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Corney is a parish on the south coast, between Bootle and Waberthwaite.
Coming to its little church on a lonely hilltop we are rewarded with a splendid view of this fascinating countryside.Far in the valley below a mountain stream chatters under a tiny bridge,and here and there among the hills the farms are dotted. Over the lowlands we look to the sea, and inland rise Black Combe and Buck Barrow.
The church here is dedicated to St John the Baptist and at its height of 600 feet looks protectively over rhe parish.This church is a little over 100 years old, though there has been one here since the 12th century. In the churchyard is a sundial dated 1882, the gift of one Edward Troughton, Corney's most famous son. Despite being colour blind and deaf he became famous for his work on scientific instruments, and was awarded the Copley medal by the Royal Society.
The Brown Cow Inn built around 1800, and in its early days provided bed and board for huntsmen and hounds. It wasn't until the late 1950's that electricity first came to Corney...lighting until then had been by oil lamps and candles.
Corney people have a reputation for longevity. A gravestone here shows one John Noble lived here 1658-1772 (114 years)..his life stretching from the end of Cromwell's to the beginning of Napoleon's.
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