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Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey

Historic characterisation for regeneration

BODMIN

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SERVICE

Objective One is part-funded by the European Union

Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey

Historic characterisation for regeneration

BODMIN

HES REPORT NO. 2005R064

Graeme Kirkham

September 2005

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SERVICE Planning Transportation and Estates, Cornwall County Council Kennall Building, Old County Hall, Station Road, , Cornwall, TR1 3AY Tel (01872) 323603 fax (01872) 323811 E-mail [email protected]

Acknowledgements This report was produced by the Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey project (CSUS), funded by English Heritage, the Objective One Partnership for Cornwall and the (European Regional Development Fund) and the South West of Regional Development Agency. Peter Beacham (Head of Designation), Graham Fairclough (Head of Characterisation), Roger M Thomas (Head of Urban Archaeology), Ian Morrison (Ancient Monuments Inspector for , Cornwall and Isles of Scilly) and Jill Guthrie (Designation Team Leader, South West) liaised with the project team for English Heritage and provided valuable advice, guidance and support. Nick Cahill (The Cahill Partnership) acted as Conservation Advisor to the project, providing vital support with the characterisation methodology and advice on the interpretation of individual settlements. Georgina McLaren (Cornwall Enterprise) performed a key advisory role on all aspects of economic regeneration. The Urban Survey Team, within Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service, is Kate Newell (Urban Survey Officer), Dr Steve Mills (Archaeological GIS Mapper; to July 2003) and Graeme Kirkham (Project Manager to Spring 2004). Bryn Perry-Tapper is the CSUS GIS supervisor and has played an important role in developing the GIS, HER and internet components of CSUS. Jeanette Ratcliffe was the initial Project Co-ordinator, succeeded by Peter Herring from Spring 2003 and Peter Rose from Spring 2005. Air photographs are from the Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Record. Other photographs are by the report author and Nick Cahill. Thanks are due for comments on the consultation draft of this report to Bodmin Town Council, Bodmin and Surrounding Area Forum, District Council, Ann Kerridge CC, Steve Rogerson CC, Nick Cahill (The Cahill Partnership) and Georgina McLaren (Cornwall Enterprise).

Maps The maps are based on Ordnance Survey material with the permission of the Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office (c) Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution and/or civil proceedings. The map data, derived from Ordnance Survey mapping, included within this publication is provided by Cornwall County Council under licence from the Ordnance Survey in order to fulfil its public function to publicise local public services. Cornwall County Council Licence No. 10019590.

Cover illustration The centre of Bodmin from the south west, August 2003 (CCC Historic Environment Service, ACS 6052)

© Cornwall County Council 2005 No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher.

Contents Summary 1 1 Introduction 5 Regeneration and the historic towns of Cornwall and Scilly 5 Characterisation and regeneration 5 Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey 6 CSUS reports 6 Extent of the study area 7 2 Bodmin: the context 8 Landscape and setting 8 The regeneration context 9 Historic environment designations 12 3 Historic and topographic development 13 Before Bodmin – the prehistoric period 13 Early medieval Bodmin 13 The medieval period 15 ‘From west to east along in one street’: Bodmin’s medieval topography 19 Without priory or friary: Bodmin in the post-medieval period 24 ‘Poor old Bodmin’ 27 ‘The capital town of the Principality’ 29 Bodmin up to date 40 4 Archaeological potential 43 Indicators of archaeological potential 44 5 Bodmin: statement of significance 45 6 Present settlement character 46 Physical topography and settlement form 46 Survival of standing historic fabric 47 Architecture, materials and detail 48 Views and streetscapes 51 Identifying Character Areas 52 7 Regeneration and management 54 Character-based principles for regeneration 54 The historic environment and regeneration: key themes for Bodmin 54

8 The Character Areas 60 1 Down Town: Fore Street, Honey Street and Mount Folly 60 2 Church Square, Turf Street, St Nicholas Street and Priory grounds 68 3 Top Town: Lower and Higher Bore Street and St Leonard’s 72 4 Dennison Road - Berrycombe Road 77 5 The Berry area: Church Lane, Castle Street and environs 81 6 The county institutions: St Lawrence’s, Bodmin gaol, Bodmin barracks 84 Appendix 1: archaeological interventions 89 Sources 90

