The church is spacious, and contains several monuments. It stands with a lofty tower on an elevated station; and, being quite surrounded by trees, the whole is conspicuous and beautiful.
There are some annual fairs kept in the church town; and the parish has three other villages, Trecroogo, Tregallen, and Trethevy.
Several of the farms were in former times the property and the residences of small gentlemen.
The principal places are,
Trebersey, where resided the family of Gedy, of whom Richard Gedy was Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1623, the 21st of King James the First. His daughter and heiress became the wife of Sir John Eliot the celebrated patriot, and in their descendants the property remained till the decease of Mr. John Eliot, about thirty years ago. This gentleman, who was Sheriff in 1776, devised his property to Mr. William Eliot, of Port Eliot, his distant relation. Mr. Eliot took down the old house, and built a large and handsome mansion at some little distance from the former; but, succeeding to Port Eliot and the family property, on the death of his elder brother, he disposed of Trebersey to David Howell, Esq. who has made it his residence.
The Editor has grounds for believing that his father, the Rev. Edward Giddy, was a descendant in the fourth degree, from a nephew of Mr. Richard Gedy of Trebersey, who settled in the West of Cornwall.
Tresmarrow, a seat of the Pipers, previously to their occupying Madford, adjoining to Launceston, came with the heiress of that family, to a younger son of Sir Richard Vyvyan of Trelowarren; their son, Mr. Philip Vyvyan, having married Mary, the daughter of Sheldon Walter, Esq. acquired Tremeal in the same parish, where he resided. Mr. Vyvyan left two sons and a daughter: Vvol, the eldest, succeeded to the family property, on the decease of his father’s first cousin, the Rev. Sir Carew Vyvyan. The second son married, but died without a family. The daughter, Harriot, married Stephen Luke, Esq. M.D.; and on the sale and division of Mr. Philip Vyvyan’s landed property, Dr. Luke acquired Tresmarrow, which is now become a farm house.
Tremeal has been noticed above. Mr. Philip Vyvyan
either rebuilt or greatly improved the house. After his decease, it was sold to Mr. Archer, brother to Mr. Archer of Trelaske, who resided here for some time: but, experiencing one of the most severe afflictions to which human nature is exposed, by losing the dearest of all friends, he reduced the house to a fit dwelling for one who should occupy the farm, and abandoned a place deprived of all its attractions and of all its charms.
A very different picture is presented to the mind by a monumental inscription in the churchyard, which has been frequently copied on account of its strange absurdity.