Mitchell was little more than a hamlet situated five miles south-east of Truro, consisting of ‘between 20 and 30 houses’ of which ‘about one-half’ were inhabited. The borough limits were not clearly defined but encompassed ‘considerable’ portions of the parishes of Newlyn and St. Enoder, an ‘almost entirely ... agricultural and mining district’. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 170; PP (1830-1), x. 99; (1831-2), xxxvi.
St. Ives, a prosperous seaport and market town situated on the western angle of a ‘fine bay’ on the Bristol Channel, in the north-west of the county, was ‘large but irregularly built’, consisting of ‘narrow and intricate’ streets. Its principal sources of employment were in the pilchard fishery, the most extensive in Cornwall, and the neighbouring tin and copper mines; in 1830 both industries were said to be ‘flourishing’, but they were prone to fluctuations. The construction of a pier and lighthouse in the 1760s had made St.
St. Mawes, a decayed port on the east coast of Falmouth Bay in the south-west of the county, had one main street of houses fronting the sea, on the north side of the harbour, which were mostly inhabited by fishermen engaged in the declining pilchard fishery. Oldfield, Rep. Hist. (1816), iii. 231; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 166; S. Lewis, Topographical Dict. of England (1831), iii. 272. The borough comprised the manor of St. Mawes, which formed part of the parish of St. Just.
Tregony, a once flourishing seaport and market town, situated on the ‘main arm’ of the River Fal about seven miles south-east of Truro, had been ‘reduced ... to abject poverty’ by the eighteenth century as the river had silted up and the tide no longer reached the harbour. A large woollen cloth manufactory had ‘long since been abandoned’ and the market was ‘very small’, owing to competition from Truro and St. Austell. The population consisted ‘chiefly of the labouring poor’, who were ‘almost exclusively employed in agriculture’, and many of the houses were ‘small and wretched’. S.
Bossiney, a former fishing port situated on the north-eastern coast of the county, had dwindled into a village of ‘the most insignificant description’, containing ‘a few straggling houses’ which were occupied mostly by farmers. Its market had ‘long been discontinued’ and the surrounding countryside was ‘so bleak and rugged as to exhibit a complete picture of devastation’. S. Drew, Hist. Cornw. (1824), i. 644; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 136-7; Parochial Hist. Cornw. iv. 231, 235-6; PP (1835), xxiii.
Newport, a small town in the east of the county, stood ‘in the suburbs of Launceston’, from which it was separated by a ‘narrow rivulet’, with an ‘ancient bridge’ connecting the streets on either side. S. Drew, Hist. Cornw. (1824), i. 646-7; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 147; Parochial Hist. Cornw. iv. 168-9; PP (1831-2), xxxviii. 69. The borough was contained within but comprised only part of the parish of St.
Lostwithiel, a ‘small market town’ of ‘great antiquity’, was situated in a valley at the head of the estuary of the tidal River Fowey, on the Plymouth to Truro road in the south of the county, six miles from Bodmin. It consisted of ‘three principal streets’, which were said in 1824 to be ‘narrow and roughly paved’, although many of the houses displayed ‘no contemptible degree of elegance’. The local economy was ‘thriving and ...
Camelford, a small market town situated on the River Camel in the north-east of the county, was ‘a place of little trade’ and the houses were generally ‘rather poor’. Its immediate vicinity consisted of ‘good agricultural land’, but the country beyond was largely ‘bleak and dreary’ and included the ‘prolific’ Freburget lead mine, three miles away. S. Drew, Hist. Cornw. (1824), ii. 402-3; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 139; Parochial Hist. Cornw. i. 191-3. The borough comprised ‘about one-tenth’ of the parish of Lanteglos-by-Camelford.
Bodmin, a market town situated ‘along the bottom and some way up the sides of a deep valley’, almost in the centre of the county, consisted ‘principally of one street, running from east to west ... nearly a mile in length’. It was the trading centre for ‘an extensive agricultural district’, which included ‘exceedingly good grazing land’, and was for many purposes the county town. However, in 1824 there were said to be ‘many marks of desolation’ in ‘the western districts’, and the streets in the centre were ‘dangerously narrow’.
St. Germans, an ‘inconsiderable town’ with ‘no claims to notice but its antiquity’, was situated on the side of a valley next to a creek, on the south-eastern coast of the county. Most of the inhabitants were fishermen, the houses were said in 1824 to be ‘continually decreasing’ in number and the weekly market was merely ‘nominal’. S. Drew, Hist. Cornw. (1824), i. 651-2; ii. 278-84; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 163; Parochial Hist. Cornw. ii.
