Penryn, a port and market town in the south-west of the county, was situated on the ‘declivity of a low hill, projecting ... into one of the creeks of Falmouth harbour’, where there was ample space for a quay and ‘wharves of every description’. Its principal trade was in granite, quarried from the surrounding hills and shipped in ‘vast quantities’ to London and elsewhere for public works such as the new Waterloo Bridge.
Truro, a port and market town, was situated almost in the centre of the county, in a valley at the confluence of two rivers which formed a large navigable creek, ‘one of the numerous branches of Falmouth harbour’; there were ‘several quays and wharves on its margin’. The town was ‘increasing rapidly in wealth and population’ in this period and had strong claims to be regarded as ‘the metropolis’ of Cornwall. Its prosperity was derived chiefly from the extensive mining operations in the neighbourhood.
Callington, a nondescript market town in the south-east of the county, seven miles from Liskeard, consisted of ‘one broad street’ with ‘sadly neglected’ buildings. It served as a trading centre for arable and livestock farmers from ‘a wide area’, and a Pannier market was built in 1832 as the old corn market and shambles were ‘in such a dangerous state’. By 1820 yarn production had ‘almost disappeared’ from the town, but some of the inhabitants were still occupied as wool merchants and wool combers and others were employed in the nearby tin mines. Pigot’s Commercial Dir.
