Sithney is in the hundred of Kerrier, and is bounded to the west by St. Breage, to the north by Crowan, to the east by Gwendon and Helston, to the south by the British Channel.
This parish is denominated from its tutelar Saint (with a little variation, euphoniæ gratiâ) St. Midinnia (Tax. Benef.)
It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £19. 11s. 4d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, the incumbent ——.
In 1291, 20 Edw. I., the rectory of this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at £6. 6s. 8d. and was appropriated to the priory of Montacute in Somersetshire; the vicarage being valued at 33s. 4d.
I shall begin with
THE MANOR OF PENROSE.
The head of the valley [or rather, the Hill of the Heath,] which hath given a name and dwelling to a very ancient family, seated there (it is said) before the Conquest.
It is pleasantly seated on the side of the Looe Pool, which for the most part belongs to it, of which Mr. Carew (fol. 152) thus, “Under it (Heilston) runneth the river Lo, whose passage into the sea is thwarted by a sandy bank, which forceth the same to quurt back a great way, and so to make a pool of some miles in compass. It breedeth a peculiar kind of bastard trout, in bigness and goodness exceeding such as live in the fresh water, but coming short of those who frequent the salt. The fore-remembered bank serveth as a bridge to deliver wayfarers, with a compendious passage, to the other side; howbeit sometimes with more haste than good speed, for now and then it is so pressed on the inside with the increasing river’s weight, and a portion of the outer sand so washed down by the waves, that at a sudden out breaketh the upper part of the Poole and away goeth a great deal of the sand, water, and fish, which instant, if it take any passenger tardy, shrewdly endangereth him to flit for company, and some have so miscarried.
“To this Pool adjoineth Mr. Penrose his house, whose kind entertainment hath given me and many others experience of these matters. He married the daughter of Rashleigh. He beareth, Argent, three bends Sable, charged with nine roses of the Field.” But before I leave the Loo Pool, I must observe that the name of the river
is taken from the Pool, for such are called Loghs or Los in our ancient tongue. Neither is the bar which forms it of sand; but Leland gives this account of it (Itin. vol. VIII. fol. 3), “Lo-Poole is a two miles in length, and betwixt it and the mayn se is but a barre of sande; and ons in three or four years, what by the wait of the fresch water and rage of the se, it brekith out, and then the fresch and salt water meting makith a wonderful noise; but soon after the mouth is barred again with sande. At other tymes the superfluitie of the water of Lo-Poole drenith out through the sandy barre unto the se. If this barre might be alway kept open, it would be a goodly haven up to Heilston. The commune fische of this Poole is trout and ele.”