T he early history of the parish of Falmouth and the founding of the parish of All Saints. The story of the parish of Falmouth begins nearly three hundred years ago with Sir Peter Killigrew of Arwenacke Manor House. In 1663 he gave land for a church, parsonage and church yard and with the help of funds provided by King Charles II, the Duke of York and “diverse honourable and worthy persons” built the church of King Charles the Martyr. He further, and with great difficulty and at considerable cost to himself, obtained in 1664 an Act of Parliament by which the parish of Falmouth was separated from that of Budock. Thus it came about that on August 2nd, 1665, the church was consecrated by Seth Ward, Bishop of Exeter and dedicated to the memory of Charles the First, King and Martyr. Falmouth at this time contained, in addition to the Manor House of Arwenacke, only a couple of hundred houses and the church must have been amply large for its congregations; but the town was growing rapidly and in 1876 a Mission Church, known as All Saints, was established in Lower Killigrew Street. In 1877, although it was claimed that the Church of King Charles the Martyr could hold nineteen hundred people, it was clearly not large enough for the needs of the town, and at the Easter Vestry the suggestion was made that a fund should be opened for the building of a new church. However, it was ten years before the foundation stone of that church, the present All Saints, was laid. In June, 1886, Lord Kimberley gave land for the new church and in 1887 the building committee appointed Mr. T. D. Seddin as architect and commissioned him to build in Early English style a church which should seat between seven hundred and eight hundred people, at a cost of not more than £5,000. Work on the site was quickly begun and on November 1st. 1887, all was ready for the laying of the foundation stone on the following day by the Prince of Wales. Great preparations had been made. A marquee large enough to hold some hundreds of people had been erected on the ground and decorations were hung out in the town-but, on the day and night before, a gale raged with such fury that the marquee was blown down and badly torn, its supporting poles were snapped off close to the ground, and the town's decorations were sorely battered. On the day itself, Wednesday November 2nd, the weather had improved though it was showery and windy. Hurriedly a smaller tent was put up, so that the Prince and a few of those taking part in the ceremony could be under cover. Fortunately there was a fine interval for the actual laying of the foundation stone. Page 2