Menheniot

Menheniot is a village and civil parish in east Cornwall, about 2.5 miles south-east of Liskeard. The name means “sanctuary of Neot” in Cornish, linking the settlement to the same saint commemorated at St Neot on the edge of Bodmin Moor. The village sits in gently rolling farmland, with the parish church of St Lalluwy at its centre.

The church was consecrated in 1293, and the tower with its spire - a rare feature in Cornwall - may date from the 14th century. Inside, the earliest monumental brass in Cornwall commemorates Sir Ralph Carmynow, who died in 1386. The carved pulpit, installed in 1891 by Harry Hems of Exeter, depicts the polar expeditions of Vice-Admiral Charles Trelawny Jago. Captain John Richards Lapenotiere, the naval officer who carried news of the Battle of Trafalgar from Falmouth to London in 1805, is buried in the churchyard.

In the 1840s, lead seams were discovered locally, and Menheniot became the centre of a mining boom that doubled the parish population before declining in the 1870s. Today the village has returned to its agricultural roots, with a quiet character and a strong community. Liskeard is the nearest market town, with independent shops and a railway station on the Paddington to Penzance line. The south coast beaches at Looe and Seaton are within a 15-minute drive, and Bodmin Moor is accessible to the north-west.