CAMBORNE, a market-town and parish in the
hundred of PENWITH, county of CORNWALL, 4 miles
(W. S. W.) from Redruth, and 267 (S. W.) from London,
on the road from Truro to Penzance, containing 6219
inhabitants. This town, situated in the centre of an
extensive district abounding with copper, tin, and lead
mines, consists of several streets, uniformly built, and
contains many handsome houses, but is indifferently
supplied with water obtained from wells of a great depth.
There are two book clubs established in the town:
In the neighbourhood are numerous cottages inhabited
by the miners, dwellings for the superintendents of the
works, and some handsome residences belonging to the
proprietors. The Dolwath copper mine, in this parish,
Has been sunk to the depth of one thousand feet, and
extended laterally for more than a mile, in a direction
from east to west; a small vein of silver was discovered
in one of .the branches, about five years since, a mass of
which: was. presented to Lord de Dunstanville, and manufactured
into an elegant piece of.plate: the number
of'persons ..employed in this mine exceeds one thousand,
and the annual expenditure of the proprietors is more
than £ 50,000: there are several other mines on a smaller
scale, and.the neighbourhood abounds with granite.
-The market is on Saturday: the market-house, a shed
supported on pillars of granite, was erected at the expense
of Lord de Dunstanville. The fairs are on March
7th, Whit-Tuesday, June 29th, and November llth,
principally for cattle. The county magistrates hold a
petty session for the district on the first Tuesday in
every, month: a court leet is held in November, at
which constables and other officers are appointed. The
living is a rectory, in the 'archdeaconry of Cornwall,
and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at
£39.16. lOf., and in the patronage of Lord de Dunstanville
and another. The church, dedicated to
St. Martin, is an ancient structure, principally in the
later style of English architecture: the altar-piece is
of marble handsomely sculptured, and the pulpit of
oak curiously carved: it contains a fine Norman font,
and several monuments to the family of Pendarves.
There are places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists and
Bryanites. A free school for twelve boys and eight girls
was founded, in 1763, by Mrs. Grace Percival, of Pendarves,
who endowed it with ahouse and £21 per annum.
Mrs. Basset left an endowment of £10 per annum, which
is paid to a private schoolmaster for teaching ten children.
Attached to the Methodist chapel is a school
recently built.