Place:Phillack, Cornwall, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Phillack (Cornish: Eglosheyl) is a village (and formerly a parish and an urban district) in west Cornwall, England. It is about one mile (1.6 km) northeast of Hayle and half-a-mile (0.8 km) inland from St Ives Bay on Cornwall's Atlantic ocean [north] coast. The village is separated from the sea by a range of high sand dunes known as The Towans.

Phillack has been in the civil parish of Hayle since 1935; before that it was an urban district from 1894. Phillack parish was originally in Redruth Registration District but the village now comes under Camborne-Redruth Registration District. Phillack was abolished as an urban district in 1934 and was then absorbed into the civil parish of Hayle within West Penwith Rural District.

It includes the hamlet of Bodriggy.

The Anglican church was originally the parish church also of Hayle: it was built in the 15th century and rebuilt in 1856 by William White but the tower is original.

Nineteenth Century Description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Phillack from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"PHILLACK, a parish and a sub-district in Redruth [registration] district, Cornwall. The parish lies on St. Ives Bay, the river Hayle, and the West Cornwall railway, around Hayle [railway] station, and 4 miles S E by E of St. Ives. It contains the hamlets of Angarrack, Guilford, Logans, and Venton-League; it contains also part of the sea-port village of Hayle, which has a head post-office; and it has fairs on 20 June and 4 Aug. Acres: 3,237; of which 330 are water. Real property: £24,283; of which £21,055 are in mines, £160 in iron-works, and £400 in railways. Population in 1851: 4,800; in 1861: 5,381. Houses: 1,022.

"The property is subdivided. Penpol, Bodriggy, and Riviere are chief residences. Drifting sand has largely encroached on the land from the shore, and forms menacing towers. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Gwithian, in the diocese of Exeter. Value: £540. Patron, the Rev. F. Hockin. The church, excepting the tower, was rebuilt in 1856. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school. Gwithian church, except the tower, was rebuilt in 1866.

"The sub-[registration] district contains also Gwithian and Gwinear parishes. Acres: 10,481. Population: 9,035. Houses: 1,741."

Research Tips

One of the many maps available on A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Cornwall at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets.

The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases.

• Repository:Cornwall Record Office
• Repository:Cornish Studies Library
• Repository:Cornwall Family History Society
• Repository:Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
• Repository:Cornwall Online Census Project
• Repository:West Briton Transcripts Database (Transcriptions from a Cornish newspaper of 1836-1887)

• GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Cornwall as well as providing 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
• FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has

1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts and rural and urban districts of the 20th century
2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960

• More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.

https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Jacobstow