Kea ( ; kw, Sen Ke) 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 ...

and village in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, England, United Kingdom. It is a '' "large straggling parish" ''
GENUKI website; Kea; retrieved April 2010 in a former Mining in Cornwall, mining area south of

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

. Kea village is situated just over one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Truro.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 204 ''Truro & Falmouth''

Old Kea Old Kea ( kw, Lanndege) is a hamlet in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the west bank of the Truro River approximately two miles (3 km) south of Truro. This and the nearby village of Kea are said to have been named ...

is situated two miles (3 km) to the east on the west bank of the

Truro River The Truro River ( kw, Hyldreth) is a river in the city of Truro in Cornwall, England, UK. It is the product of the convergence of the two rivers named Kenwyn and Allen which run under the city: the Truro River (named after the city) flows ...

at .

St Kea Saint Kea ( Breton and Cornish: ''Ke''; french: Ké) was a late 5th-century British saint from the '' Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North")—the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. According to tradition he w ...

reputedly landed at Old Kea on his first visit to Cornwall and established a church there, which was the parish church until replaced by All Hallows. His life is described in the medieval

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, ...

play '' Bewnans Ke'' (''The Life of St Kea'', c. 1550). Today, the parish is mainly agricultural, and is noted for giving its name to the damson-type Kea plum. It is bounded to the north by Calenick Creek and Truro civil parish; to the east by the

and River Fal; to the south by the parishes of Feock,

Perranarworthal Perranarworthal ( kw, Peran ar Wodhel) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is about four miles (6.5 km) northwest of Falmouth and five miles (8 km) southwest of Truro. Perranarworthal ...

and Gwennap; and to the west by

Kenwyn Kenwyn ( kw, Keynwynn) is a settlement and civil parish in Cornwall, England. The settlement is a suburb of the city of Truro and lies 0.5 mi (1 km) north of the city centre, within Truro parish, whereas Kenwyn parish covers an are ...

. Other settlements in the parish include

Calenick Calenick ( kw, Klunyek) is a hamlet in the civil parish of Kea, about a mile south of Truro in Cornwall, England, UK. It is at the head of Calenick Creek, which opens into the River Truro near Sunny Corner. Calenick is also the name of a g ...

, Come-to-Good, Killiow, Nansavallan, Playing Place,

Porth Kea Porth Kea or Porthkea is a hamlet in Kea The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-g ...

, and the tiny hamlet of Quenchwell consisting of a few houses and a chapel. It takes its name from the Quench-well, a natural spring. Kea was described in 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's ''

Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes ...

'' (1870) as:
: ''A parish and a sub-district in Truro district, Cornwall. The parish lies on the Falmouth and Redruth railways, 2¼ miles SSW of Truro; is bounded, on the E, by the river Fal, on the N, by Kenwyn, on the W, by Gwennap; and contains parts of the chapelries of Baldhu, Chacewater, and Mithian. Real property £7,158 of which £1,234 are in mines. Pop(ulation) in 1861 3,949. Houses, 824. The manor belongs to Viscount Falmouth.''

Churches and schools

All Hallows church is in Kea village at . It was built in 1895 by the prolific Victorian church architect

George Fellowes Prynne George Halford Fellowes Prynne (1853–1927) was a Victorian and Edwardian English church architect. Part of the High Church school of Gothic Revival Architecture, Prynne's work can be found across Southern England. Biography Early life George Ha ...

to replace a church of 1802 which was the work of

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

. The church has a steep tiled roof and a lead spire. The font is Norman and of the Altarnun type. This present church was consecrated 4 June 1896. The altar, the work of

, has decorated panels designed by the architect's brother, the leading late Pre-Raphaelite painter,

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country's best known creators of decorative art for churches. Family and Early ...

. The church of St Kea at Old Kea was the parish church until All Hallows was built. Later, the church at Old Kea was pulled down and only the tower remains today. A small chapel now stands beside the ruined medieval tower and services are held there twice a month

Kea Monastery Kea Monastery was a monastery at Kea The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green w ...

was a monastery probably at Kea of which little is known. "The mysterious land-owning monastery of St Cheus mentioned in Domesday (in Powder), 1085, possibly refers to Kea."— Charles Henderson, in ''Cornish Church Guide'', 1925, p. 116. There is a school in the parish, Kea Community Primary School, which caters for 200 pupils aged between 4 and 11 years. The school stands at a crossroads half-a-mile (1 km) east of Kea village at

Houses

At Calenick and Killiow are 18th-century houses of two storeys. Calenick House contains remains of a much older building; it is of seven bays and there is a separate clock tower with a cupola, dated 1752. Killiow House is somewhat later and was extended c. 1850.Pevsner, N. (1970) ''Cornwall''; 2nd ed., revised by Enid Radcliffe. Harmondsworth: Penguin; pp. 84–86 The latter was once the home of Theophila Gwatkin (née Palmer; 1757–1848) and

Robert Lovell Gwatkin Robert Lovell Gwatkin (1757–1843) was an English landowner, High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1789. Early life He was the son of Edward Gwatkin (died 1764), a merchant in Bristol, and his wife Ann(e) Lovell. Ann Lovell Gwatkin came to know Hannah Mo ...

(1757–1843). A Quaker Meeting House opened in Come-to-Good, Kea, in 1710.

Notable people

Margaret Steuart Pollard Margaret Steuart Pollard, née Gladstone (1 March 1904 – 13 November 1996), was a scholar of Sanskrit, a poet and bard of the Cornish language. She was the founding member of Ferguson's Gang, a secret society of supporters of the National T ...

, writer and Cornish bardPollard, Peggy (1947) ''Cornwall''. London: Paul Elek; pp. 11-13

Gallery

File:Coombe, Kea - geograph.org.uk - 320985.jpg, Coombe, Kea, the home of Kea plums File:Kea School - geograph.org.uk - 227684.jpg, Kea Community Primary School buildings being extended in 2006 File:Quenchwell Bible Christian Memorial Chapel - geograph.org.uk - 149092.jpg, Quenchwell Bible Christian Memorial Chapel

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Civil parishes in Cornwall