Grampound, Cornwall
Historical Description
Grampound, a decayed ancient town in Cornwall. It stands on the river Fal, 1½ mile SSE of Grampound Road station on the G.W.R. (Cornwall), and 2½ miles NNE of Tregony, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. It is supposed to have been the Voliba of Ptolemy; took the name of Grampound, originally Grandpont, signifying " great bridge," from a bridge built at it over the Fal; acquired the right of a market from John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Edward III.; was made a borough after the Earl's death by Edward III.; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward VI. to 1824, when it was disfranchised for corrupt practices; had for one of its parliamentary representatives, in 1620, John Hampden; consists now chiefly of one street on a declivity, and has a granite cross, a town-hall, and Bible Christian, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. Six ancient camps are in its neighbourhood on the Fal; one of them, 1 mile S, on Golden farm; another, half a mile NE, on the road to St Austell; another, 1 mile W, on the road to Truro; another, 1 mile N, close to the Fal; another, a little farther N, called Resugga Castle; and another, 1 mile W of Resugga, on Barrow Down. A chapel of ease, now used as the parish church, was erected in 1869, and is in the Early English style.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Cornwall | |
| Civil parish | Probus | |
| Hundred | Powder | |
| Poor Law union | St. Austell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
St. Nunn (parish church)
Here was formerly a chapel of ease, licensed August 3rd, 1421, and dedicated to St. Nunn, or St. Naunter; it was used for divine service up to 1815, but fell into ruins about the year 1820; in 1827 every vestige of it had been carried away, and from that time until 1869 the site was used as a playground and sheep market: in that year, through the exertions of the Rev. Philip Woollcombe, a former rector of Creed, a new chapel was erected on the old site, and consecrated by Bishop Trower (commissary for Dr. Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter) on the 30th of June in the same year; it is a building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of apsidal chancel, with a reredos beautifully carved in Caen stone, nave, with lofty open roof, south porch and a turret containing one bell: there are 250 sittings. Some remains of the old chapel, including a very pretty rose window, were built into a cottage or lodge at the entrance to the grounds of Veryan vicarage. In the old chapel there were sittings appropriated to the mayor and corporation, and it is said that on the day of choosing the mayor, which took place in the Town Hall, if the corporation could not agree, they retired into the chapel, where they remained until they were unanimous in their choice.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Grampound from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Grampound)
Maps
Online maps of Grampound 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.