Kilkhampton, Cornwall
Historical Description
Kilkhampton, a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands 2½ miles W of the river Tamar at the boundary with Devon, 3½ E of the coast near Lower Sharpnose Point, and 10 from Holsworthy station on the L. & S.W.R.; was once a market-town, and has fairs on the Thursday before Ascension Day, first Thursday in July, and 26 August. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, under Stratton. Acreage, 8189 of land and 199 of water and foreshore; population, 900. The manor belonged, from the Conquest till 1711, to the Grau-villes, who became Earls of Bath, went then to the last Earl's aunt, the wife of George, afterwards Lord Carteret, and passed through her to Lord John Thynne. A magnificent mansion, called Stowe, was built on the site of a previous mansion in 1680 by one of the Granvilles, was demolished in 1720, and is now represented by only a moated site. A picturesque ravine, called Combe Valley, commences immediately N of the village, goes thence to the sea, and terminates there between lofty cliffs. The adjacent parts of the coast are grandly picturesque. The reservoir of the Bude Canal is on the border. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Truro; value, £612 with residence. The church is one of the grandest specimens of Perpendicular architecture in Cornwall-a true Cornish church, with three aisles of equal length, very lofty, and enriched with beautiful carving both in roof and on bench ends. Nearly all the windows are filled with stained glass. The south doorway is the only remnant of the ancient Norman church built in the 12th century. The date of the present church is 1567. It was renovated and partly rebuilt by the Eev. Lord John Thyune in 1860. There is a village reading-room.
Maps
Online maps of Kilkhampton 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.