Description

Breage or St Breage (pronounced Brague) a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands on the coast, 4 miles W of Helston station on the G.W.R., and has a post office under Helston, which is the money order office; telegraph office, Porthleven. It is said to have been founded by the Irish St Breaca. The parish comprises 7265 acres of land and 130 of foreshore and water; population of the civil parish, 2751; of the ecclesiastical, with Germoe, 2187. Much of the property belonged formerly to the Godolphin family, but the sole heiress marrying the Duke of Leeds, it passed into that family. Godolphin mansion is now used as a farmhouse. Godolphin and Tregonning Hills rise to altitudes of 495 and 596 feet, consist of granite, and are rich in minerals. China clay is worked out of part of Tregonning and Godolphin Hills and sent to neighbouring ports for shipment. Huel-Vor or Wheal-Vor tin mine is in the same hills, was worked in lodes 30 feet wide, extends upwards of 1 1/2 mile under ground, and yielded at times a clear profit of £10,000 in three months, but is now worked out. The living is a vicarage with Germoe in the diocese of Truro ; net value, £200. Patron, the Crown. The church contains the remains of Mrs Godolphin, and was restored in 1890 at a cost of £4000. Many frescoes were discovered, some of which have been restored. The church is now one of the finest in Cornwall, and possesses the largest bell. The vicarage of Godolphin and that of Cury and Gunwalloe are separate benefices. There are Wesleyan, Bible Christian, and Methodist chapels, and a mission church at Ashtown. Lord Treasurer Godolphin and the first Viscount Exmouth were born here.