Ludgvan (St. Paul)

LUDGVAN (St. Paul), a parish, in the union of Penzance, W. division of the hundred of Penwith and of the county of Cornwall, 1½ mile (N. N. W.) from Marazion; containing 3190 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the shore of Mount's bay in the English Channel, and is intersected by the road between Penzance and Truro; it comprises 4544 acres, of which 1204 are common or waste. A kind of granite, peculiar to the locality, is quarried for building and for repairing the roads. A fair is held in October. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £30. 11. 0½., and in the gift of Lord Bolton: the tithes have been commuted for £808, and the glebe contains 38½ acres, with a house. The church, which is ancient, has a Norman arch over the south entrance, and was enlarged in 1840 by the erection of an aisle; the tower is handsome, and forms a good landmark at sea. In the churchyard is an old cross. The Baptists, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, have places of worship; and a national school is supported. Remains are still to be seen of an earthwork thrown across the road leading to Marazion, by the parliamentarians engaged in the siege of St. Michael's Mount. There are also some remains of Castleandinas, an ancient fortification, the diameter of which is 400 feet from east to west, and the principal ditch 60 feet wide; it occupies the summit of the highest hill in this part of the county, and commands fine views of the sea. At Collurian are the remains of a chapel dedicated to St. Thomas; and on the same estate is a chalybeate spring. A Roman patera was found some years since on the glebe. Dr. Borlase, the learned antiquary, and historian of Cornwall, was rector of the parish for nearly fifty-two years, and was buried in the chancel of the church in 1772; Sir Humphry Davy, late president of the Royal Society, resided in the parish in early life.