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Bossiney with Trevena

BOSSINEY with TREVENA, in the parish of Tintagell, union of Camelford, hundred of Lesnewth, E. division of Cornwall, 4½ miles (N. W.) from Camelford; containing 296 inhabitants, of whom 219 are in Trevena. Bossiney and Trevena are two villages, about a quarter of a mile distant from each other, situated on a bleak and rugged part of the northern coast. A fair is held at the latter on the first Monday after Oct. 19th. Bossiney was made a free borough in the reign of Henry III., by Richard Earl of Cornwall, brother to that monarch; and a mayor, whose office is merely nominal, is chosen annually by a jury of burgesses empannelled by his predecessor, at the court leet held in October, when constables and other inferior officers are likewise appointed. The elective franchise was conferred in the 7th of Edward VI., from which time the borough returned two members to parliament, until it was disfranchised by the act of the 2nd of William IV., cap. 45. The town-hall, a small building, is appropriated also to the use of a charity school, which is chiefly supported by the mayor and burgesses, who appoint the master, and allow him a salary of £20 per annum. There are some remains of King Arthur's Castle, on the top of a stupendous rock, formerly part of the main land, but now connected with it only by a narrow isthmus: the summit comprises an area of thirty acres of pasture; but the acclivities are so steep that it is almost inaccessible to the sheep that graze on it.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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