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Summary

The settlement and manor of Tehidy are first recorded as "Tedintone" in the Domesday Survey of 1086.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 26555
• SHINE Candidate (Yes)

Monument Type(s):

• SETTLEMENT (Early Medieval - 410 AD to 1065 AD)
• MANOR (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• SETTLEMENT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

The settlement and manor of Tehidy are first recorded as "Tedintone" in the Domesday Survey of 1086 (b1). Its Domesday entry records it had "land for 50 ploughs, meadow 2 acres; pasture 3 leagues long and one league wide; woodland 1 league long and as wide" (b4). It was the paramount manor of its area, with lands extending over the parishes of Camborne and Redruth as well as Illogan (b3). The Domesday Book forms of the name recall those of Taynton in Gloucestershire, containing the Old English personal name of Taeta, plus '-ing' and 'tun' (b3).

Tehidy became a country house belonging to the Basset family. The parkland landscape at Tehidy dates initially from the early 18th century coinciding with the rebuilding of the mansion by John Pendarves Basset in 1734. Substantial tree belts were planted and a fish pond with cascade created. Kitchen gardens were developed towards the end of the century with further shelter planting carried out. The pond was enlarged and made less formal. A fine temple (since demolished) was built in the northern woodland as an 'eye-catcher' and a (possible) bathing facility (6).

The old deer park for Tehidy was on Carn Brea, but in the 1780s deer were introduced to the parkland surrounding the house (6).

Later 19th century works included a design by Nesfield for a parterre (perhaps never constructed) (6).

Following the Bassets’ sale of Tehidy in 1916, the inner Country Park area was preserved, if increasingly neglected, as the grounds of a sanatorium for the ‘openair’ treatment of tuberculosis (b5).

In 1983 Cornwall Council purchased the grounds of Tehidy to develop as a Country Park. The hospital was vacated in 1988 and the house and immediate grounds were developed for executive-style housing in 1995. The grounds are still managed as a Country Park .

Although the earlier half of the parkland has become a golf course and the house, which was rebuilt after a fire in the early part of the 20th century, is now converted into apratments with further dwellings in the walled garden, the majority of the designed landscape is still extant within the Country Park. Parts of the parkland landscape are somewhat neglected (6).

<1> Gover, JEB, 1948, Place-Names of Cornwall, 608 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3402.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1970s, 1:10,000 OS Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4045.

<3> Institute Of Cornish Studies, 1987, Place-Names Index (Bibliographic reference). SCO3621.

<4> Thorn, C & F (Eds), 1979, Domesday Book 10: Cornwall, 121 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4703.

<5> Parkes, C, 2011, Tehidy Country Park, Illogan, Cornwall - Archaeological Assessment, 13 (Report). SCO24992.

<6> CORNWALL GARDENS TRUST, 1998, Historic Garden Register Review programme for Cornwall (Report). SCO28473.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO5069 - Historic Garden Register Review programme for Cornwall (Ref: EH/Cornwall - 21)

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