Manaccan

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Manaccan
Cornish: Manahan
Cornwall
The New Inn Manaccan - geograph.org.uk - 892716.jpg
The New Inn, Manaccan
Location
Grid reference: SW762248
Location: 50°4’55"N, 5°7’43"W
Data
Postcode: TR12
Local Government
Council: Cornwall

Manaccan is a village on the Lizard peninsula in south-western Cornwall. The village is about five miles south of Falmouth.

The population of Manaccan was recorded as 321 at the 2011 census.

Manaccan church

Manaccan parish is in a district known as Meneage which means 'land of the monks', a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The parish is bordered to the north by the Helford River, to the west by St Martin-in-Meneage parish, to the south by St Keverne parish, and to the east by St Anthony-in-Meneage parish.

The origin of the name Manaccan is probably derived not from a saint but from the Cornish for (church) of the monks. It was also at times called 'Minster' in English because it must once have had a Celtic monastery. "St Manacca" is recorded as the patron as early as 1308.[1]

Manaccan is within the 'Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty', as is almost a third of the county.

Buildings and antiquities

The parish church is dedicated to St Mannacus and St Dunstan (early records have St Manacca). There was a Norman church here and fragments of it remain; the doorway is one of the best specimens of Norman entrances in Cornwall.[2] The rest of the structure is of the 13th and 15th centuries. The west tower is built of slate.[3] The church is well known for a large and flourishing fig-tree which is growing out of the western part of the south wall of the church. It has been there for at least 250 years.[2]

Boden Vean Fogou was rediscovered by a local farmer in the 1990s and was excavated by archaeologists in 2003[4] and in September and October 2008.

Geology

In 1791 William Gregor discovered titanium in the stream that runs through the valley just south of the village. The location is commemorated by a plaque placed next to the bridge. The mineral ilmenite, an iron titanium oxide, was a constituent of the ore identified by William Gregor; it has an alternative name manaccanite, derived from Manaccan.

Outside links

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References

  1. Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; pp. 152-53
  2. 2.0 2.1 Information on Manaccan  from GENUKI
  3. Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Cornwall, 1951; 1970 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09589-0
  4. Modern Antiquarian (The). "Higher Boden Fogou". http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/20763/news/higher_boden_fogou.html. Retrieved 1 June 2009.