Talland ( kw, Tallan) is a hamlet and ecclesiastical parish between Looe and Polperro on the south coast of Cornwall (the parish includes the eastern part of the village of Polperro, where there is a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

and formerly also the town of

West Looe West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

). It is in the civil parish of Polperro and consists of a church, the Old Vicarage and a few houses. On

Talland Bay Talland ( kw, Tallan) is a hamlet and ecclesiastical parish between Looe and Polperro on the south coast of Cornwall (the parish includes the eastern part of the village of Polperro, where there is a chapel of ease and formerly also the town of W ...

are two sheltered shingle beaches, Talland Sand and Rotterdam Beach, and the bay was once well known as a landing spot for smugglers. There are several small beaches in Talland Bay, served by a small car park and café. There is also Talland Bay Hotel. Two towers mark one end of a nautical measured mile, the other end is marked by two towers near Hannafore,

Talland Parish Church

The church at Talland, dramatically located on the cliff-top, is dedicated to

St Tallan Tallanus is thought to have been a Cornish saint. It is claimed that he was a hermit in the 5th century and lived at Talland between Polperro and Looe. The parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church w ...

and as such is unique in Britain. Unusually it has a detached bell-tower on the south side which was joined to the main body of the church in the 15th century. There survives old woodwork in its fine wagon roofs; and the many benchends (partly ca. 1520, the rest ca. 1600) are of the usual Cornish type and among the finest examples of these.

Landscape and development

The environment, one of the most unspoiled in south-west England, is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Heritage Coast. In October 2007

Caradon District Council Caradon was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It contained five towns: Callington, Liskeard, Looe, Saltash and Torpoint, and over 80 villages and hamlets within 41 civil parishes. Its District C ...

granted planning permission for the building of 40 houses costing between £285,000 and £350,000. This controversial development is supposedly in keeping with the local area. Talland Barton Farmland has been designated a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

for its assemblage of nationally rare and nationally scarce

mosses Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and horn ...

; in particular for the many-fruited beardless moss (''Weissia multicapsularis''), which is known from only two sites worldwide.

History and antiquities

An important source for the history is

Jonathan Couch Jonathan Couch (15 March 1789 – 13 April 1870) was a British naturalist, the only child of Richard and Philippa Couch, of a family long resident at Polperro, a small fishing village between Looe and Fowey, on the south coast of Cornwall. A ...

's ''History of Polperro'', (1871), issued after his death by his son, Thomas Quiller Couch and abridgements of it have been issued many times since: se
''History of Polperro''
Talland Bay has been the scene of many shipwrecks including that of a French trawler, the ''Marguerite'', in March 1922. Two private boats performed a dramatic rescue and all 21 people were saved. The remains of the ship's boiler can still be clearly seen on the beach at low tide. A stone cross was found in the 1920s at East Waylands Farm as part of farm buildings. On May 12, 1930 it was erected at Portlooe Cross, a road junction northeast of Portlooe Farm.Langdon, A. G. (2005) ''Stone Crosses in East Cornwall''; 2nd ed. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies; p. 67

Well-known occasional residents

The television presenters Richard Madeley and

Judy Finnigan Judith Adele Finnigan (born 16 May 1948) is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's '' This Morning'' (1988–2001, 2019–) and the Channel 4 chat show, ''Richard & Judy'' (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard ...

own a holiday home in Talland.

References

* Talland Church 500 Celebrations: Souvenir Programme (1490-1990).

External links

Community website

Genealogical information

Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Talland
{{SSSIs Cornwall biological Hamlets in Cornwall Polperro