Lanherne


Lanherne is an historic manor in the parish of St Mawgan in Pydar, in Cornwall, England. The village of St Mawgan is situated four miles northeast of Newquay. It was long a seat of a branch of the prominent Arundell family. The surviving manor house known as Lanherne House is an early 16th-century grade I listed building.

History

The manor of Lanherne was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was held by Fulchard from the Bishop of Exeter. It contained 3 hides of land and land for 10 ploughs. The overlord retained one virgate of land in demesne with one plough and 4 serfs; 8 villeins and 6 smallholders occupied the rest of the land with 3 ploughs. There were 2 square leagues of pasture and the value of the manor was £2 10 shillings and had formerly been worth £5 sterling;
The Arundell family "of Lanherne" have been the chief landowners in St Mawgan since the 13th century. It was a branch of the prominent and widespread Arundell family also seated at Trerice, Tolverne, Menadarva in Cornwall and at Wardour Castle in Wiltshire. In 1794 Lanherne House, mainly built in the 16th and 17th centuries, became a convent for émigré nuns from Belgium. Many memorials of the Arundells survive in the parish churches of St Mawgan, dedicated to St Mauganus and St Nicholas, including monumental brasses to George Arundell, Mary Arundell, Cyssel and Jane Arundell, Edward Arundell. Further memorials of the Arundells survive in the parish church of nearby St Columb Major.

Notable Arundells of Lanherne

The subject of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's illustrative poem, St. Mawgan Church and Lanhern Nunnery, Cornwall, is the manor house's period as a nunnery.