In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Hingston Down like this:
HENGESTON-DOWN, or HINGSTON-DOWN-anciently HENGISTDUNE-a hill range on the E border of Cornwall; extending 4 miles eastward from the northern vicinity of Callington to the river Tamar. It culminates near the W end in Kit hill summit; and has there an altitude of 1, 067 feet above sea level. It was, prior to the time of Henry IN., the meeting place, every 7th or 8th year, of the Cornish and the Devonshire tinners; and in 835, the scene of a defeat of the Danes and the Britons by Egbert; and it, not improbably, got its name from some victory of the Saxons under Hengist and Horsa. ...
The Kit hill summit commands one of the grandest views in Cornwall; was formerly crowned by the ruin of a wind mill, which was erected for the working of a mine, and destroyed by stormy winds; and is now crowned by an engine stalk, in the shape of a fine column, 80 feet high. The locality was anciently so rich in veins of tin as to give rise to the rhyming proverb, - " Hengsten down well ywronght Is worth London town dear ybonght."
Additional information about this locality is available for Stoke Climsland
Hingston Down through time
Hingston Down is now part of North Cornwall district. Click here for graphs and data of how North Cornwall has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Hingston Down itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Hingston Down, in North Cornwall and Carmarthenshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/26182
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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