Kea

"KEA, a parish in the W. division of the hundred of Powder, county Cornwall, 3 miles S. of Truro, its post town, and 8½ N. of Falmouth. The parish, which is considerable, is bounded on the E. by the river Fal, on the W. by Gwennap, and on the N. by Kenwyn. It is intersected by-the great road leading from Truro to Falmouth, and by the Redruth railway. It is mentioned in Domesday Book as Landegey, but was also named Kea after St. Kea, who, it is said, sailed over from Ireland in a granite boat; or after Pope Caius or St. Kew, or Kea the Virgin. There are copper, tin, and black jack mines -the latter, which is situated at Chacewater, is worked by the largest engine in the county. A large portion of the inhabitants is employed in the mines, the remainder in agriculture, and there is a smelting-house for silver. The land is chiefly arable, and very productive. There are some barrows in the neighbourhood. The living is a vicarage* annexed to the vicarage* of Kenwyn, in the diocese of Exeter. The parish church is situated near the centre of the parish, on the side of a hill towards the E., and is dedicated to St. Kea. It has a pinnacled tower containing three bells. In the interior are some paintings by Mrs. Gwatkin Killiow, niece of Reynolds. This church was erected in 1802 in lieu of the old one, which was situated on the banks of the river Fal, where the old tower, is still standing, and close to which a little church was erected in 1858. Besides the parish church there is a new district church at Baldhu, with a school attached, recently erected by Viscount Falmouth. At Kea Church-Town are National schools, and almshouses endowed by John Lanyon, in 1724, with £53 per annum. There are also chapels for Independents, Wesleyans, Baptists, and Bryanites. Guddern, the seat of the Bowdens, is a mansion situated in well-wooded grounds. Viscount Falmouth is lord of the manor, chief landowner, and lay impropriator of the great tithes. Carlyon is celebrated in story as the birth-place of the good knight Sir Tristram."

"BALDHU, a village in the parish of Kea, county of Cornwall, not far from Truro, its post town. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Exeter, of the value of £200, in the patronage of Viscount Falmouth."