Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MADRON

MADRON, a village and a parish in Penzance district, Cornwall. The village stands on an eminence about 350 feet above sea level, 2 miles NW of Penzance r. station; and commands a fine view of Mounts bay. The parish contains also the town of Penzance. Posttown, Penzance. Acres, exclusive of Penzance, 5,505; of which 30 are water. Real property, £10,953; of which £80 are in quarries, and £15 in railways. Pop., 2,512. Houses, 481. Acres, inclusive of Penzance, 5,991; of which 115 are water. Real property, £42,952; of which £4,315 are in railways, and £175 in gas-works. Pop., 11,926. Houses, 2,422. The property is much subdivided. There are numerous good seats; and some of them are very old. The road from Penzance to the village passes, on the right, an avenue to Trenear,-on the left, York House; then passes, on the right, the new cemetery and its chapels,-on the left, a lane leading to Nancealverne, Rosecadgehill, Rosehill, Castle-Horneck, and a wayside cross; then, about ¼ of a mile beyond the cemetery, arrives at a turning to the fertile tract of Hea or Hay, formerly an uncultivated moor, notable for John Wesley's long preaching on it from a granite boulder, now covered by a Wesleyan chapel; and then ascends a steep hill to the village, passing Poltair on the left. The road beyond the village ascends through the plantations of Trengwainton, formerly the seat of Sir Rose Price, Bart., and now the property of Messrs. Bolthole. Trengwainton Carn, on the Trengwainton estate, is famous for commanding a magnificent view, and is popularly called the Bull's Look-out. Boswarra Carn is a rocky crest rising over the slope of a wild moor. Lanyon cromlech, on Lanyon moor, consists of a tablestone 18 feet long and 8 feet broad, resting on three rude pillars; and is commonly called the Giant's Quoit. Remains of another cromlech, nearly as large, are in a field of Lanyon farm. Madron well, about a mile N of the village, was long held in deep superstitions repute, for supposed thanmaturgic virtues; and was covered by a chapel or baptistery, some ruins of which still exist. The rocks of the parish are both diversified and rich. Tin, copper, lead, alumina, fire-clay, porphyry, and granite, are worked. The tin was long obtained chiefly in the Wherry mine, which penetrated beneath the sea, and yielded so much as £3,000's worth of tin in one summer. The fire-clay is used for making bricks of eminent suitableness for smelting-houses and furnaces. The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Morvah, in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £740. Patron, the Rev. M. N. Peters. The church is ancient, has an embattled tower, and contains some good glass. A mausoleum of the Price family, formerly of Trengwainton, is in the churchyard. A rudely sculptured ancient cross also is in the churchyard, and stood for ages in the centre of the village. The chapelries of Penzance are separate benefices. There are chapels for Independents, Baptists, and Primitive Methodists, five chapels for Wesleyans, and an endowed school with £106 a year. The Penzance workhouse is in the part of the parish beyond the borough; and, at the census of 1861, had 147 inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Madron AP/CP       Penzance RegD/PLU       Cornwall AncC
Place: Madron

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