LannerCornwall

Lanner at a glance

Lanner: copper mining village on the A393 below Carn Marth, home of the Lanner and District Silver Band

Lanner is a village and parish in west Cornwall, about 2 miles south east of Redruth. It sits in a valley and straddles the A393 between Redruth and Falmouth, centred on a square, with the west end known as Lanner Hill and the east end as Lanner Moor. Carn Marth rises to the north, Lanner Hill to the west and Tresavean Hill to the south. The parish covers 1,460 acres, and around 2,690 people lived there at the 2011 census.

The name comes from the Cornish Lannergh, meaning a clearing. Lanner is recorded from 1542, and there are traces of Bronze Age settlement. It was part of Gwennap parish until it became a parish of its own in 1844. The foundation stone of Christ Church, now the parish church, was laid in 1839, and the small stuccoed church was restored in 1883. The village also has a large Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and the former Bible Christian chapel is now the village hall.

Lanner grew quickly in the 19th century as a tin and copper mining village. Tresavean mine, to the south, was at its height one of the most productive copper mines in Cornwall, and in 1842 Michael Loam built his first man engine there, a machine that carried miners up and down the shafts. Lanner AFC now plays on the former Tresavean mine site. On Carn Marth Lane, the engine house of Pennance Consols once held a 50 inch pumping engine built in 1866.

Carn Marth, at 235 metres, is the highest point in the area, and on a clear day the views reach both coasts. Its granite was quarried for around 200 years, supplying sleepers for the Redruth and Chacewater Railway in 1824 and stone for buildings in Redruth. The quarries were abandoned in 1917, and after a local campaign stopped new quarrying in 1986 the Carn Marth Trust took on the site. One old quarry is now an open air amphitheatre, and another holds a flooded pool.

Lanner has a strong musical and sporting tradition. The Lanner and District Silver Band was formed in the mid 1890s, broke up in 1902 when many players emigrated to the South African mines, and was reformed in 1965 in a chicken shed. It finished third at the National Finals in 2003 and now has a band centre on Lanner Hill. Cornish wrestling tournaments have been held in the village for about 200 years, and the countertenor Richard Jose was born here. The electronic musician Richard D. James, known as Aphex Twin, was brought up locally.