In Anglo-Saxon times there was a monastery here dedicated to
St Stephen whose canons owned the surrounding land including the town of Launceston (i.e.
Lan-stefan-ton) (the name did not then belong to Dunheved the present town). A mint was established here as early as the reign of
Aethelred II, 976, but only one specimen is known to exist (it weighs 1.61g). However, after the Norman Conquest the Norman Earl acquired Dunheved and rebuilt the castle there. He expropriated the market and mint of the canons and the townspeople followed them to Dunheved. (The name of Launceston belonged originally to the monastery and town here, but was then transferred to the town of
Dunheved.) The church of St Stephen retained its importance and remained the mother church of many of the surrounding parishes, Tremaine, Egloskerry, Tresmeer, Werrington, St Giles, Laneast, St Thomas, St Mary Magdalene and others throughout the Middle Ages. The borough of Dunheved, otherwise Launceston was enlarged to match the local board district in 1889. The
Local Government Act 1894 directed that civil parishes were no longer allowed to straddle borough boundaries, and so the parish of St Stephens was split into a St Stephens by Launceston Urban parish covering the parts inside the borough, including the old settlement of St Stephen's around the parish church, and a St Stephens by Launceston Rural parish covering the rural parts of the old parish outside the borough. The urban parishes within the borough were subsequently united into a single parish of Dunheved, otherwise Launceston, in 1922. ==Notable buildings ==