Gulval

Chiyandour, Chy-en-dower, the house on the water side, immediately adjoins Penzance, although beyond the bounds of that borough. It comprises several genteel residences, and the extensive tin-smelting establishment of the Messrs. Bolitho. The late Prince Consort visited those works in 1816, and partook of beefsteaks cooked on the blocks of tin, hot from the mould. The same gentlemen have also a bank, and a tan-yard here in making large fortunes for themselves, they greatly benefit their neighbourhood by promoting every species of productive industry.

Ponsandane, the man’s bridge, is near Chyandour; it is the beautiful and tastefully kept marine residence of Richard Bolitho, Esq.

Adjoining Ponsandane is Pendrea, the principal town, pleasantly situated within a grove of trees, and the most luxuriant shrubberies ; it is the property of John St. Aubyn, Esq.

Boskednan, or Boskedna Circle, is an elliptical ring formed of nineteen upright stones. They are placed at nearly equal distances from one another, but not with any great regard to exactness. Thirteen only were erect in Borlase’s days, the other six lay on the ground near the places in which they once stood. In the selection of those stones no regard was paid either to their height or magnitude. They vary in a most promiscuous manner; nor can any conjecture he formed as to their original use.

In draining some land near the shore, between Penzance and Marazion, a large pot of Roman coins, about a thousand in number, was found; they were dated from A.D. 260 to 350.

Near the farm-place called Chysanster, the house on the south, are some rude remains of stonework, supposed to have been ancient British residences. They consist of rough walls, indifferently put together without cement of any kind. On the hill are the ruins of seven or eight of those huts, some in a better state of preservation than others. They are constructed in this manner,—there is a thick elliptical wall, faced outside and inside with stones; within its thickness are formed four oven-like compartments. In these the stones overlap each other gradually as they approach the top, giving the interior the appearance of a bee-hive. The compartments are entered from an open space or courtlage, which has a main entrance facing eastward. The ruins of many other enclosures occupy the immediate vicinity. A little way down the hill are terraces, formed by cutting away the acclivity. On the hill side is an ancient cave in which it is supposed the natives secreted their property, and hid themselves in time of danger.

About a quarter of a mile to the west of the church is a stone bridge over the Ponsandane river, called the Blue or Bleu bridge At the further end of this bridge stands a monumental stone of granite, bearing this inscription

This stone for a considerable time formed a portion of the bridge, and in that position it measured seven feet nine inches in length, one foot eight inches in width, and one foot in thickness Latterly the proprietor of the land removed it to its present position for preservation. This monument is supposed to be about twelve hundred years old.

A little beyond the church is a pile of rocks called Gulval Cairn; from this point of view the scenery is very fine. This is said to have been a favourite place of retirement of Sir Humphry Davey in his youthful days.

A stone tumulus or cairn at Tredinnack, in this parish, is engraved in Borlase’s Antiquities.

The famous Gulfwell, or Hebrew brook, was a short distance below the church. Borlase writing in 1749, speaks of the old woman who kept it as then lately dead, and adds that she was supposed to be so conversant with the mysteries of the well, that she was daily resorted to by numbers of persons, who wished to consult its oracular waters, and have their curiosity satisfied, particularly as to goods or cattle lost or stolen.

An oratory stood in the moor near the well, but the ruins are gone.

Fragments of a curiously sculptured cross, are preserved in the eastern part of the churchyard.

In the Churchtown are superior boys’ and girls’ schools in connexion with the church. A short distance below the vicarage are the extensive and powerful steam flour mills of Mr. Branwell, merchant, of Penzance.

The West Cornwall Railway crosses the parish on the margin of the sea shore.

At Gulval Cross, the Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel.

The villages are the Churchtown, Chyandour, Trevarrack, Trezella and Chyandaunce, beside which there arc several hamlets.

Among the chief landowners will be found the names of Lady Miller, Sir Augustine Fitzgerald, Bart., Sir Henry and the Rev. Richard Francis Onslow, T. J. Agar-Robartes, Esq., the representatives of the late George John, Esq., the Praed family, and J. W. Buller, Esq.

Through the mildness of the climate, and the fertility of the soil, two crops of potatoes are frequently produced in one year, in this parish. The earlier sort is planted for the first crop, which is dug in time for the next crop to ripen before the winter. The kidney potatoe is planted about Christmas, which is ripe by May ; when the apple potatoe or some other of that kind is tilled in the same ground.

Through judicious management, one hundred Cornish bushels of good potatoes have been raised from an acre, in the first crop ; and two hundred similar bushels in the second crop. Ore-weed answers well us a manure for potatoes.

The northern part of this parish rests on granite, which is for the most part a coarse crystalline rock, containing very large porphyritic crystals of felspar. The granite is however, in some places very fine grained, and near its juncture with the slate abounds in shorl. The schistose rocks composing the southern part of the parish, have a basis of compact felspar, assuming various appearances according as it is more or less siliceous; those rocks are often beautifully marked with chrystalline patches and veins of actynolite, as may be seen in the rocks on the sea shore, and they are traversed here and there by beds of felspar porphyry, into which they gradually pass.