Four Lanes ( kw, Peder Bownder) is a village in west

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, United Kingdom approximately south of

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

at in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Carn Brea. Pencoys is a smaller settlement which adjoins Four Lanes immediately to the south. St Andrew's Church was consecrated by Bishop Benson in 1881.

Geography

Four Lanes and Pencoys are on the upland plateau of the Carnmenellis granite batholith. Four Lanes village centre is 220 metres (720 feet) above sea level. The village is centred on The Square which is at a crossroads where the north-to-south B3297

Helston Helston ( kw, Hellys) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map shee ...

road is intersected by unclassified lanes to

Stithians Stithians ( kw, Stedhyans), also known as St Stythians, is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies in the middle of the triangle bounded by Redruth, Helston and Falmouth, Cornwall, ...

(south-east) and Carnkie (north-west). Post-1960s housing estates are to the south of the crossroads.

History

Four Lanes is the main settlement in the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

of Pencoys which was established in 1881. In earlier times the area was part of the parish of

Wendron Wendron ( kw, Egloswendron (village), Pluw Wendron (parish); historically St. Wendron) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, to the north of Helston. The parish population at the 2011 census was 2,743. The electora ...

and the name Pencoys means the end of the wood. Maria Charlotte Broadley, the wife of the Vicar of

Carnmenellis Carnmenellis Hill (or just Carnmenellis) gives its name to the area of west Cornwall in England, between Redruth, Helston and Penryn. The hill itself is situated approximately three miles (5 km) south of Redruth.Ordnance Survey: Landrang ...

, wished to provide a church for the outlying hamlet of Four Lanes but her husband died and she moved elsewhere. In the late 1870s she returned and ensured that a building used for occasional services which had become dilapidated was repaired. She still wished to provide a proper church, made appeals for funds and the new church was consecrated on 4 April 1881 at a cost of £1,250. Mrs Broadley had given £1,050 of this and also the cost of many of the fittings and the east window. She is commemorated by a plaque in Pencoys church placed there in 1977 as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the

Diocese of Truro The Diocese of Truro (established 1876) is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury which covers Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and a small part of Devon. The bishop's seat is at Truro Cathedral. Geography and history The di ...

. The church seats two hundred and is built in the

Early English style English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

with nave, chancel and a small north chapel used for vestries. The stone was quarried locally with arches and dressings of granite and Wild Duck stone. The parish war memorial is the church's

lych gate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

(built in 1921) which features commemorative plaques in the gateway. The older part of Four Lanes straddles the B3297 road north of the crossroads and post-1960s housing estates are to the south of the crossroads. The classical soprano singer Wendy Eathorne was born at Four Lanes in 1939. ;Note

The village today

There are two pubs in the village; the Victoria Inn at The Square and the Sportsman's Arms three hundred metres south on the Helston road. Four Lanes has a

male voice choir A men's chorus or male voice choir (MVC) (German: ''Männerchor''), is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose music is typically arranged into high and low tenors (1st and 2nd tenor), and high and low bass ...

which takes part in competitions and festivals at local and national level. One of

Brenda Wootton Brenda Wootton (née Ellery) (10 February 1928 – 11 March 1994) was a British folk singer and poet and was seen as an ambassador for Cornish tradition and culture in all the Celtic nations and as far as Australia and Canada. Early lif ...

's albums, ''Gwavas Lake'' (Burlington Records, BURL 008, 1980), features the choir.

Transmitting station

Redruth (Four Lanes) television transmitting station is situated half-a-mile north-west of the village at , and has a 173-metre (568 ft) high guyed steel lattice mast. It includes a high guyed steel lattice mast with square cross section, which is surmounted by the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

transmitting

antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...

, bringing the overall height of the structure to . It is owned and operated by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...

. It transmits

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

Analogue television signals,

DVB Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) o ...

television,

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

and

DAB radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting sys ...

. It is sometimes referred to as Four Lanes, because of the proximity of the mast to neighbouring village of the same name. The main mast is lit with four bright red

aircraft warning lights Aviation obstruction lighting is used to enhance the visibility of structures or fixed obstacles which may conflict with the safe navigation of aircraft. Obstruction lighting is commonly installed on towers, buildings, and even fences located i ...

, a statutory requirement of the

Civil Aviation Authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

References

External links