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From:
Subject: Re: [CON] Geography Lesson please
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 04:48:54 EST


Dear Lori

To simplify things as best I can, at its most basic, for family history
purposes Cornwall is a county, divided into parishes (each parish has a
parish church at its head, although parishes usually contain more than one
church, and more than one place of worship eg chapel; often parishes contain
several villages).

The smallest settlement is a hamlet (a few houses, no shop or church), then a
village (more houses, often a shop and a church and/or chapel), then a town.
Truro is Cornwall's only city, and in the UK city status is something granted
by Royal Charter and does not relate to size. In fact, nothing relates to
size - there are large villages and small towns. Smaller than a hamlet is a
farm (probably goes without saying) but many Cornish farms are just known by
their name, and don't have the word "farm" after them. Some of the larger
farms had the farmhouse and some workers' cottages.

For administrative purposes (present day) Cornwall is divided into local
council areas, being Penwith, Kerrier, Carrick, Caradon, Restormel and North
Cornwall. There is also the Isles of Scilly Council (the Isles of Scilly are
28 miles (45km) off Lands End. Within these areas are parish councils and
town councils, and holding the whole thing together is Cornwall County
Council (no smart political comments, please). Above that is national
government.

Just to help you get your bearings, size wise:

Cornwall has a population of 488,400 (1991 figure) and an area of 1,376
square miles (3,564 square kilometres). (For comparison (only because I
worked this out once, as it is totally irrelevant) England (not UK or British
Isles) is comparable in size with Illinois)).

Population figures are always tricky to interpret, as where parishes overlap
urban/rural areas they count them in, so the figure for a town probably
includes a couple of outlying villages. The largest towns, population wise,
all with a population of around 20,000 are St Austell, Penzance, Falmouth and
Camborne. Truro has a population of 16,000 but with the parish of Kenwyn
(which forms part of Truro) that can also be said to have a population of
20,000. The majority of other towns and large villages have a population of
between 1,000 and 5,000 (Launceston and Helston fall between the 5,000 and
10,000 population). This is only a guide, folks - I am not leaving anywhere
out, or including anywhere for any special reasons!!!! <g>

It has a coast line of 435 miles (697 kilometres) and the boundary of Devon
is the River Tamar for all but 12 miles (18km), so it's almost completely
surrounded by water.

At its widest it is 45 miles wide (72km) and at its narrowest 5 miles (8km)
and at its longest it is 82 miles long (132km).

This is only a basic outline to help you on your way - there are always
anomalies - which is why we are all here waiting to help with your questions,
however simple they may sound to you, not only will you help yourself by
asking, you will probably help someone else who didn't ask but actually
wanted to know!!

Good luck in your research

Best wishes,
Alison Stevens, Truro, Cornwall
CFHS Member 09593
Website: http://members.aol.com/alisonams/index.htm

Researching (in Cornwall):
BREWER (St Breock/Liskeard/Truro)
DAVEY (?????? St Blazey, perhaps!!)
DUMBLE (Menheniot/St Neot)
TRATHEN (Luxulyan/St Blazey)
TRELOAR (Helston area/Truro)

Other families:
CROWLE (Truro)
GOARD (Par/St Blazey/Truro)
JULEFF (Camborne/Truro)

NOT RESEARCHING STEVENS IN CORNWALL!!!

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