Looe

• The Looe Heritage Centre has an on-line achive containing photos, stories, sounds and video, celebrating life in Looe. Faces, places, boats and races all feature in the archive.
• The town of Looe has its own Museum: the Old Guildhall Museum, which is in Fore Street, East Looe. This 15th century-listed ancient museum has a fascinating display of Looe's history, and contains the old magistrates bench and original cells.

• Sclerder Abbey (Roman Catholic) - 163 entries.
• Other Monumental Inscriptions for the parish have not yet been recorded.

Census information for this parish (1841 - 1901) is held in the Cornwall Record Office. The Cornwall Family History Society offers a census search service for its members.
Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841. The 1841 Census of Looe, (HO107/153) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe. (Enumeration District 1).
  • West Looe. (Enumeration District 11).
• 1851.The 1851 Census of Looe, (HO107/1903) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe. Enumeration District 5.
  • West Looe. Enumeration District 7.
  • Looe Island. Enumeration District 8.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of Looe (RG9/1531) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe. Enumeration District 9 [including the extra parochial island of St George, and Merchant Shipping].
  • West Looe. Enumeration District 8 [including Merchant Shipping].
• 1871. The 1871 Census of Looe is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe - RG10/2243. Enumeration District 9.
  • West Looe - RG10/2242. Enumeration District 8.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Looe (RG11/2287) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe. Enumeration District 9 [including Merchant Shipping].
  • West Looe. Enumeration District 8 [including Looe Island].
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Looe (RG12/1812), is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • East Looe. Enumeration District 9 and Merchant Shipping.
  • West Looe. Enumeration District 8.

Looe ecclesiastical parish was first constituted in 1845, when the chapelries of East Looe in St Martin's parish and west Looe in Talland parish were merged. The Anglican churches of each have remained.

• Anglican. There are two Anglican churches in Looe parish:
  • East Looe church was dedicated to St St Mary; it is located in OS grid square SX2553. In the year 1259, Walter Bronscombe, Bishop of Exeter, dedicated the church of St Mary de Loo. By 1805, the old chapel at East Looe was in a very decayed state, so the Corporation decided to rebuild it. The foundation stone was laid on 7th April 1805 by Vice-Admiral Sir E Buller, Bart.
    However this, itself, was replaced in 1882 by a new building. The replacement church was erected in 1882-3 on the site of the old chapel, which had been rebuilt in 1805, and was dedicated to St Anne. It consists of two aisles, separated by an arcade of five circular arches. The old tower was not taken down; it contains one bell and a clock.
  • The original West Looe church was dedicated to St St Nicholas; is is located in OS grid square SX2553. John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, in a deed dated July 11th 1336, after stating that the ancestors of Sir John Dawney, Knight, had erected a chapel dedicated to St Nicholas at Portbigan (now West Looe) in the parish of Talland, confirms the endowment, which had been enlarged, and authorised the regular celebration of divine serve therein. This was confirmed by Bishop Lacy on 3rd October 1433. For a long time, this chapel was used as a Guildhall and afterwards as a schoolroom. Considerable remains of this chapel remained in 1815. Around 1852, the building after being partially repaired, was restored to its original use. The whole building was refitted and rebuilt in 1862. The chapel comprises a chancel, nave, and north aisle. At the west end of the nave is a plain tower arch. The arcade, which is constructed of oak, apparently ship timber, is supported on two massive pillars. There is a bell turret, which appears very ancient, containing a bell and a clock.
• Roman Catholic. The parish of Looe is served from Sclerder with Looe covers a large area from Polruan to Seaton, and from the English Channel to its border with Liskeard parish, but since Liskeard parish is served from Sclerder, the area from the English Channel to the A30 and Bodmin Moor is served by one priest. Sclerder has a vital connection with Trelawne and the Trelawneys; the church at Sclerder would probably never have been built if it were not for the conversion to the Catholic faith of Sir Harry Trelawney, great-grandson of Jonathan Trelawney, the famous Anglican Bishop of Exeter. In his will, Sir Harry left the whole of the Trelawne Estate to his Catholic daughters, Anne Letitia and Mary, disinheriting his son and heir William, and so it was that they were able to provide for the building of a new Church at Sclerder. The Church was completed in 1843, and was blessed by Fr Marc Oléron, a French priest who had come to Trelwane in 1835, and had been celebrating Mass in the chapel there as well as making converts in the district. He celebrated the first Mass at Sclerder on 6th October 1843. For most of its history, Sclerder Abbey has had a religious community associated with it, among which have been Franciscan Recollects, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Poor Clares and Carmelites. At the beginning of the 21st century, Sclerder is a Carmelite Monastery, with a community of contemplative nuns.
• Non-Conformist. The Wesleyan Methodists and United Methodist Free Church had chapels at East Looe; the chapel of the latter was opened on 7th June 1860.

