Advent ( kw, Sen Adhwynn; cy, Santes Dwynwen) 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 authorit ...

on the north-western edge of Bodmin Moor in north

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.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay & Bodmin'' The English name St Adwenna derives from the Cornish ''Adhwynn'' (Welsh ''Dwynwen'') and lies in the Registration District of

Camelford Camelford ( kw, Reskammel) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, situated in the River Camel valley northwest of Bodmin Moor. The town is approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Bodmin and is governed ...

. Advent is a sparsely populated rural parish. Much of the area is moorland and at the 2001

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

the population was just 153. This increased to 189 at the 2011 census."Advent"

Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emphas ...

.org.uk. Retrieved 6 February 2015 It includes the hamlets of Tresinney, Pencarrow, Highertown and Watergate but there is no village called Advent. The parish also encompasses several small farmstead

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

, numerous scattered farms and Pencarrow House. (Note, the Pencarrow House that is a minor stately home and open to the public, is not in the hamlet of Pencarrow in Advent Parish, it is some miles away near Bodmin.) Tresinney hamlet lies above the River Camel, south from Camelford, and Advent parish church is north of the hamlet. Three recreational footpaths – the Watermill Walk, Camelford Way and the Moorland Walk – run through Tresinney. In a field on the west side of the parish church stands a tall and elegant Cornish cross. The parish is bordered to the north and the east by

Davidstow Davidstow ( kw, Logdewi (village) and kw, Pluwdhewi (parish)) is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is north of Bodmin Moor straddling the A395 road about north of Camelford. The hamlets of Hal ...

parish; to the south by St Breward parish; and to the north-west by the

River Camel The River Camel ( kw, Dowr Kammel, meaning ''crooked river'') is a river in Cornwall, England. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and with its tributaries its catchment area covers much of North Cornwall. The river flows into the eastern Ce ...

and

parish.

St Adwenna's Church

The Grade I listed parish church is dedicated to St Adwen, one of the daughters of King

Brychan Brychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog (Brecknockshire, alternatively Breconshire) in Mid Wales. Life According to Celtic hagiography Brychan was born in Ireland, the son of a Prince Anlach, son of Coronac, and ...

Brycheiniog Brycheiniog was an independent kingdom in South Wales in the Early Middle Ages. It often acted as a buffer state between England to the east and the south Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth to the west. It was conquered and pacified by the Norman ...

, often conflated with St Dwynwen, the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of Love. The church stands in fields on farmland 440 yards (400m) north-east from the hamlet of Tresinney at . The church is in the Anglican Diocese of Truro and is notable for its high, pinnacled tower which houses a ring of four bells: the greater part of the building dates from the 15th century. The south

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

was added at that time; the north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

was Early English but was rebuilt in 1870, at which time the south transept was demolished, The font is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, plain and circular.Pevsner, N. (1970) ''Cornwall''; 2nd ed. Penguin Books; p. 35 The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

is the responsibility of the Rector of Lanteglos-by-Camelford, and Advent has been associated with Lanteglos since medieval times.

Common surnames in Advent Parish

According to the UK Census: Alford, Inch, French, Pethick, Northey, Gillard, Rowe, Bone, Bate, Baker, Scott, Prout, Kellow, Kingdon, Hole, Martyn, Elford, Ford, Wills, Hawken, Trace, Gabriel, Miller, Arnall, Browning.

References

External links

*
Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
{{North Cornwall CP navigation box Civil parishes in Cornwall Bodmin Moor

St Adwenna's Church

Common surnames in Advent Parish

References

Further reading

External links