St Agnes, Cornwall

Description
Agnes, St, formerly called Breanick, a town and a parish in Cornwall. The town is a seaport, on a small bay of Bristol Channel, 4 miles N of Chacewater station on the G.W.R., and 9 NW by W of Truro. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Scorrier (R.S.O.) It is the centre of a rich mining district. A weekly market is held on Thursday, and an annual fair on 1 May. The harbour is small, and can be entered only near high water, and by vessels of not more than 100 tons burden. Most of the inhabitants are connected with neighbouring mines. The parish comprises 8437 acres of land and 112 of water; population of the civil parish, 4249 ; of the ecclesiastical, 2495. Granite is the prevailing rock, and copper, tin, and iron are worked. The scenery of coast and surface is picturesque. St Agnes Beacon, 621 feet high, immediately NW of the town, shows remarkable deposits of sand and clays at heights of from 300 to 400 feet, and was a beacon station during the French war, and a chief station of the Trigonometrical Survey. Harmony Cot, 2 miles from the town, on the road to Perran Porth, was the birthplace of the painter Opie. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Truro; value, £308. The church was built in 1482, has been restored, and shows interesting features. Chapels for Congregationalists, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists are in the parish. There are an Oddfellows' Hall and a Mechanics' Institute. Ruins of ancient chapels are at Mawla and St Agnes' Well.