The Helston Coinage Hall was a Tudor coinage hall in the Cornish town of

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

, created for the purposes of

tin coinage In Devon and Cornwall, tin coinage was a tax on refined tin, payable to the Duchy of Cornwall and administered in the Stannary Towns. The oldest surviving records of coinage show that it was collected in 1156. It was abolished by the Tin Du ...

out of a

13th century The 13th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1201 (represented by the Roman numerals MCCI) through December 31, 1300 (MCCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan, which stretched ...

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

. Its position lay at the southern end of Coinage Hall Street, opposite the Helston Castle. It was demolished by public subscription following the 1796 general election.

History

The original structure was built as a

chantry chapel A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a set of Church service, Christian liturgical celebrations for the dead (made up of the Requiem Mass and the Office of the Dead), or # a chantr ...

sometime before 1283 and dedicated to

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

, perhaps for

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

Earl of Cornwall The title of Earl of Cornwall was created several times in the Peerage of England before 1337, when it was superseded by the title Duke of Cornwall, which became attached to heirs-apparent to the throne. Condor of Cornwall *Condor of Cornwall, ...

. Unlike Helston's other chapel of ease (St Michael's), it was a free chapel used by the burgesses of Helston and out of the control of the Vicar of

Wendron Wendron (; historically St. Wendron) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately to the north of Helston and to the west of Penryn. The parish population at the 2011 census was 2,743. The electoral ...

(the parish in which the borough was situate). In a 1356 petition to

The Black Prince Edward of Woodstock (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward ne ...

, it was said to be "of the foundation of the progenitors of our lord the Prince" and the chapel grew rich as Helston developed as a borough. Therefore, a permanent chaplain whose duty it was to sing mass daily for "the lords of the town and their progenitors" could be employed and its central location - outside the castle gates - gave its name to the main street: then known as St Mary's or Lady Street (the modern day Coinage Hall street). The St Mary's chapel was still performing its original functions of ministering to the burgesses and keeping

obiit Obiits were an annual endowed service commemorating the dead. Feast days for patron saints were often reserved for endowed masses associated with the ''obiit'', sometimes in a chantry. Background The practice has its origin in the recitation of t ...

for the soul of its founder in 1556, however by 1557 it had been seized by

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

under the Dissolution of Colleges Act 1547 and sold to the town; thus sharing the same fate as the St Mary's chapel of Penryn, which occupied a similar position in the middle of the main street. Helston had been a coinage town since at least 1305 and continued those duties until relieved by the Tin Duties Act 1838. By the 1790s the medieval building was seen as inconvenient for the modern town, and following the 1796 general election, Charles Abbot, the newly returned member for Helston, had "desired not to give any election entertainments, but to commute that expense for a subscription of 200 guineas to remove the Coinage Hall and rebuild it in a more convenient part of the town". The new coinage hall, situated at 53 Coinagehall Street was built for this purpose in the early 19th century and still survives, later having been used as a Duchy Office and surgeon's house. It was

grade II listed 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, H ...

in 1950. The site of the original coinage hall, once demolished, was used as a

cattle market In economics, a market is a composition of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations or infrastructures whereby parties engage in Exchange (economics), exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets re ...

and ceremonial approach for the Grylls Monument.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helston_Coinage_Hall Medieval Cornwall Mining in Cornwall English Reformation Mining law and governance Churches in Cornwall 16th century 13th century History of Cornwall Coinage Towns

History

See also

References