St Keyne Local History Group was formed when the new Village Hall was opened in August 1998 with the prime objective of collecting together and archiving all the information that could be found from as many sources as possible about the history of the properties. inhabitants and events of the village.
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In the past three and a half years we have gathered together copies of the Church registers and Bishops Transcripts re-typed then into a data base and listed them both chronologically and alphabetically so making a search for a specific name or event that much easier.
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The 1841-1891 Census Returns have been transcribed from their areas enumerated’’form and analysed to show the succession of occupants of all the individual properties in the village. From this it was noted that several lenities had been long-term residents in the village and prompted the creation of their family trees. Just one of these families still lives in the village (they have been here since 1837) and have been the source of many interesting documents and records not the least of which was a copy of the sale documents and accompanying maps produced when the then Lord of the Manor sold his estate in 1911 details which led us to enquire about the Lord and his Manor during many visits to the County Records Office in Truro.
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Here was our biggest surprise. We found that for 300 years the Lord of the Manor had been a succession of members of the rich and famous Rayleigh family of Fowey. Tywardreaath and Menabilly, and what was more exciting was that many of the deeds and documents relating to their tenants in Steeple were in the custody of the C.R.O. So now we had access to such records as Court Rolls lists of lessees and details of their leases surveys of the farms and much more. A veritable treasure chest!
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A further interesting document found At Truro was the Tithe Map of 1843 of the parish and a copy of the listing the names of all the fielded their owners and lessees and also the use of the land. From the local library we found copies of the many books that have been written abut the history of Cornwall and abstracted references that were made to St Keyne,
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We also found copies of the Medieval Hearth Tax registers, Military surveys,Protestation Returns and Tax Subsidy Returns for the village.
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From all this information we have been able to compile files about each of the properties, who leased or owned them and for what periods. and a data base of the discovered details of nearly 4000 people who at some time during the last 4 centuries have had a connection with the village. Much of this information is now included in a book entitled “The People of St.Keyne’’ and provides a fascinating insight to the history of the village.
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Although rapid progress has been made with uncovering the history of the village the research continues and inevitably our records will need up dating.
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Gwen Collin and Alan Southerton
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© St Keyne Local History Group
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