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Austell in Cornwall County England History and GeographyAUSTELL, ST. a market town and parish in the eastern division of the hundred of POWDER, county of CORNWALL, 34 miles (S.W.) from Launceston, and 252 (W.S.W.) from London, on the great road from Plymouth to Falmouth, containing 6175 inhabitants. The name of this place is of uncertain deriviation; in the reign of Henry VIII. it was only an obscure village, and first rose into importance from its vicinity to Polgorth and other considerable mines; in the parliamentary war St. Austell, in which part of the army under the Earl of Essex had been quartered, was taken by Charles I. a short time previous to the capitulation of the parliamentarians near Lostwithiel in 1644. In 1760, the great road from Plymouth to the Land's End was brought through the town, which is now a considerable thoroughfare. St. Austell is pleasantly situated in a highly cultivated district, on the eastern side of a hill, which slopes gradually to a small stream; the streets are paved, and lighted with gas, and the inhabitants are well supplied with water. The trade principally consists in the produce of its numerous mines of tin, copper and lead, and in china-stone, and clay, which are found here of a very superior quality, and in great abundance. The Great Crinnis, East Crinnis, Pembroke, and Lanescot mines are exceedingly productive, and, from the improved manner of working them, promise continued prosperity to the town, the population of which has been trebled within the last 18 years. Several harbours have been formed in different parts of the parish, of these the harbour at Charlestown, a village within a mile and a half of the town, is capable of affording secure anchorage to vessels drawing from 14 to 15 feet of water. At par, to the east of Charlestown, a harbour with a ship canal is in great progress; it was projected for the especial accommodation of the Fowey Consolidated, and Lanescot copper-mines, but promises additional public advantages. Another harbour has been lately completed at Pentewan, about four miles south of St. Austell, with which an iron rail road communicates from the town. Many vessels are employed in the importation of coals from Wales, for the use of the mines, and in the exportation of copper-ore for smelting; and of china-stone, and clay, to the different potteries; and for the use of linen bleachers. The principal part of the grain tin found in Cornwall is produced here, for the melting of which, blowing houses have been erected near the town. A considerable pilchard fishery is carried on, in which many boats fitted out from the different harbours are employed. The market, which is considerable for corn and provisions, is on Friday; and there are fairs on November the 30th and the Thursday before Trinity Sunday. The town is within the jurisdiction of the county magistrates; the Blackmore, the most considerable of the Stannary courts, is held here, at which constables and other officers are appointed. The living is a perpetual curacy, with the chapel of St. Blazey, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at £21, and in the gift of the Crown. The church, dedicated to St. Austell, is an ancient structure, combining various styles of English architecture, with a very handsome tower richly ornamented with sculpture. There are places of worship for Brianites, Calvinists, the Society of Friends, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. An almshouse, with apartments for six poor persons, was erected in 1809. At Menacuddle and Towan, in this parish, there are baptismal wells, over which are ancient buildings in the early style of English architecture, covered with arched roofs of granite. Near the new harbour of Pentewan is a large quarry, from which freestone for building many of the churches and mansions in the county has been procured; and near it, in one of the celebrated tin stream works of Pentewan, the bones of men, of oxen of enormous size, of a whale, and of animals now unknown, have been found. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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