Figures Bound at the back of the report

1. Location and topography 2. Ordnance Survey 2nd edition 1:2500 map (c 1907) 3. Historic development 4. Historic settlement topography 5. Surviving historic components 6. Archaeological potential 7. Character areas Character area summary sheets 1 – 6 (A3 fold-outs)

Abbreviations

CCC Cornwall County Council CSUS Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey DCMS Department for Culture, Media and Sport DTLR Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions EH English Heritage GIS Geographical Information Systems NCDC North Cornwall District Council South West RDA South West of England Regional Development Agency TPO Tree Preservation Order

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Summary regeneration planning for the town and its environs. • Bodmin’s historic built environment – Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey buildings, historic topography and The Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey is a streetscapes – represents a major asset, the pioneering initiative aimed at harnessing the primary component of the town’s unique quality and distinctive character of the historic character, interest and significance. The environment to successful and sustainable importance of this distinctive ‘sense of regeneration. The Survey is investigating 19 place’ in differentiating Bodmin from historic towns and creating for each an other competing centres means that information base and character assessment actions which maintain and enhance the which will contribute positively to historic environment are potentially key regeneration planning. The project is based contributions to regeneration. within Cornwall County Council’s Historic • The urban hierarchy and diversity which Environment Service and funded by English Bodmin’s different Character Areas Heritage, Objective One and the South West represent are key elements of the town’s RDA. character. Respect for this hierarchy and for the distinctive differences between Bodmin areas should be key considerations in planning and executing future change. The Objective One Single Programming • Document notes Bodmin as one of Cornwall’s Bodmin’s natural setting is an important major employment centres, with significant element of its character, particularly in capacity for increased commercial and terms of the striking views across the town industrial activity. It offers the following and to the surrounding countryside; the profile of the town: strong element of trees and greenery within and around the historic urban area Bodmin, with 43% of its 12,775 population is of major significance. These factors under 30, has the youngest age structure of should be given appropriate consideration any of the Cornish towns. It is also one of in conceiving and planning future change. the fastest growing, experiencing a 40% • Commitments to both achieving real increase between 1971 and 1996, despite quality and to maintaining, enhancing or the rundown of a large hospital. Activity reinstating character should be rates are high and unemployment relatively fundamental both in new developments low. Located at the intersection of the two and changes in the public realm, and in main trunk roads, the A30 and A38, approaches to repairing past mistakes. Bodmin has developed major new industrial estates and, in 1991, 21% of the • Bodmin should be perceived - and workforce worked in manufacturing or accordingly managed, presented, mining. interpreted and promoted - as an historic Cornish town of great quality, unique Character-based principles for character and high significance. regeneration (See Section 7) The following principles, derived from analysis of Bodmin’s overall character and assessments of its individual Character Areas, are recommended as key components of all

September 2005 1 Summary

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Regeneration and the historic • Review conservation designations environment: key themes for Bodmin • Identify, record and understand the (See Section 7) archaeological resource • Develop historic and cultural tourism. Characterisation has highlighted a number of regeneration and conservation opportunities, which fall broadly into the following themes. • Recognise the asset represented by Character Areas and regeneration Bodmin’s distinctive character and high opportunities quality historic environment This study identified six distinct Character • Recognise and implement priority Areas within Bodmin’s historic urban area. Its opportunities for change findings on these areas (Section 8), together • Reinstate character and quality where with an assessment of overall settlement these have been eroded by inappropriate character (Section 6), offer a means of past development or neglect understanding the past and the present. In • Build character into change turn, that understanding provides the basis for • Maintain and enhance the asset a positive approach to planning future change which will maintain and reinforce the historic • Enhance streetscapes and the public realm character and individuality of each area and of • Maintain the green element the town as a whole - sustainable local • Reduce the dominance of traffic and distinctiveness. parking

