Talland ( kw, Tallan) is a hamlet and

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 ...

between

Looe Looe (; kw, Logh, ) is a coastal town and civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, with a population of 5,280 at the 2011 census. Looe is west of Plymouth and south of Liskeard, divided in two by the River Looe, East Looe ( kw, links ...

and

Polperro Polperro ( kw, Porthpyra, meaning ''Pyra's cove'') is a large village, civil parish, and fishing harbour within the Polperro Heritage Coastline in south Cornwall, England. Its population is around 1,554. Polperro, through which runs the River ...

on the south coast of

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 ...

(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 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 ease is deliberately bu ...

and formerly also the town of West Looe). It is in the

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 ...

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 ...

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

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc s ...

es in Talland Bay, served by a small

car park A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

and

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-c ...

. There is also Talland Bay Hotel. Two towers mark one end of a

nautical measured mile A nautical measured mile is a nautical mile which is marked by two pairs of towers. A mile is measured by sailing on a given bearing and lining up the pairs of towers. The start of the mile is recorded when the first pair of towers line up and t ...

, the other end is marked by two towers near Hannafore, West Looe.

Talland Parish Church

The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 hornw ...

; 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 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