xThe history of the ancient village of Wilcove near Torpoint is being researched for a new book.

Several members of the Wilcove Community Association are undertaking the challenging task.

Association chairman Mrs Paddy Knott, who was born at Whitehall Farm in the village, said: "We have asked people for their memories of and anecdotes about the village."

Retired electrical engineer John Carter, Sue Walsh, Ann Moore and Jim Smith have also been working on the book.

John, who has lived in the village all his life, said: "We have been researching for 15 months. The whole village was originally owned by the Antony Estate and all the records are held at Antony House. But to view them we have to request the County Records Office to take them to its office in Truro. This is done for security."

Consequently, instead of the members just travelling the short distance to the house, they have to undertake a round trip of approximately 100 miles to carry out research.

So far they have visited the office on seven or eight occasions, spending several hours each time going through records.

"The records office has been extremely helpful. We have been trying to decipher some of the Old English on parchment leases and are going to have a special training day at the office to help us with this," said John.

"The village is shown on a map in the 17th Century as Wilkeyhone. Wilcove was bigger than Torpoint up until the early 19th Century. At its peak the village had around 500 residents with many working for the Antony Estate. Today there are around 200. A lot of the original village houses have disappeared."

Paddy, who has retired from teaching geography at Torpoint School, said: "From looking at old records we can see that there were lots of smallholdings in the village. The land was fertile and virtually every house had an orchard.

"There used to be a quarry and sand quays in the village which is bordered by the River Tamar and River Lynher."

The presence of Devonport Dockyard across the Hamoaze from Wilcove has had an impact on life in the village over the years with many people finding employment there.

And for many years this century there was a military presence in the village in the form of HMS Defiance where sailors and submariners received training in a number of naval disciplines.

One of the chapters in the book will be devoted to HMS Defiance. Others will look at the earliest history of the village, the social history, the schools, the churches and more recent times.

At one time, before the introduction of state education, there were up to seven small schools in the village.

The parish church for the village stands at Maryfield near Antony House and was built in Victorian times. The village used to have a Wesleyan Chapel but this no longer exists. However, the association does have a drawing of the building. The chapter on more recent times will include details of a former youth club and information on the Maryfield cricket team which stopped playing about 30 years ago. Wilcove Women's Institute which is celebrating its 50th anniversary next month will also be featured.

The association is hoping to obtain grant aid towards producing the book and possibly a CD-ROM before the end of the year.