Character Areas and regeneration opportunities: summary 1 Down Town: Fore Street, • Create a management plan for the Area, aimed at realising and Honey Street and maintaining the potential of the high-quality historic environment as a Mount Folly regeneration asset. Bodmin’s commercial, retail and • Undertake further THI-type initiatives to encourage high standards of civic centre, with high-quality maintenance and decoration on historic buildings. historic buildings set along a • Promote and enforce more appropriate shopfront design. busy, narrow and strongly • Improve the quality of public realm provision. enclosed principal street and • Explore LOTS-type schemes and promote new commercial uses to around the town’s focal public improve occupancy and utilisation. space. The Character Area • Work to reduce traffic flows and parking problems. includes much of the medieval • Encourage new high-quality development on selected sites, targeted to core of the town and derives its reinstate character. layout from it. • Ensure design for future interventions in the area is fully informed by characterisation. • Maintain high density and enclosure in further developments on streets and lanes off Fore Street. • Improve access to and presentation of surviving burgage plots on the south side of Fore Street. • Treat Honey Street in a way which emphasises it as a primary historic axis. • Extend the Conservation Area to incorporate the surviving area of burgage plots south of Fore Street. • Apply robust conservation management to historic buildings, backed if necessary by new Article 4 directions.

September 2005 2 Summary

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

2 Church Square, Turf Street, • Seek reduction in traffic levels; improve pedestrian facilities. St Nicholas Street and • Promote appropriate redevelopment of sites on Priory Road / Church Priory grounds Square. This Area fringes and is • Maintain the well-kept park character of the former priory grounds. secondary to Bodmin’s • Improve presentation and interpretation of historic monuments in the commercial and civic core area. (Character Area 1). It includes St • Improve the quality of public realm provision. Petroc’s church, some large • Apply robust conservation management to historic buildings, backed if houses, residential streets and necessary by new Article 4 directions. open green space. 3 Top Town: Lower and • Bore Street should be perceived and treated throughout its length as a Higher Bore Streets and principal urban street rather than as a major through road. St Leonard’s • Improve the quality of public realm provision. A very long and wide, • Explore potential for additional street trees along the length of Bore predominantly residential street Street. of strong urban character. It • Ensure that new development maintains the characteristic tight street fossilises the site of a medieval frontage of the Area. fair on one of the major historic • Promote appropriate redevelopment around the junction of Lower routes into Bodmin. Bore Street with Robartes Road and Finn VC estate. • Extend the Conservation Area to incorporate historic buildings at the southern end of Robartes Road. • Apply robust conservation management to historic buildings, backed if necessary by new Article 4 directions. 4 Dennison Road – • This area offers the most significant regeneration opportunity for Berrycoombe Road Bodmin, with potential to recreate it as an urban quarter of quality and Formerly occupied by a mix of significance. A master plan is required to co-ordinate the process. residential, industrial and • Include Bodmin Gaol in regeneration planning for this Area. communications uses, this area • Improve the quality of public realm provision. has been subject to major change • Seek improvements to the appearance of commercial premises and since the mid twentieth century, service areas at the rear of plots on the north side of Fore Street. resulting in substantial loss of • Extend the Conservation Area to incorporate those parts of the Area historic fabric and topography. It which retain significant historic character. is traversed by a busy main • Apply robust conservation management to the surviving historic through route and service uses structures, backed if necessary by new Article 4 directions. associated with cars and traffic predominate.

September 2005 3 Summary

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

5 The Berry area: Church • New development should be strongly guided by the historic character Lane, Castle Street and and avoid ‘suburbanisation’. environs • Exercise care over conversion of large historic buildings to apartments; A quiet suburban area of ensure that character is not eroded by additional parking, new access cottages, former farms and through historic boundaries, etc. smallholdings, villas and larger • Maintain surviving undeveloped plots as green spaces. houses and institutions, with • Retain historic buildings and normal public access in re-development trees, gardens and greenery, set of the East Cornwall Hospital site. around an historic grid of streets • Extend the Conservation Area to include the whole of the Character overlooking the centre of Area. Bodmin from the hillside to the • Apply robust conservation management to the surviving historic north. structures and boundary features. • Provide direction signage for Berry Tower; promote the area as an historic part of Bodmin. • Take steps to maintain the wooded character of the Area in the long term. • Undertake limited tree management to achieve glimpses of Berry Tower. 6 The county institutions: St • Recognise that these complexes are of significance to Cornwall as a Lawrence’s, Bodmin gaol, whole and should be treated as places of county-wide importance. Bodmin barracks • Retain the visual integrity of the complexes. Three discrete areas on the outer • Prioritise a programme for the whole of the historic prison complex edge of Bodmin’s historic extent aimed at conserving the fabric and bringing it into full use and are characterised by the presence contribution. of large complexes of well- • Ensure that the prison complex is incorporated in regeneration designed nineteenth-century planning for the adjacent Dennison Road – Berrycoombe Road area institutional buildings set within (Character Area 4). strongly bounded grounds. • Ensure that the park-like character of the grounds to St Lawrence’s is retained. Explore potential for new public access green-space on the site. • Enable access to the complexes for public appreciation. • Improve the public realm at West End and around Bodmin General station. • Maintain and develop levels of tree cover, including roadside trees. • Extend the Conservation Area to include all of the historic structures within these Character Areas. • Apply robust conservation management to the surviving historic structures and boundary features.

