Place:Fowey, Cornwall, England

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NameFowey
Alt namesFowydhsource: Wikipedia
Saint Austell with Foweysource: Canby, Historic Places (1984) I, 307
TypeTown, Civil parish, Borough (municipal)
Coordinates50.335°N 4.635°W
Located inCornwall, England
See alsoPowder Hundred, Cornwall, Englandhundred of which it was part
St. Austell Rural, Cornwall, Englandrural district in which it was located 1894-1913
St. Austell Registration District, Cornwall, Englandregistration district of which it was part 1837-1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Fowey ( ; , meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local church first established some time in the 7th century; the estuary of the River Fowey forms a natural harbour which enabled the town to become an important trading centre. Privateers also made use of the sheltered harbourage. The Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway brought China clay here for export.

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Nineteenth Century Description

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Fowey from John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles of 1887:

"Fowey.-- small seaport, market town, and par. with ry. sta., E. Cornwall, near mouth of river Fowey, 11 miles S. of Bodmin, 1945 ac., pop. 1656; [post office, telegraph office], 2 Banks. Market-day, Saturday. The principal Industry is the pilchard fishery, which is very important Fowey at one time ranked among the principal seaports in England, and sent ships to the crusades and to the blockade of Calais. It has a deep and commodious harbour, well sheltered by cliffs; 180 yards W. of Whitehouse Point is a fixed light seen 5 miles. Iron ore and "China Stone" are exported."
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Governance

Fowey elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons until the Reform Act 1832 stripped it of its representation as a rotten borough, it having lost its borough corporation a few years before. It was part of St. Austell Poor Law Union and Registration District until 1894, then part of St. Austell Rural District from 1894 until 1913. In 1913 it was restored as a municipal borough. In 1968 it was merged with the town of St. Austell to form the borough of St Austell with Fowey. This was itself in 1974 replaced with the Restormel Borough, which was replaced by Cornwall Council (a unitary authority) in 2009.

In local government terms, Fowey is now (post-2009) a civil parish with a town council and a mayor. Local government responsibilities are shared by the town council and Cornwall Council. Besides the town of Fowey itself, the parish includes the coastal area between the mouth of the River Fowey and St Austell Bay, including Gribben Head and the small settlements of Menabilly, Polkerris, Polmear and Readymoney.

Fowey is bounded by the civil parishes of Lanteglos on the east, by St. Sampson on the north and by Tywardreath on the west and north. In 1934 it absorbed a considerble part of Tywardreath parish.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Fowey. Especially the section "History".

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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.

  • 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

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Fowey. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
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