KELLY’S DIRECTORY OF CORNWALL 1897

Page 113 GODOLPHIN

(Transcription by Althea Johnson. Check originals for confirmation)

GODOLPHIN is a village and ecclesiastical parish, formed February 6, 1846, from the parish of St. Breage, and is 4 ½ miles north-west from Helston, and 2 miles south from Nancegollan station on the Helston branch of the Great Western railway, in the Truro division of the county, hundred of Kerrier, petty sessional division of Kerrier West, Helston union and county court district, rural deanery of Kerrier, archdeaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro.  The church of St. John the Baptist, erected in 1851, is a building of stone with granite facings in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, lofty nave, aisles separated from the nave by arcades of four arches, north porch and a small turret on the western gable containing two bells; there are 467 sittings.  The register dates from the year 1846.  The living is a vicarage, net yearly value from Ecclesiastical Commissioners £142, with residence, in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Truro alternately, and held since 1879 by the Rev. Samuel Rundle, jun. M.A. of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and surrogate. Godolphin House, a quadrangular structure of granite, situated in a large and well-wooded park and now occupied as a farm house, was the seat (cir. 1706), of the Earls of Godolphin but the present building is only a portion of the original.  Charles II. it is reported, slept here when on a journey to St. Michael’s Mount.  Sir Francis Godolphin kt. M.P. for Cornwall in 1588-9, was the first to introduce a stamping machine for tin ore into Cornwall.  A high lordship is paid by the Duke of Leeds, the present owner, to the St. Aubyn family, as reeve of the manor of Lamburne, to which family, failing an heir, the estate returns.  On Candlemas Day (February 2nd), before sunrise, the reeve must appear at the outer door and give three distinct knocks, saying “Oh yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes! Here come I, the reeve of the Manor of Lamburne, to demand my Lord’s dues: eight groats and a penny in money, a loaf, a cheese, a collar of brawn and a jack of the best beer in the house; God save the Queen and the Lord of the Manor.”  This must be repeated at the inner door and at the table in the hall, after which his demand is satisfied.  At Great Works Mine, in St. Germoe parish, gunpowder was first used in 1688 for blasting purposes; and at Wheal Vor, also in this parish, the first steam engine was erected in 1710.  The population are chiefly engaged in mining.  The principal landowners are the Duke of Leeds, Charles Trelawny, esq. And Lord Churston. The soil is light, resting on granite and spar.  The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats and roots.  The population in 1891 was 1,061.

Parish Clerk and Sexton, James ROBERTS.

POST OFFICE, Godolphin Cross – Benjamin EDWARDS, sub-postmaster.  Letters, through Helston, arrive at 11.5 a.m.; dispatched at 1.55 p.m.  Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.   Porthleven is the nearest money order & telegraph office. 

POST OFFICE, Trescowe – Mrs Alice TRELOAR, sub-postmistress.  Letters through Marazion R.S.O. which is the nearest telegraph office, arrive at 11.5 a.m.; dispatched at 2.10 p.m.  Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.  Goldsithney is the nearest money order office.

This parish is included in Breage School Board district. 

Board School, Herland Cross (mixed), erected in 1876, for 160 children; average attendance, 89; Alfred James SPILLER, master; Miss Mary Louisa DAVIES, mistress.

CARRIER – John BERRYMAN & Joel BAWDEN, to Helston, on sats.; to Penzance, on thurs. returning same day.

(Marked thus + should be addressed Marazion R.S.O.)

ROSEWARNE Roseveare, Godolphin Ho

RUNDLE Rev. Samuel, jun. M.A. (Vicar & surrogate), Vicarage.

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