Rosenannon Downs with unfenced road - geograph

St Wenn ( kw, Sen Gwenna) is a

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 ...

and village in

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. The village is situated six miles (10 km) west of

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...

and nine miles (14.5 km) east of

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

. The parish population at the 2011 census was 369. Other settlements in the parish include

Rosenannon Rosenannon ( kw, Ros an Onnen) is a hamlet in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is within the civil parish of St Wenn, south-west of the town of Wadebridge.Ordnance Survey: Explorer map sheet 106 ''Newquay & Padstow'' Rosenannon Downs is ...

Demelza Demelza is a hamlet in the parish of St Wenn, Cornwall, England, UK. Demelza is situated south-east of St Wenn and lies at around above sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or ...

, Tregonetha ( kw, Tregenhetho), and Tregurtha Barton, once the home of Michael Tregury,

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

who died in 1471. The last heir-male of the elder branch of this family died in the reign of

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...

. The

Borlase Borlase is a surname and masculine given name. A branch of the family De Taillefer, of Périgord, who were descended from the Count of Angoulême, came to England before the reign of Henry III (1207–1272). A king granted lands in the parish of ...

family, ancestors of

William Borlase William Borlase (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769) ...

, were residents of three farms in this parish. Later

William Hals William Hals (1655–1737) was a British historian who compiled a ''History of Cornwall'', the first work of any magnitude that was printed in Cornwall. He was born at Tresawsan, in the parish of Merther in Cornwall. Much of his work was never publ ...

, who wrote the ''Parochial History of Cornwall'', lived here in the latter part of his life: Hals, who owned the rectorial tithes of St Wenn, died here. There is a Cornish cross at Cross and Hand, a place in the valley next to Castle-an-Dinas and in the extreme south of the parish. This cross (locally known as Crossy Ann) marks the boundary of the parishes of St Wenn,

St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay ...

and Roche.

Churches and schools

The parish church is dedicated to

Saint Wenna Saint Wenna ( 463 18 October ???) is a Cornish saint and the dedicatee of several churches, venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, and Anglican Communion. Her feast day is 18 October. Wenna founded churches in Tal ...

. The church was in the 12th century in the possession of the

Earl of Gloucester The title of Earl of Gloucester was created several times in the Peerage of England. A fictional earl is also a character in William Shakespeare's play ''King Lear.'' Earls of Gloucester, 1st Creation (1121) *Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (1100� ...

who gave it to

Tewkesbury Abbey The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of Nor ...

c. 1150. It was appropriated to the abbey in 1242 when the first vicar was instituted.''Cornish Church Guide'' (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 218 The tower was built with three stages but now has only two as the top section was destroyed by lightning in 1663. There is a nave and two aisles of three bays. The font is 15th century work in the Norman style. and very similar to those of

St Columb Minor St Columb Minor ( kw, Sen Kolumm Vyghan) (Latin: ''Columba Minor Sancta'') is a village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. ''St. Columb'' alone by default refers to the nearby St. Columb Major.The village of St Columb Minor ...

and

Mawgan-in-Pydar St Mawgan or St Mawgan in Pydar ( kw, Lanherne) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population of this parish at the 2011 census was 1,307. The village is situated four miles northeast of Newquay, and the ...

. On the North Downs, called Carenza Wortha, (now called Rosenannon Downs) there used to be a chapel dedicated to St Mary Magdalen: it was destroyed in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

during the time of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. There is a Methodist Chapel at Rosenannon and there used to be others. St Wenn School is a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

in St Wenn village.

History

In July 1940, during

World War 2 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, a bomb was dropped near St Wenn. A small amount of damage was caused to property but nobody was injured. The Chapman family which was famous over the last century for producing many

Cornish wrestling Cornish wrestling ( kw, Omdowl Kernewek) is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’"Phillipps, ...

champions (of Cornwall, England, South Africa and the United States) came from St Wenn. Examples include: * Sidney Chapman * Reuben Chapman * Bernard Chapman * William Chapman * Charlie Chapman * John Chapman * M J Chapman * Reuben Chapman (jnr)

References

External links

Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for St Wenn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Wenn Civil parishes in Cornwall Villages in Cornwall