September 2005 4 Summary

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

1 Introduction environment carried out by English Heritage in 2000, and its value clearly highlighted in the government’s response, The Historic Environment: A Force for the Future (2001). The Regeneration and the historic towns tool by which the two may be linked to create of Cornwall and Scilly a framework for sustainable development in historic settlements is characterisation. In July 1999 Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly were designated as an Objective One area, Characterisation and regeneration bringing potential investment from European funds of more than £300m over the nine-year spending period. Economic regeneration ‘The government . . . wants to see more regeneration schemes and development projects within the projects, large and small, going forward on the basis region’s towns are likely to form a major of a clear understanding of the existing historic element of the Objective One Programme. environment, how this has developed over time and how it can be used creatively to meet contemporary Regeneration on this scale offers an needs.’ unparalleled opportunity for contemporary contributions in urban design and architecture (DCMS / DTLR 2001, The Historic Environment: to the built environment of Cornwall and A Force for the Future, 5.2) Scilly’s towns. At the same time, the Objective ‘Characterisation’ provides a means of One programme emphasises environmental understanding the diverse range of factors sustainability (including the historic which combine to create ‘distinctiveness’ and environment) and regional distinctiveness as ‘sense of place’. It involves the creation of a key considerations in regeneration planning. comprehensive knowledge base on the The process of change launched by current historic environment. This includes what is regeneration initiatives could, if not carefully known of a settlement’s historic development managed, have a negative impact on the and urban topography (that is, the basic historic environment and the unique character components which have contributed to the and sense of place of each of these physical shaping of the historic settlement, settlements. The pressure to achieve rapid such as market places, church enclosures, change could in itself result in severe erosion turnpike roads, railways, etc), together with an and dilution of their individuality and overview of the surviving historic fabric, particular distinctiveness and, at worst, their distinctive architectural forms, materials and transformation into ‘anywhere’ towns. treatments and the significant elements of It is clear from recent research that a high- town and streetscapes. Characterisation may quality historic urban environment and the also provide the basis for assessing the distinctiveness and sense of place integral to it potential for buried and standing are themselves primary assets in promoting archaeological remains and their likely regeneration. The effect may be direct, significance, reducing uncertainty for through heritage tourism, for example, but regeneration interests by providing an there is a more powerful and decisive impact indication of potential constraints. from such distinctiveness in prompting a Characterisation is also a means whereby the strong sense of identity and pride of place historic environment can itself provide an which in turn creates a positive and confident inspirational matrix for regeneration. It climate for investment and growth. emphasises the historic continuum which This synergy between the historic provides the context for current change and environment and economic regeneration was into which the regeneration measures of the recognised and strongly advocated in the Power present must fit if the distinctive and special of Place review of policies on the historic qualities of each historic town are to be

