St. Enoder is a parish 2½ miles south-south-west from St. Columb Road station on the Newquay branch and 5 north from Grampound Road station on the Great Western railway, 10 north-by-east from Truro and 5 south-south-west from St. Columb : the parish is in the Mid division of the county, hundred and petty sessional division of Pydar and Powder, union and county court district of St. Columb, rural deanery of Pydar, archdeaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro. The river Gannel rises in this parish, which also affords the chief source of the river Fal. The church of St. Ennodorus is an ancient building of granite in the Early Decorated and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel with aisles, nave of four bays, aisles, north transept, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing 5 bells : the tower was partly rebuilt in 1686 : there is a Norman font and a few good bench ends : there are monuments to Dorothy (Arundell), wife of Anthony Tanner, gent, ob. 1634; to Anthony Tanner, ob. 1742, erected by George Penwarne; to John Freseyse, yeoman, 16-6, and a number of modern date : at the east end is a memorial windows inserted by the parishioners, to the Rev. Samuel M. Walker, rector from 1828 : the church was thoroughly restored in 1870, the interior refitted and three new windows added, at a cost of £850 : there are sittings for 600 persons. The register dates from the year 1571. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge £243, net income £240, including 20 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Truro, and held since 1892 by the Rev. William Horsburgh B.A. of Trinity College, Dublin : the living is endowed with the great tithes of three fields only : the impropriate tithes amount to £463 yearly. There are three Bible Christian chapels in the parish, viz. at Summercourt, Fraddon and Retyn; and Wesleyan chapels at Summercourt and Michell. There are china clay works and a tin mine in this parish. Carvinick House, in this parish, built by Anthony and Grace Tanner, in 1699, is now occupied as a farmhouse. Dr. Edward Last Smith, of Torquay, is lord of the manor of Penhale. The principal landowners in the parish are Viscount Falmouth; Christopher Henry Thomas Hawkins esq. B.A., D.L., J.P. of Trewithan, Probus; Richard Gully Bennet esq. B.A., D.L., J.P. of Tresillian House, St. Columb Minor; Michael Henry Williams esq. D.L., J.P of Pencalenick, St. Clement’s; Jonathan Rashleigh esq. B.A., D.L., J.P. of Menabilly, Tywardreath, and Mrs. Stephens. The soil is loamy; subsoil, clay and spar. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, mangolds and potatoes. The area is 6,827 acres, partly arable, pasture and meadow, and the remaining portion an open waste : rateable value, £7,188; the population in 1891 was 1,114.

Summercourt, a hamlet about three quarters of a mile south from the church of St. Enoder, is intersected by the road from Truro to St. Columb. It has an annual fair, held on the 25^th of September, for cattle and horses.

Michell, or ST. MICHAEL, formerly an ancient Parliamentary borough, partly in this parish and paretly in the parish of Newlyn, is on the high road from Truro to St. Columb, 2½ miles south-west from the parish church, 2 south-east from Newlyn and 7 north-north-east from Truro : it is said to have been a town of considerable importance in the time of the Saxons, but has now dwindled down to a small village : the borough returned two members to Parliament from the 6^th year of Edward VI. (1552), until it was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. It was never incorporated, but was governed by a portreeve, annually elected by a jury at the court leet of the high lord. Among the parliamentary representatives of this borough may be named Richard Carew, the Cornish historian, Sir Walter Raleigh and Col. Clive. The manor of Michell was, in the time of Edward I. the property of Walter de Raleigh, whose son Peter sold it to Ralph de Arundell. John de Arundell, in the year 1301, certified his right to a market or fair on his manor called “Modeshole,” which appears to have been allowed in the same manner as it had been previously granted to his predecessor, Walter de Raleigh. The market has been long discontinued, but an annual fair is held on the 15^th of October for cattle and sheep.

POST OFFICE, Fraddon.- Richard Best Hore, sub-postmaster.

Letters arrive from St. Columb R.S.O. at 11.15 a.m.;

dispatched at 3.10 p.m. week days only. Summercourt is the nearest money order office & telegraph office at St. Denis. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid.

POST OFFICE, Michell.- Charles Tamblyn, sub-postmaster.

Letters arrive from Grampound Road at 8.20 a.m.; dispatched at 4.35 p.m. Summercourt is the nearest money order office & telegraph office at Grampound Road. Postal orders are issued here, but not paid

POST & M.O.O., S.B. & Annuity & Insurance Office, Summercourt.- Miss Jane Harvey Liddicoat, sub-postmistress. Letters arrive from Grampound Road at 9.40 a.m.; dispatched 3.10 p.m. week days only. Grampound Road is the nearest telegraph office.

WALL LETTER BOX, Blue Anchor, cleared at 3.5 p.m. week days only

National School (mixed), established in 1828, for 150 children; average attendance, 110; Fredk. Waddleton, mastr

Benny’s bus to Truro, from Summercourt, on wed. & sat. at 9 a.m. & to St. Columb from Summercourt on thurs. at 4.30 p.m.

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Last Updated on 3rd December 2017
By Mark Jose