Merther ( kw, Eglos Merther, meaning ''marter's church'') is a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

east of

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

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. It lies on the eastern side of the Tresillian River 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 authority ...

St Michael Penkevil St Michael Penkivel ( kw, Pennkevyl), sometimes spelt ''St Michael Penkevil'', is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in the valley of the River Fal about three miles (5 km) southeast of Truro. The popul ...

. It was formerly the churchtown of the small parish of Merther, and also the site of a manor house and medieval chapel dedicated to St Cohan (also spelt Coan). The former parish church is now in ruins. St Coan was a martyr; there were formerly at Merther a chapel and holy well dedicated to him. A new church was built at Tresillian Bridge in 1904 (the font, bells, statue of St Anthony and pulpit from Merther were moved to the new church). The church was abandoned in the mid-20th century.

Geography

Merther (altitude:) is from the eastern bank of the tidal, Treslllian River, a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the Truro River which flows into the

River Fal The River Fal ( kw, Dowr Fala) flows through Cornwall, England, rising at Pentevale on Goss Moor (between St. Columb and Roche) and reaching the English Channel at Falmouth. On or near the banks of the Fal are the castles of Pendennis and ...

. It is via the modern tarmac road to Tresillian Church (which replaced St Cohan's) and the A390 road, which connects Truro and

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

. There is a shorter route to Tresillian Church, by foot via the farm at Treffry. The former churchtown now consists of Eglosmertha, School Cottage, Rectory Cottage, Penhale and a ruined church and churchyard. Tresawsan is a hamlet in the former parish of Merther; the meaning of Tresawsan is "Englishmen's farm". The historian

William Hals William Hals (1655–1737) was a British historian who compiled a ''History of Cornwall'', the first work of any magnitude that was printed in Cornwall. He was born at Tresawsan, in the parish of Merther in Cornwall. Much of his work was never publ ...

was born at Tresawsan.

History

Eglosmerther is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on the site of a manor house, and the barton was held in 1311 by the Reskymers. It is now a farm, and the farmhouse including the courtyard wall, was a rebuild in 1806–8 of an earlier house. East of the parish church, in a field called ''St Coan'' () which is the site of St Cohan's Chapel and well. By 1480 Cohan was regarded as a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

and patron-saint of Merther. He may have been killed near here during the invasion of Cornwall by

King Athelstan King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

although there is no evidence that he was buried locally. His chapel was destroyed in about 1750 and by 1860 the last stones removed. An effigy of St Anthony probably from the 15th-century was moved to Merther Church. The ruin of St Cohan's church is grade II listed and was built of slatestone walls with granite dressing. Dating from the 13th-century onwards it has a nave, chancel, west tower, south aisle and south porch. Said to be neglected in 1970, the church is now roofless and overgrown with vegetation. Until 1866, Merther was a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...

to Probus, to the north-east; it then became a

. The

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

was combined with

Lamorran Lamorran is a village southeast of Truro in Cornwall, England (). Lamorran lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Lamorran church was built in the mid-13th century and has never been enlarged. It was dedicated (to S ...

in 1900 to form the parish of Lamorran and Merther, and the civil parish was abolished in 1934 and absorbed into the civil parish of St Michael Penkevil. In 1904 a more conveniently positioned church, at Tresillian Bridge was enlarged. The 12th-century

Pentewan stone Elvan is a name used in Cornwall and Devon for the native varieties of quartz-porphyry. They are dispersed irregularly in the Devonian series of rocks and some of them make very fine building stones (e.g. Pentewan stone, Polyphant stone and Cata ...

font, 17th-century polygonal oak pulpit and bells were removed to the new church, and St Cohan's became a

mortuary chapel A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

References

External links

Merther, Cornwall. UK Genealogy Archive
{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Former civil parishes in Cornwall Hamlets in Cornwall Manors in Cornwall