Hayle, St Elwyn

• The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line Monumental Inscriptions for the Parish Church - 83 entries.
• War Memorial inscriptions for Hayle parish are separately available.

Census information for this parish (1841 - 1901) is held in the Cornwall Record Office. The Cornwall Family History Society offers a census search service for its members.
Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841. In the 1841 Census, Hayle was enumerated as part of Phillack.
• 1851. In the 1851 Census, Hayle was enumerated as part of Phillack (HO107/1916). Hayle areas of Phillack are available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration District 3b - Hayle Foundry.
  • Enumeration District 3c - Hayle.
• 1861. In the 1861 Census, Hayle was enumerated as part of Phillack.
• 1871. The 1871 Census of Hayle, St Elwyn (RG10/2327), Enumeration Districts 1 and 2, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Hayle, St Elwyn, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • RG11/2337. Enumeration Districts 1 to 3.
  • RG11/2338. Enumeration District 5.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Hayle, St Elwyn (RG12/1852) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 1 (including Schools), and 2.
  • Enumeration District 5 (part).

• Anglican. The parish was constituted in 1870, being carved out of the western part of the parish of Phillack. This tiny parish of only 198 acres was centred around the the needs of the Harvey iron foundry at the western end of Hayle, whilst the medieval Parish of Phillack mainly served the needs of the eastern end of the town where the Cornish Copper Company was based. For the first eighteen years of its existence the new parish did not have a church, services were conducted in the neighbouring parish of Phillack in the Mission Church of St John. In 1884 a site was found for the parish church and designed by the architect John D. Stedding and built by R. Stanslake of Plymouth, the foundation stone was laid on 5th May 1886 and the church consecrated on 5th August 1888 and dedicated to the fifth century Irish missionary St Elwyn, The Martyr.
  The parish church is located in OS Grid Square SW5537 and was dedicated to St Elwyn. There is no burial ground in this parish and so there are no Parish burial records; the parish church of Phillack served this purpose. However, the parish of Hayle has maintained its own baptism amd marriage records since 1888; these are now in the Cornwall Record Office.
• Roman Catholic. In 1902, one of the Canons Regular from Bodmin was sent as chaplain to The Daughters of the Cross Convent, Hayle. He began to serve the tiny local Catholic population with the Sister's Chapel in The Downs functioning as a "Parish" Church. On 29th September, 1926, Bishop Kelly blessed the foundation stone of the present St. Michael's Hospital Chapel and it officially became the (Roman Catholic) Parish Church, although it was not then licensed for weddings.
  The present Church building was erected about one hundred years ago as a Baptist Chapel. After being derelict for some time, it was registered on the 11th October 1958 as a Place of Worship for Roman Catholics. A licence for weddings was also obtained. On 12th October 1958, St. Joseph's was formally blessed and opened as the Catholic Parish Church of Hayle.
• Non-Conformist.
  • The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel at Foundry Square built in 1845; they had another at Copperhouses. The chapel in Foundry Square is now converted for public use as a commercial market area. This chapel has unusual 19th century window tracery. A new Methodist Chapel is now located in Chapel Terrace.
  • The Free Methodists had chapels at Hayle and also at Ventonleage.
  • The Bible Christians had a chapel at High Lanes.
  • The Baptist chapel was in Commercial Road. (This eventually became the Roman Catholic Church - see above).

Entries in the St Elwyn parish registers commence from:

• Baptisms: 10 Oct 1888.
• Marriages: 26 Nov 1888.

If you cannot find what you were looking for in the St Elwyn or Phillack transcriptions, check the St Erth parish register transcriptions as many St Erth parish register entries refer to residents of Phillack and Hayle.

• LDS Church Records. The LDS Church batch numbers for Hayle are: Copper House Wesleyan Methodist Chapel C065151. These are searchable by surname.
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1888 - 1956, Marriages 1888 - 1979. There are no burial records because burials took place in Phillack.
• Baptisms:
  • Baptisms 1888 to 1899 for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Hayle Wesleyan-Methodist Circuit baptisms 1884 to 1900 are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Baptisms at Hayle, St Elwyn are available on-line courtesy of the OPC as follows:
    • 1888 to 1899.
    • 1900 to 1907.
  • The Plymouth Record Office holdings: Hayle Baptist Baptisms 1855-1904 (not available on microfiche). [Also contains a number of baptisms performed in Penzance, Truro, Redruth and Helensburgh].
  • Baptisms at St Erth 1813 to 1899 of those whose father or mother's abode is Phillack or Hayle are on-line courtesy of the OPC.
• Marriages:
  • Marriages 1888 to 1911 for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Marriages at Hayle, St Elwyn are available on-line courtesy of the OPC as follows:
    • 1888 to 1899.
    • 1900 to 1909.
    • 1910 to 1919.
    • Some information on marriages after 1920 is available by contacting to OPC.
  • Marriages at St Erth 1701 to 1919 of those whose Bride or groom's abode is Phillack or Hayle are on-line courtesy of the OPC.
• Burials.
  • As there is no burial ground associated with this church, there are no parish burial records. In general, burials would have taken place at Phillack.
  • Burials at St Erth 1813 to 1899 of those whose abode is Phillack or Hayle are on-line courtesy of the OPC.
• Other Non-Conformist Records. OPC Coverage of Non-Conformist records of this parish is available.

The parish of Hayle is in the Penzance Registration District, and has been since 1st July 1837. There were sub-districts at St Buryan and at St Just but these have now been abolished. Parishes within the district are: Gulval, Ludgvan, Madron, Marazion, Morvah, Penzance, Perranuthnoe, St. Buryan, St. Erth, St. Hilary, St. Ives, St. Just in Penwith, St. Levan, St. Michael's Mount, St. Paul, Sancreed, Sennen, Towednack, Uny-Lelant, Wolfe Rock Lighthouse, and Zennor. The Superintendant Registrar can be contacted at: Alphington House, Alverton Place, Penzance, TR18 4JJ. Tel: 01736 330093.

• An aerial view of Hayle and the surrounding area is available on-line, courtesy of Bing Maps.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Hayle, St Elwyn to another place.

• OPC Assistance.
  • The On-line Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme operates a service to help family historians; the OPC page for this parish is available on-line, from where the OPC can be contacted by email.
  • The OPC has provided a genealogical website for the parishes of Phillack and Hayle.
• Those researchers, with family history interests in Phillack and Hayle, are listed on-line together, where appropriately, with email links.

• Map of the Penzance Registration District in which the parish lies.
• There are some other maps of Phillack and Hayle available.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SW561375 (Lat/Lon: 50.187341, -5.418322), Hayle, St Elwyn which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Some information on Hayle's Ship's Captains and Mates is available on-line.

The Hayle Mail was the local Newspaper at the turn on the 19th/20th centuries. The Morrab Library in Penzance appears to be the only library with copies of this newspaper; they hold copies from January 1912 through to December 1917. Sid Blake of the Cornish Arms Hotel in New York wrote regular articles for the Hayle Mail. There are many other things recorded in the way of weekly reports from places as far apart as Grass Valley, California, New Zealand and Australia which mention many families and events.

• Some of the people who were connected with the Cornish Copper Company of Hayle, which was located in Phillack, are listed on-line.
• Some information about Harvey's of Hayle is available.
• Some information about Shipbuilding and Wrecks occurring in the parish is available on-line.
• Information on Inns and Innkeepers in the Hayle area is available on-line.

Hayle parish became part of the Redruth Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief on its creation.

Hayle was created from part of Phillack parish 1888 and was combined with Phillack in 1935. In 1937 it incorporated part of St Erme.

The parish comprises 727 acres of land.