Many of the earlier records for Looe will be found under Talland parish and St Martin by Looe parish.

• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Looe are:
    • East Looe. East Looe Wesleyan Methodist C065081. These are searchable by surname.
    • West Looe. West Looe Independent C065471. These are searchable by surname.
  • This parish is NOT included in the LDS Church's International Genealogical Index (IGI).
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1709 - 1894, Marriages 1850 - 1980, East Looe Non-Conformist records 1815 - 1836, West Looe Non-Conformist records 1788 - 1836.
• Baptisms.
  • Baptisms for East and West Looe, 1846 to 1896, are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • Looe Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel baptisms 1871 to 1893, and Looe Bible Christian baptisms 1848 to 1900 and 885 to 1911, are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD, baptisms 1709 to 1807 for East Looe which can be purchased on Parish Chest
• Banns. Banns 1854 to 1911 for East and West Looe are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
• Marriages.
  • The OPC has transcribed the following, and is happy to do look-ups - see under Genealogy:
    • East Looe Chapelry Marriages 1850-1931.
    • West Looe Banns (St Nicholas's) 1854-1931.
  • East Looe Chapelry marriages 1850 to 1911 arealso available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
• Burials. Burials in East Looe Cemetery 1927 to 1936 are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
• Other Non-Conformist Records. OPC Coverage of Non-Conformist records of this parish is available.

The Anglican parish of Looe (both East and West) has always been in the Liskeard Registration District. There were sub-districts at Callington, Lerrin, Liskeard and Looe. Parishes within the district are: Boconnoc, Broadoak, Callington, Calstock (1837-60), Duloe, East Looe, Lanreath, Lansallos, Lanteglos, Linkinhorne, Liskeard, Liskeard Borough, Menheniot, Morval, Pelynt, St. Cleer, St. Dominick, St. Ive, St. Keyne, St. Martin's, St. Neot, St. Pinnock, St. Veep, Southill, Talland and West Looe.
The Superintendant Registrar can be contacted at: Graylands, Dean Street, Liskeard, PL14 4AH. Tel: 01579 343442.

• The The Case of the Borough of West Looe - Topogrphical and historical sketches of the boroughs of East and West Looe is available on-line, courtesy of the Old Cornwall Society. It was published by H.A. Merewether Esq. in 1823.
• In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Looe as:
  "LOOE, a sub-district in Liskeard district, Cornwall; containing St. Martin's parish, Talland parish, three other parishes, and Looe Island. Acres, 19,953. Pop, 5,665. Houses, 1,121."

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Looe to another place.

OPC Assistance. The On-line Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme operates a service to help family historians; the OPC page for this parish is available on-line, from where the OPC can be contacted by email.

• Map of the Liskeard Registration District in which the parish lies.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SX253527 (Lat/Lon: 50.348069, -4.456865), Looe which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Apprenticeship Indentures for East Looe (1655 - 1820) can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

Both East and West Looe were part of the Liskeard Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief. Overseers' Accounts for East Looe (1692 to 1819), Settlement Papers (1696 to 1835) are available. Overseers' Accounts for West Looe (1697, 1715) and Bastardy Bonds (1656 to 1657) are aalso available. These can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

Looe was created from parts of Talland and St Martin parishes in 1709. Talland civil parish was abolished in 1934; the area was distributed between Looe and Lansallos parishes and this partially accounts for population variations from 1951.

The Looe Old Cornwall Society News Page is on-line.

The parish comprises 222 acres of land.