PEOPLE

Over the centuries the most influential families in the parish have been those of Trebartha, Spoure and Rodd. These families lived at Trebartha Hall from mediaeval times until the Second World War. The Duchy of Cornwall has also been influential in North Hill for many years.

Do you have any knowledge, anecdotes, documents or histories which could help explain the role of these families, the Duchy and their impact? We would be delighted to publish anything you can add to the story of the people in our parish. Perhaps you have an interest in some of the other family names which have been part of the parish history for some years, names like Spoure, Coumbe, Rodd, Budge, Buckingham, Luskey, Sandercock and Doney. There are many more and our apologies if the name which interests you is not mentioned here. Look on our Families page to see if it is there.

Perhaps you have some stories about life in the parish such as when those members of the parish changed their place of worship from St Torney to one the chapels or when the mines started to close or when Trebartha was used as a military hospital or the history of the workhouse in the parish. There are so many stories to tell.

The population has been around 1000 since the beginning of the 19th century.

There are four significant 17th century monuments in the church. Three are dedicated to members of the Spoure family and one to Thomas Vincent. On the south wall is a slate tombcover with a skull to Henry Spoure who died in 1603. Nearby is the 1683 memorial to his descendant Henry Spoure who died in 1688, aged 10, and next to this is a coloured slate commemorating Richard Spoure who died as an infant in 1623. In the north west corner is an elaborately carved slate tomb, dated 1606, in memory of Thomas Vincent (of Battens) and his wife, Jane. Jane died in 1601 and hers is the earliest death commemorated in the church.

We hear from North-hill, near Launceston, Cornwal, that last Sunday Afternoon, when the People were at Divine Service, the Congregation was terribly frighted with the Noise of some dismal Groans, which threw them all all into the greatest Confusion, putting them in Mind of the latter Day, as it's supposed, and that the Graves were opening. At last they heard some Sound of Speech, saying, What stand you bawling there for? shut it up, etc. Upon which the Congregation went out of Church, and the Parson concluded his Sermon; when instead of a Spirit or Apparition, they found a drunken Carpenter, who it seems had hid himself.

Life and Death

1852/3 Electoral Roll

World War 1 and World War 2

The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in August 2014 was the catalyst that brought about our publication "The Fallen of North Hill Parish".

The parish War Memorial at Congdon’s Shop was our starting point. Whilst there are four names from the Second World War on it there are fourteen names of the fallen from the First World War. Another three are mentioned on a roll of honour in the parish church of St Torney; others are remembered on the Sunday School roll at Coad’s Green Church. The commemoration booklet has been produced to mark the anniversary. Having published the booklet, more and more fatalities from the two wars came to our attention. All are listed on our Roll of Honour on this website. Where possible we have recorded biographies of their short lives.

The Chatterer

As part of the 2012 NHLHG Open Day cuttings from old newspapers, with North Hill stories to tell, were collated into four single page editions of the The North Hill Chatterer. You can read them by clicking on the images below.

The four images that make up the banner at the top of this page are (L-R): Coad’s Green Band of Hope, a little girl on her tricycle (1909), Samuel Fuge on his cart, the names of 14 of those from the parish who died in World War 1.