is governed by Camelford Town Council....

, and 1 miles (1.6 km) west of Tintagel,
Treknow is mentioned as a manor (under the name of 'Tretdeno') in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday 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...

. Slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 was quarried here from approx 1305 to shortly before the Second World War: many of the quarries were on the coast and later others were opened in the Trebarwith valley to the south. One of the oldest is Lanterdan, recorded in 1493: Bagalow Quarry near Hole beach was an enterprise of Edgar Jeffray (early 19th century). A small copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 mine also operated in the latter years of the 18th century. The acidic local soil was manured with beach sand from nearby Trebarwith Strand

Trebarwith Strand

Trebarwith Strand , is a coastal settlement and section of coastline located on the north coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, 2½ miles south of Tintagel...

: the trade in sand led to road improvements in the early 19th century (the Trebarwith Strand to Condolden "Sanding Road").

Some buildings in the village display a marked Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 influence, probably as a result of the work of architect Detmar Blow

Detmar Blow

Detmar Jellings Blow was a British architect of the early 20th century, who designed principally in the arts and crafts style. His clients belonged chiefly to the British aristocracy, and later he became estates manager to the Duke of Westminster...

 who is known to have worked on the Old Post Office

Tintagel Old Post Office

Tintagel Old Post Office is a 14th-century stone house, built to the plan of a medieval manor house, situated in Tintagel, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The house, and its surrounding cottage garden, are in the ownership of the National Trust....

in Tintagel for four years from 1896.

Treknow has a village hall, a former small Chapel of the Holy Family (built in 1929)(now redeveloped for private use) and two small hotels.

Sources and bibliography

• Canner, A. C. (1982) The Parish of Tintagel. Camelford: A. C. Canner
• Dyer, Peter (2005) Tintagel: a portrait of a parish. Cambridge: Cambridge Books. ISBN 0 9550097 0 7