Pillaton () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in south east

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom. The parish extends to approximately 4.6 square miles, (1,177 hectares). It is bounded by the parishes of

St Mellion St Mellion () is a village and rural civil parish in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is about south of Callington and is in the St Germans Registration District. To the north, the parish is bordered by Callington and St Dom ...

and

St Dominic Saint Dominic, (; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he and his orde ...

to the north, the

River Lynher The River Lynher () (or St Germans River downstream from its confluence with the Tiddy) flows through east Cornwall, England, and enters the River Tamar at the Hamoaze, which in turn flows into Plymouth Sound. Navigation The normal tidal l ...

to the west, Botus Fleming to the south and

Landulph Landulph () is a hamlet and a rural civil parish in south-east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is about 3 miles (5 km) north of Saltash in the St Germans Registration District. The parish lies on the River Tamar (which forms the cou ...

to the east. The population is 435 of which 366 are on the electoral register. About 70 per cent of the people live in the village itself. Land use in the parish is dominated by farming, although less than 10 per cent of resident workers are employed in this industry. The population had increased to 473 at the time of the 2011 census. There was a further increase to 499 by the time of the 2021 census, with 78 identifying as Cornish nationals. The majority of residents work outside the parish, and Pillaton is effectively a

dormitory village A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for people employed in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

and South East Cornwall. The

Pentillie Pentillie Castle is a grade II* listed building, listed English country house, country house and Estate (house), estate on the bank of the River Tamar in Paynters Cross, near to St Mellion, in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. The secula ...

estate lies in the east of the parish, on the banks of the

River Tamar The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...

History

Pillaton was recorded in Domesday Book (1086) when the manor was held by Reginald from

Robert, Count of Mortain Robert, Count of Mortain, first Earl of Cornwall of 2nd creation (–) was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother (on their mother's side) of King William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at t ...

. There was half a hide of land and land for 6 ploughs. There were 3 ploughs, 3 serfs, 7 villeins and 7 smallholders. There were 100 acres of pasture, 40 acres of woodland, 30 sheep, 10 goats and 2 cattle. The value of the manor was £1 though it had formerly been worth £1-10s.

Notable buildings

The parish church, St Odulph's, is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and stands at the upper end of the village alongside ''The Weary Friar'', a public house with accommodation, and across the road from the village hall. The church has a west tower and a south aisle. The wagon roofs are old and there is a fine monument of 1772 to James Tillie. On the night of 21 January 2013, the church was badly damaged during a snowstorm, when a thunderbolt struck the tower and heavy pieces of masonry from one of the pinnacles crashed through the tiled roof and fell into the church below. Extensive repairs were carried out with the support of English Heritage, and the church was able to reopen in November 2013, in time for the annual Remembrance Day service.

Viverdon Quarry

Viverdon Quarry is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

on Viverdon Down and is a

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee. It is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...

site. The citations states:

This locality is a rare inland exposure which is fossiliferous and has yielded a Dinantian (anchoralis Zone) conodont fauna. Recent work has also recorded
ostracod Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a Class (biology), class of the crustacean, Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 33,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant taxon, extant) have been identified,Brandão, S.N.; Antoni ...
s and bivalves referable to a Famennian age. This site is of great importance in interpreting the local stratigraphy as it reveals previously unknown structural features including the Upper Devonian thrust over the Carboniferous.

The field surrounding it is the subject of a planning application for a

solar farm A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Cornwall Civil parishes in Cornwall