Description

Grampound, a decayed ancient town in Cornwall. It stands on the river Fal, 1 1/2 mile SSE of Grampound Road station on the G.W.R. (Cornwall), and 2 1/2 miles NNE of Tregony, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. It is supposed to have been the Voliba of Ptolemy; took the name of Grampound, originally Grandpont, signifying " great bridge," from a bridge built at it over the Fal; acquired the right of a market from John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Edward III.; was made a borough after the Earl's death by Edward III.; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward VI. to 1824, when it was disfranchised for corrupt practices; had for one of its parliamentary representatives, in 1620, John Hampden; consists now chiefly of one street on a declivity, and has a granite cross, a town-hall, and Bible Christian, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels. Six ancient camps are in its neighbourhood on the Fal; one of them, 1 mile S, on Golden farm; another, half a mile NE, on the road to St Austell; another, 1 mile W, on the road to Truro; another, 1 mile N, close to the Fal; another, a little farther N, called Resugga Castle; and another, 1 mile W of Resugga, on Barrow Down. A chapel of ease, now used as the parish church, was erected in 1869, and is in the Early English style.