Medieval Farms and Fields: Today’s landscape has its roots in the reorganisation of the countryside following the collapse of the Roman administration in 410 AD. Our oldest placename is the Manor of Arworthal which gave its name to the parish.
Areas between the medieval fields formed the Downs and Commons; untamed areas used for grazing animals. The steeper valley sides would have retained their dense tree cover.
St Piran’s Church is ancient in origin; the present building incorporates a Norman Tympanum inside above the porch.
The tower was built in 1450. In the churchyard is the memorial to John Jose who made his fortune in the mines of Chile and returned to build the mansion at Mellingey which burnt down in 1940.
The buildings of Churchtown Farm date to the C18th and C19th.. Through the turnstile down the lane is a gate to St Piran’s Well set within a C19th wellhouse.
Until the C18th rivers provided power for the workshops of the parish; Manor Mill at the bottom of Cove Hill may have been the medieval manorial mill; a leat from Trewedna Water fed a wheel at Chyvogue which at various times powered a blowing house, a stamping mill and a cloth factory. A leat to Mellingey powered a corn mill and a fulling mill.
Sediments in the Carnon Valley have been streamed for tin and gold since the Bronze Age, and C16th/17th mining for tin, silver and lead was carried out on a small scale on Perran Downs and Greenwith Common. A few low mounds and the evocative name of Silver Hill are all that remain.
Perran Wharf: The Fox family established a small port on the Kennall River to service local mines and related industries around 1770. A lime kiln, quays, warehouses and storage facilities were constructed on the North bank, and timber pond in the flood plain were used to season timber from the Baltic (hence the Norway Inn).
From1790 Perran Foundry was developed on the valley floor south of the river, though offices, a Mining Institute and a Sunday School, as well as the homes of the management and workforce, were all sited north of the river.
Turnpike and Railway: The parish is situated halfway between the port of Truro and the medieval religious centre at Glasney, Penryn. The road followed a number of different routes through the parish and was turnpiked in the late C18th. The Truro-Falmouth branch railway, with one tunnel and two viaducts in this parish, was opened in 1863; the station at Perranwell, with its sidings, cattle pens and warehouses for early vegetables, was a great stimulus to local agriculture.
Perranwell Village: At the centre of the village, a C19th 3-arched bridge carries the road across the Trewedna Stream. A weir on the downstream side diverts water into a leat which once fed Mellingey arsenic works and Basset’s (and from 1895, Visick’s) foundries. On the upstream side was a Blacksmith’s shop, and the garage which was once a carpenter’s and wheelwright’shop. Prince Regent House, dating to 1704, was previously a pub known as The Plume of Feathers and The Prince of Wales.
The Royal Oak (originally called the Crown) dates to C17th. Its wall has a plaque denoting its position on the Trafalgar Way. The village shop and Post Office is early C19th. Uphill past the George V playing field is the old School House and adjacent to it, the village School built in 1878 on the site of the village Poor House. Towards the Station, the Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1879 closed in 1998, and is now a nursery. The Institute built by John Jose in 1887 as a reading room and library, but after housing a butcher and a dentist, is now a private residence. Bay Tree Lodge was the gatehouse for the Mellingey Mansion, and the Toll House was built by the Turnpike Trust in c.1754.
More information: www.perranwellhistory.com
A more detailed history of the Parish is available within the Neighbourhood Development Report (pdf)
