Minster, Cornwall

Description
Minster, a parish in Cornwall, near the coast, 5 miles N of Camelford, and 15 W by N of Launceston station on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R. It contains part of the village of Boscastle, which has a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 3342 ; population, 368. The manor was anciently called Talcarne, belonged to the Norman family of De Bottreaux, went in the time of Henry VI. to Lord Hungerford, passed to the Earls of Huntingdon and to the Marquis of Hastings, and belongs now to the Leschellas family. A castellated baronial mansion was bailt by William de Bottreaux, and is now represented by a green mound. A Black priory, a cell to Tywardraeth, was founded also by W. de Bottreaux; gave rise to the name Minster, by corruption of the word monasterium, and has left some vestiges. A battle between the Britons and the Saxons is said to have been fought in 525 at Slaughter Bridge, and a stone, supposed to be commemorative of it, and bearing some rudely sculptured characters, was brought thence to the grounds of Worthyvale. An ancient cross, embellished with sculpture and delicate markings, is on Waterpit Downs. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Truro; gross value. £280. The church stands in a secluded nook among hills, 1 mile N of Boscastle; is ancient but good, has lost part of its tower, and contains an old circular font and monuments to the Henders and the Cottons. There is a Methodist chapel. Some remains exist of an ancient chapel.