Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for TRURO

TRURO, a town, a parish, and a district, in Cornwall. The town stands on the Cornwall railway, at the head of a creek of Falmouth harbour, 8½ miles N by E of Falmouth; may have been originally called either Treru, signifying "the castle on the water," or Truru, signifying "the three streets;" had anciently a castle, which belonged to the Earls of Cornwall, and is now extinct; had likewise an ancient Dominican friary and an ancient nunnery; was visited in 1645 by Prince Charles, and then garrisoned for the king; was taken in 1646 by Fairfax; numbers among its natives the comedian Foote, the antiquary Polwhele, the African explorers R. and J. Lander, the missionary Henry Martyn, the Christian philanthropist Dr. T. Harris, and the late Lord Vivian; gives the title of Baron to the family of Wilde; is a seat of quarter sessions, petty-sessions and county courts, a polling place, a municipaland parliamentary borough, and a head port; may be considered as, more than Bodmin, the head town of the county; carries on a considerable trade in the smelting of ores, the working of tin into bars and ingots, and the exporting of tin and copper; publishes two weekly newspapers; consists of numerous wide, well built, well-paved streets; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, three banking offices, two hotels, a modern town hall in the Italian style, public rooms erected in 1867, assembly rooms, a theatre, a recent market house, a police station, a later English church with modern tower and . spire, two modern churches, four dissenting chapels, the royal institution of Cornwall with lecture-room and museum, and the county library and reading room, a diocesan female training college, an endowed grammar-school with two exhibitions at Oxford, a mining school, national and infant schools, a horticultural society, a county infirmary, alms houses with £126 a year, and other charities £118. Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and fairs, on 5 March, 14 May, 19 Nov., and 8 Dec. Vessels of 100 tons come up to the town. The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 12 small ones, of aggregately 354 tons; and 55 larger ones, of aggregately 5,025 tons. The vessels which entered in 1863 were 17 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 5,920 tons, from British colonies; 14 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 1,214 tons, from foreign countries; 57 foreign sailing-vessels, of aggregately 14,479 tons, from foreign countries; 752 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 55,117 tons, coastwise; and 40 steam-vessels, of aggregately 9,671 tons, coastwise. The amount of customs in 1862 was £11,836. The town was first chartered in the time of Henry I.; it has sent two members to parliament since the time of Edward I.; and it is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors. The borough boundaries include all T. parish and parts of Kenwyn and St. Clement. Amount of property and income tax charged in 1863, £4,548. Electors in 1833, 405; in 1863, 655. Pop. in 1851, 10,733: in 1861, 11,337. Houses, 2,391.

The parish comprises 190 acres. Real property, £13,162. Pop., 3,117. Houses, 638. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £184.* Patron, the Rev. W. W. Harvey.—The district contains 23 parishes and a part, and is divided into 6 sub-districts. Acres, 92,211. Poor rates in 1863, £14,064. Pop. in 1851, 42,270; in 1861, 43,070. Houses, 9,004. Marriages in 1863, 367; births, 1,482,-of which 96 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,072,-of which 487 were at ages under 5 years, and 29 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1 851-60, 3,332; births, 13,637; deaths, 8,590. The places of worship, in 1851, were 31 of the Church of England, with 9,986 sittings; 7 of Independents, with 1,672 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 440 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 350 s.; 59 of Wesleyans, with 14,222 s.; 3 of New Connexion Methodists, with 1,550 s.; 10 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,427 s.; 21 of Bible Christians, with 3,722 s.; 1 of the Wesleyan Association, with 52 attendants; and 1 undefined, with 95 s. The schools were 28 public day-schools, with 2,572 scholars; 73 private day-schools, with 1,794 s.; 79 Sunday schools, with 7,481 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 25 s. The workhouse is in St. Clement.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Truro CP       Truro RegD/PLU       Cornwall AncC
Place: Truro

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