Description

Cury, a parish in Cornwall, on the coast, 5 miles S by E of Helston station on the G.W.R. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, under Helston. Acreage, 2822; population of the civil parish, 354; of the ecclesiastical, 530. The manor belonged to the Bochyms, the Mohuns, the Bellots, and others. Roman coins have been found. The living is a vicarage, united with the perpetual curacy of Gunwalloe, in the diocese of Truro; joint value, £120. The church has Norman parts, and was restored in 1873-74. It has at the entrance a very beautiful specimen of Norman arched doorway, belonging to, perhaps, the 11th or 12th century. It was consecrated in 1261 by Bishop Broniscombe, bishop of Exeter (reign of Henry III.), but is likely to have been first built much earlier, as the Norman archway entrance would imply, that only being preserved of the original building. There are Wesleyan and Wesleyan Association chapels. Gunwallan church is supposed to be even still more ancient, perhaps the first building may have been in Roman times. No date can be found for it. But it is recorded that there was a Roman fort on the hill just over it, called Castle Hill or Rock. It is on the shore of the Atlantic, and has a cove running up to the churchyard. It is now a barren and almost uninhabited part of the parish, but in the Roman times there was a large village there.