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St Stephen
St Stephen maps
Historic maps of St Stephen and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all St Stephen maps
St Stephen area books
Displaying 1 of 16 books about St Stephen and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of St Stephen
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of St Stephen.
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My Ancestry
I traced my family ancestry to St Stephen in Cornwall as far back as the 1500s. My husband and I visited England in 2005, and spent some time in Cornwall. As an Australian of several generations, I am fascinated to know where the various branches of my family have come from. Everyone in Australia originally came from another part of the world. I have some surnames in my family history which are from St Stephen and St Dennis. I searched both cemeteries for headstones bearing my family names; Trethewey and Kent. It was a great thrill for me to find many headstones, including one with the same name as my father, Fred Kent.
From family records, most of my forebears were tinners. I was interested that the mining area seemed to be china clay. My ancestor who originally made the journey to Australia in the early 1800s, Nicholas Kent, and his wife, Loveday (Trethewey), was listed as a master shoemaker.
It was an amazing and heartwarming experience to... Read more
Cornwall memories
My Life as Boy And Man in St.Dennis
I moved into the first house on the right in the photo with the bay window in February of 1960 with my parents and 3 brothers. We were only the second tenants of that house. I stayed there with my parents until I got married in 1974. My father still lives there 47 years after we moved in. I have very fond memories of that house and surrounding neighbours. Mr Cory our next door neighbour at the time used to breed pigeons and a great aunt of mine gave me a couple of Bantams and I used to breed them and father would have his chickens. As children we would spend hours playing football in the road and down the bottom of the road on the village green. I was born in St. Dennis in 1953 and I still live there even though I have moved around the village a bit. When we first got married Jackie and I lived next door to the Blacksmiths Shop were we stayed for... Read more
Happy Days
Wonderful memories of a very happy childhood. I am St. Dennis born and bred, and for me there's no place like it. My father Stanley Grigg and his partner had a cycle shop and repair business and I remember well the American G.I's bringing my mother tins of fruit and meat during wartime. I would get the odd packet of chewing gum too. The summers seemed much longer then and I can remember how I would wait for my father to come home from the quarry, we would take a jug and walk hand in hand down Prazy Hill to fetch cool sparkling water from the spring.
I first went to the infant school where Miss Curtis was in charge, and then onto the top school with Mr. Pellymounter and Miss. Kent. Miss. Williams my sewing teacher always shouted at me. I could'nt sew to save my life, still can't. She always called my stitches cat's teeth. I think she was maybe the reason why I hate it so... Read more
Music And Memories
Is there anyone else who sang in Mrs Solomon's choir and went to Mr Pellymounter's school in St Dennis. I remember all the grownup ladies wearing their wedding dresses as we had to wear white. I was about four when I started to sing in the choir. My mother found some white silk and made me a dress that had enormous seams and hem, so that I was able to wear it for about four years. On one occasion I remember we sang in the main Methodist Hall in Plymouth. I also sang for Children's Hour from the BBC studios in Bristol. I think I was seven at the time. Mr Pellymounter had lots of friends in the theatre, among them Ann Todd and Eric Portman. He used to tell us stories of operas and he made English literature come to life. My father, not a St Dennis man, was a founder member of the St Dennis Male Voice Choir, which used to rehearse around the baby grand piano my... Read more
Summer Holidays
My grandparents lived in this village and I have many memories of my visits to the village as a child. One highlight was the walk down the lane to catch the bus to Penzance. Walking across the lane to the diary with all its Gnomes in the garden. The Fish and Chip shop where I was always remembered from one year to the next. Walking up to the post office for sweets on routre to the rec. The village shop was on a little hill just down from the chip shop, across from here was a small garage. The walk into St Austell toen centre we used to pass the pig farm which to us kids was great fun. Grandparents lived in a little courtyard of 3 houses which later changed its address to Cooperage Road. Uncle still lives in the Village. Carnival time was also a great community event and one of the daughters living across the way from Gran was carnival queen one year, so it was... Read more
My Childhood
I was born in 1944 in my grandmother's house named 'Bloemfontein' at Higher Fraddon.
She named the house after the capital of the Orange Free State of South Africa where she was born.
Her father, my great-grandfather Parkyn, was a miner and made his wealth? and each of his children were able to have a start in life. 'Bloemfontein' was my grandmother's start and my birth in that house was mine.
Within a short distance from that house lived my Gran Parkyn in a bungulow called Karee.
My grandfather's aunt, Bessie Goodman, lived a short distance away and there were other relatives such as the Cann family and Aunt Helen and Leda White, all lived on the same road, the only road that came off the main A30 and then through this hamlet, if you could call it that? and on for quite a few miles through the hamlet of Retew and on to Treviscoe. Retew was yet one more place I lived for a short time as a child,... Read more
Rose View
1970 - 1984: As you look at this photo the last building on the right, the barn like cottage with the small window, is Rose View. My mum and dad bought it for £1,000 in 1970, and set to work modernising it as I was due 1971 and my brother 1975. When they purchased the cottage it was a 1 up and 1 down, no electric or inside running water and the toilet was up the far end of the garden. My Dad built the double extension that is still there today, and the car port (the circle pattern on the wall was made with one of the bases of my tea set!!). My dad died there in 1978, we lived there till 1984 when we moved to Sticker. My mates lived in Tyshute Lane and we all had a great time growing up playing up the pig sty that was up the end of the lane, and numerous other games in the lane. Many a time Pete Stafford had... Read more
