Penryn, Cornwall

Historical Description

Penryn, a market-town, a seaport, and a municipal and parliamentary borough in Cornwall. The town is in St Gluvias parish, stands on a creek of Falmouth Harbour, and has a station on the G.W.R., 303 miles from London, and 2 NW of Falmouth. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office. Acreage, 291; population of the civil parish, 3256; of the ecclesiastical, 4247. It dates from ancient times; was held by the Osbornes under the bishops of Exeter; had a seat of the bishops, and also a college founded about 1270 by Bishop Bronscombe; is a borough by prescription; was first chartered by James I.; is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; stands partly on a declivity, partly in a sheltered and very fertile valley; consists chiefly of one wide street and two or three narrow ones; and has a hotel, town-hall, temperence hall, Freemasons' lodge, market-house, mechanics' institution and newsroom, and four chapels. The Wesleyan chapel was opened in 1893. A weekly market is held on Saturday; fairs are held in March, May, July, Oct., and Dec.; and there are flour-mills, a paper-mill, an iron foundry, tanneries, manure-works, and several large factories for dressing and polishing granite. Along the waterside are commodious quays, extensive warehouses, a wharf for foreign animals, and a custom-house. The chief exports are early vegetables and granite, and the latter has long been known for its fine grain, and has been used in the construction of public works in many parts. The borough unites with Falmouth in returning one member to Parliament. Treliever Viaduct, near Penryn station, is 344 feet long and 81 high, and the College Wood Viaduct is 964 feet long and 100 high. There is no church, the inhabitants attending the church of St Gluvias, which is situated just outside the town.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5