Boscastle, Cornwall

Historical Description

Boscastle, a village in Cornwall. The village is in the parishes of Minster and Forrabury, stands½ a mile from the coast, and 3 miles from Camelford station on the North Cornwall branch of the L. & S.W.R. It occupies a romantic site on the sides of hills, overhanging two deep vales, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.), a ruined ancient chapel, and a Methodist chapel. It was once a market-town, and still has fairs on 5 Aug. and 22 Nov. Its name is a corruption of Bottreaux-Castle, and was taken from a baronial mansion, the seat of the Norman family of De Bottreaux, which stood on what is now a green mound. The manor went in the time of Henry VI., by marriage, to Lord Hungerford; descended to the Earls of Huntingdon; passed to the Marquis of Hastings, who takes from it the title of Baron Bottreaux. Boscastle Port, at the nearest part of the coast, is the harbour of the village; lies in the debouch of a narrow, high-flanked vale, has a small pier and breakwater, and carries on an export coasting trade in corn, slates, and manganese. The scenery around the village is strikingly picturesque, and that on the coast very grand. The church is a stone building in the Early English style. There are Wesleyan, Bible Christian, and Methodist chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Boscastle from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Boscastle)

Maps

Online maps of Boscastle are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Cornwall papers online:

• Royal Cornwall Gazette
• Cornishman
• West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser
• Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser

Visitations Heraldic

We have a copy of The Visitations of Cornwall, by Lieut.-Col. J.L. Vivian online.