Week St. Mary Village - Village History

Snippets of village history (not in any particular order)

• Berry Comb, in Jacobstow, was once the residence of Thomasine Bonaventure, and it was given at her death to the poor of St. Mary Week.

• Sir Nicholas Slanning (1606-1643) and his men had a brief sojourn at Saltash before rejoining the rest in a rendezvous with Grenville’s foot. They brushed aside a small force at Week St. Mary on May 13th and at 5.00a.m. on the 16th attacked the forces on Stratton (now Stamford) Hill, Stratton. This produced their most spectacular victory when, after ten hours of fighting uphill against twice their number of much better equipped enemy with a dug-in battery, they gained the position, killing 300 and capturing 1,700 with fourteen guns, £300 and plentiful provisions, at a cost of 80 men. Slanning and Trevanion commanded the westernmost of the four columns.

• There was formerly a chapel at Goscote, dedicated to St. Lawrence. The chapel of St. Laurence at Goscote was licensed in 1380.

• At Ashbury is an earthwork in the form of a parallelogram of about four acres.

• At Swannacott is a smaller oval entrenchment 150 feet by 130 feet. Swannacott was a manor.

• February 17th 1956; Mr Trengrove was granted a full liquor licence for The Green Inn, Week St. Mary.

• Poor Man's Piece, an area of 2R 27P (2 Rods 27 Perches or Poles), still managed by a body of Trustees, is to be let for the use of good husbandry and grazing only. The tenant is responsible for the upkeep of the hedges and ground.

• Red Lion House, Lower Square, was formerly an Inn, as was New House.

• Lower Square was once the site of the ancient Market House, but there is currently no evidence of its previous existence.

• Week St. Mary is recorded in the Domesday Book as the small settlement of 'Wich' and this manor was granted to Richard Fitz Turold, steward of the Earl of Cornwall, Robert of Mortain, a half brother of William I.

• Burdenwell Manor dates back to the 16th century and was once owned by the Granville family.

• In the 18th Century John Wesley was welcomed into the parish by the Rector, on several occasions between 1745 and 1762, where he preached to large congregations. For more information on John Wesley, his life, beliefs and the Methodist movement, please click here.

• Penhallam - See grass-covered ruins of a medieval manor house, surrounded by a protective moat in a delightful woodland setting. One particular example of the form such building might take, during the 13th century, is the manor house at Jacobstow, formerly the manor of Penhallam and held by the Cardinhams and the Champernownes, two of Cornwall's richest families. The manor was abandoned by the middle of the 14th century and has been preserved at foundation level ever since.

An artists impression of Penhallam manor