Paul ()
[Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF)]
List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel
. Cornish Language Partnership
The Cornish Language Partnership ( , ) was a representative body that was set up in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, in 2005 to promote and develop the use of the Cornish language. and was dissolved in 2015. It was a public and voluntary secto ...
. is a village in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, England, United Kingdom. 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of
Penzance
Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...
. The village is two miles (3 km) south of Penzance and one mile (1.6 km) south of
Newlyn
Newlyn () is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' It is the largest fishing port in England.
Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and for ...
.
The village of Paul should not be confused with the former
civil parish of Paul, which lay to the west of the village and, since 1934 with the reorganisation of local government, does not include the village of Paul.
Like many Cornish communities Paul has its own community celebration. Paul Feast is held on the Sunday nearest to 10 October every year when the village is decorated and a civic service takes place on the Sunday of the feast itself led by the Mayor of Penzance.
History
The traditional Cornish name of Paul is Brewinney. Much of the history of Paul is connected with its
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
,
St Pol de Léon’s Church which is said to have been founded in 490, a very uncertain date and not documented by
Paul (or Paol) Aurelian, a Welsh saint. There is no historical evidence to support that he ever came to West Penwith. He was the founder of the cathedral at
Saint-Pol-de-Léon, a
commune. However this church may also have been dedicated to
Paul the Apostle
Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...
, or
Paulinus of York
Paulinus (died 10 October 644) was a Roman missionary and the first Bishop of York. A member of the Gregorian mission sent in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism, Paulinus arrived in E ...
, there is no evidence to prove any of these three Saint Pauls was the original dedicatee of the church. It was only named 'St. Pol-de-Leon' in 1907 and is probably connected with
Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornwall, Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival.
Jenner was born at St Columb Major on 8 August 1848. H ...
who (with
W. C. Borlase) opposed alleged 'Englishness' and consistent spelling of Cornish place names on OS maps.
The first documented name for Paul Church comes from the registers of
Bishop Bronescombe, when on 2 May 1259 the first recorded priest was installed, as Rector in his own right, in the 'Ecclesie Sancti Paulini'--Church of Saint Paulinus (but either Paulinus of York or Paulinus of Wales could have been intended). However it seems less likely that either of these two saints were intended as
Henry III granted a charter in 1266 for a Fair to be held in Paul on 12 March, being the feast of Paul Aurelian.
Paul and its church have an association with
Mousehole as the church has served as Mousehole’s parish church since its inception. Paul was one of the communities along with Mousehole,
Newlyn
Newlyn () is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' It is the largest fishing port in England.
Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and for ...
, and
Penzance
Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...
to be destroyed in the
Spanish raid of 1595 carried out by
Carlos de Amésquita.
Captain Stephen Hutchens (died 1709,
Port Royal
Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...
,
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
) bequeathed £500 to the building of
almshouse
An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...
s and the maintenance of six poor men and six poor women born in the parish. At the beginning of the 19th century it was found that the almshouses, instead of being administered as bequeathed, were being used as a
workhouse
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...
for all the poor of the parish. Consequently, a new poor house was built on Trungle Moor.
Cornish language (memorials)

Within the village churchyard there is a memorial to
Dolly Pentreath
Dorothy Pentreath ( 16 May 169226 December 1777) was a Cornish fishwife. She is one of the last known fluent speakers of the Cornish language. She is also often credited as the last known native speaker of Cornish, although sources support th ...
, believed to be the last native speaker of
Cornish, although
this claim may be disputed.
Louis Lucien Bonaparte and the Vicar of Paul opened this memorial in 1860.
The
Cornish language
Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...
writers
Nicholas Boson,
Thomas Boson and
John Boson are all buried in Paul Churchyard, and a monument in the church by John Boson (to Arthur Hutchens, d. 1709) is the only surviving lapidary inscription in traditional Cornish.
Parish
The
ancient 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Paul ()
[ included ]Newlyn
Newlyn () is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End'' It is the largest fishing port in England.
Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and for ...
and Mousehole as well as the village of Paul. In 1851 Newlyn was separated to form the new 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 pries ...
of Newlyn St Peter. The ancient parish became a civil parish in 1866, and in 1894 became the Paul Urban District. The urban district was abolished in 1934. Newlyn and the villages of Paul and Mousehole were transferred from the civil parish and urban district of Paul to the municipal borough of Penzance, now the civil parish of Penzance. The western part of the civil parish of Paul remained a separate, smaller parish (which did not include the village of Paul), from 1934 to 1974 in West Penwith Rural District.
In 2020 Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...
announced that the neighbouring parishes of St Buryan
St Buryan () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1412.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of ...
and Paul would be abolished on 1 April 2021 with the land amalgamated to form a new parish known as St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul. The new parish has 12 councillors elected for a period of 4 years.
At its abolition, the civil parish of Paul consisted of a number of scattered settlements west of the village at , including Chyenhal, Castallack, Kemyel Crease, Kemyel Drea, Bossava and Kerris. The population of the civil parish (i.e. excluding the village) was 269 in 2011.
Arthur Langdon (1896) recorded the existence of five stone crosses in the parish. One is at Carlankan, one at Halwyn and one at St Paul Down. There are also crosses in the vicarage hedge and on the churchyard wall (the latter has a crude crucifixus figure on one side).
In the north of the former civil parish is Chyenhal Moor, 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 ...
noted for its biological
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...
interest.
Mining
In 1788, Wheal Mary mined an east–west lode (near Drift) which was in both Paul and Sancreed parishes. It later became known as Garth (or Gath) mine. Following a period of idleness operations resumed under the name of East Wheal Cock and work continued to 1843 when the mine was known as Wheal Darby. Over forty years after the mine closed, a capped shaft at Bologas was reported to have collapsed and the mine was referred to as ″Gath mine″ in The Cornishman newspaper. All signs of the mine on the ground had disappeared by 1925, although quantities of ″wood tin″, continued to find their way into Cornish mineral collections.
Governance
The village of Paul is represented on Penzance Town Council. For elections to Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...
(the unitary authority) Paul is within the three-member Penzance Electoral division.
Sport
Paul Cricket Club home is at Hutchens Park Playing Field, Trungle Moor and they play in Division Two West; the third tier of the Cornwall Cricket League. In 2007 the club came second in the Cornwall Cricket League and won the competition in 2010, to become Cornish champions for the only time. Adjacent to the cricket club is Mousehole AFC (established 1923). The first team have played in Division One West of the South West Peninsula League since its inauguration in 2007. Their best season was 2013–14 when they came second.
Cornish wrestling
Cornish wrestling
Cornish wrestling () is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton people, Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’"Phillipps, K C: ...
tournaments, for prizes, were held in Paul for centuries. Venues for tournaments included field just in the rear of the national schools[Cornishman, 16 July 1885.] and in the Ring and Thimble field at Chywoone Grove.[Cornishman, 18 August 1949.]
References
External links
*
GENUKI website; Paul
{{authority control
Villages in Cornwall
Penwith
Penzance