Trevellas is a 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, situated midway between St Agnes and

Perranporth Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...

. It was first recorded as a place in Cornwall in 1302 and was the site of the Trevelles family manor. Trevellas valley was a mining site for centuries and known as the "Blue Hills" coloured by bluish slate. During World War II the nearby Perranporth airport was used as a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

base. Painter

John Opie John Opie (16 May 1761 – 9 April 1807) was an English historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, including members of the British Royal Family, and others who were notable in the artistic and literary ...

was born in Trevellas.

Geography

There are many scenic cliff path walks around the area, static caravan sites and walks in Woodland Trust wooded areas. Interesting features along the coast include Trevellas Porth, which is popular with divers and fishermen, but because it is quite rocky it is not recommended for swimming. File:Bawden Rocks from Trevellas Coombe - geograph.org.uk - 101651.jpg,

Bawden Rocks Bawden Rocks ( kw, Meyn Bodyn), also known as Cow and Calf or Man and His Man, are a pair of small islands approximately one mile north of St Agnes Head, off the coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The larger of the two rocks stands arou ...

from Trevellas Coombe File:St Agnes, Trevellas Porth - geograph.org.uk - 36345.jpg, St Agnes, Trevellas Porth File:Trevellas Coombe and Blue Hills Tin Mine - geograph.org.uk - 1712128.jpg, Trevellas Coombe and Blue Hills Tin Mine File:St Agnes, Blue Hills Tin Streams - geograph.org.uk - 41217.jpg, Blue Hills Tin Streams. Water-powered Cornish Stamps used for dressing tin. The area towards Trevellas Porth is known as "Blue Hills" due to bluish in-ground

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. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

. Trevellas valley has been a site for

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

mining for several centuries, and in 1810 the Blue Hills Sett incorporated many of the small mines. Though Blue Hills closed in 1897, tin production has continued in Trevellas to the present and the Blue Hills works can be visited between April and October each year.

History and antiquities

Antiquities

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

barrow site lies at the end of one of the Trevellas Airfield runways. Excavated in 1940 by Charles Kenneth Croft Andrew, the site is believed to be a

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

or burial site that had a bucket urn and pottery

sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s. It was defined as an "intact ritual deposit", probably from about 2000 BC. There are no sign of its former shape.

History

Trevellas is first recorded in 1302, and was for several generations the seat of the Trevelles Family. The Trevellas country house was built during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. Sometime between 1540 and 1901 a new house was erected where the country house once stood. The estate then passed through the families of Kearne, Croker, St. Aubyn, Donnithorne and finally the Chilcots. In Lysons's ''

Magna Britannia ''Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain'' was a topographical and historical survey published by the antiquarians Daniel Lysons and his brother Samuel Lysons in several volumes between 180 ...

'' it states the following: The estate was broken up in several sales, the final one being in 1948. The village had a post office and shop until the 1980s when it was closed and is now divided into two dwellings. The shop was owned by Mrs Menadue and was known as Menadue drapers and store. It was famed for its ginger beer. Until the late 1990s Trevellas also boasted a garage and petrol filling station known as Lewis' Garage. Since 1999 the site has been occupied by a thriving camping and caravanning centre called Aztec Leisure. EGTP Memorial

Perranporth Airfield

World War II

In World War II the nearby

Perranporth Airfield Perranporth Airfield airfield is located southwest of Perranporth and southwest of Newquay, in the village of Trevellas, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is a former Second World War Royal Air Force fighter station. Perranporth Aerodr ...

was used as a base for the

. It became operational on 28 April 1941. At the height of the war over nineteen spitfire squadrons from Australia, France, Canada, Poland, Czechoslovakia and the U.K were based there. On 13 September 1943 Supermarine Spitfire Vc EE727 FU-? Of 453 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force returning to Perranporth crashed onto the cottage at Trevellas occupied by Mrs Walker, her four-year-old son Barry and one year old son Ronald. Mrs Walker was seriously injured and her son Barry was killed. He is buried in St Agnes cemetery. The pilot 414505 Flight Sgt Mervyn Francis Nolan RAAF was also killed. Below are the two images of the crash site, taken on either the day of the crash or the morning after. Spitfire Crash 1

Post-war

The land was supposed to be handed back to the local residents at the end of the war but fell into disrepair until the purchase as a private airfield. An Old Methodist Chapel on Trevellas Downs - geograph

An Old Methodist Chapel on Trevellas Downs - geograph

Religion

A Catholic chapel was built in 1882 on Trevellas Downs.''Church History.''
St Agnes. GENUKI. Retrieved 22 September 2012.

Notable people

, the painter known as ''The Cornish Wonder'', was born here.

References

External links

Cornwall websiteBritish History website
{{authority control Villages in Cornwall