September 2005 5 Introduction

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin maintained and enhanced. It both highlights CSUS is a pioneering initiative aimed directly the ‘tears in the urban fabric’ wrought by a at cutting across the boundary that lack of care in the past and offers an traditionally divides conservation and indication of appropriate approaches to their economic development. Nationally, it is the repair. first such project carrying out a Characterisation is not intended to encourage characterisation-based assessment of the or to provide a basis for imitation or pastiche; historic urban environment specifically to rather, it offers a sound basis on which the inform and support a regional economic twenty-first century can make its own distinct regeneration programme. Future regeneration and high-quality contribution to places of initiatives in other historic settlements, in abiding value. Cornwall and Scilly and further afield, will benefit from the new approach developed by the project. Cornwall and Scilly Urban Survey CSUS reports The Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey (CSUS) was set up – funded by both English Heritage and the Objective One Partnership for CSUS reports present the major findings and Cornwall and Scilly (European Regional recommendations arising from the project’s Development Fund) – as a key contributor to work on each town. They are complemented regeneration in the region. Additional funding by computer-based digital mapping and data has been provided by the South West of recorded using ArcView Geographical England Regional Development Agency. The Information System (GIS) software, and project is investigating 19 historic towns and together the two sources provide creating for each the information base and comprehensive information on historic character assessment which will provide a development, urban topography, significant framework for sustainable action within these components of the historic environment, historic settlements. archaeological potential and historic character. These towns have been identified, in Importantly, the reports also identify consultation with planning, conservation and opportunities for heritage-led regeneration economic regeneration officers within the and positive management of the historic seven district, borough and unitary authorities environment. However, they are not in the region, as those which are likely to be intended to be prescriptive design guides, the focus for regeneration. The project’s but should rather be used by architects, ‘target’ settlements are: town planners and regeneration officers to inform future development and planning strategies. St Ives The reports and associated digital resources are shared with the appropriate local Falmouth authorities; economic regeneration, planning Penryn Truro and conservation officers therefore have immediate access to the detailed information generated by the project. Additional Bodmin information is held in the Cornwall and Scilly Launceston Historic Environment Record, maintained by the Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council. Public access to the report and to the associated mapping is available via the

September 2005 6 Introduction

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin project’s website - www.historic- by the current Local Plan. However, the cornwall.org.uk - or by appointment at the detailed characterisation and analysis of urban offices of Cornwall County Council’s Historic topography which together form the primary Environment Service, Old County Hall, elements of this study are closely focused on Truro. the historic urban extent of the settlement. For the purposes of the project this is defined as Extent of the study area that which is recognisably ‘urban’ in character on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of c 1907-8 (Figs. 1 and 2). The history and historic development of each town are investigated and mapped for the whole of the area defined for the settlement

Bodmin from the east, August 2001 (Historic Environment Service, ACS 5445).

September 2005 7 Introduction

Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

2 Bodmin: the context ‘historic’ north-south route – recently titled the ‘Saint’s Way’ – between and . Such a route is not in fact well attested historically, but some element in the Landscape and setting development of the settlement in the early medieval period and later may be attributable Bodmin lies at the centre of Cornwall, both to its position mid-way between the highest geographically (the precise centre being just navigable points on the Camel and Fowey two miles to the west at ) and in terms rivers, then probably only about 10 km apart. of the communications network. Cornwall’s John Leland referred in about 1540 to spinal trunk road, the A30, is joined here by Bodmyn Pill (south of ) on the Fowey the main road from and Liskeard, as a ‘having [i.e., haven or harbour] for wares the A38, and the busy A389 links the town then to be carried to Bodmin’. This was with the A39 ‘Atlantic Highway’ running up presumably a later medieval replacement for the north coast. The main rail line passes a as a transhipment point, after short distance to the south of the town with a navigation of the upper part of the Fowey station at Bodmin Parkway, 5km from the became difficult because of silting resulting town centre. from streamworking for tin upstream on The town lies on an ancient, possibly ; the upper reaches of the prehistoric, east-west route through Cornwall, Camel were also subject to silting but prior to perpetuated by the A30 and before that by the the medieval period may have been navigable Bodmin-Launceston turnpike. It is also as far upstream as . sometimes noted as being located on an

Recently Enclosed Land around Bodmin Beacon, 2001. This area of former unenclosed downland was partitioned into regular straight-sided fields in the first half of the nineteenth century (Historic Environment Service, F55/13).

September 2005 Bodmin: the context 8 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

The Camel curves past Bodmin in the deep later twentieth century expansion has taken wooded valley of Dunmere, 2 km west of the place over such Recently Enclosed Land. church. Dunmere Bridge carries the A389, the Anciently Enclosed Land, in the form of historic road to and beyond to enclosed parcels of former strip fields Padstow. The Camelford road, an old associated with farming hamlets such as ridgeway, but now the B3266, branches off a , Penbugle and Lancarffe, lies close to mile to the north. To the south east the Fowey the town on the northern side, with a swathe River comes closest at Respryn, 3.5 kilometres of similar terrain, intermixed with ancient from the church, and the late medieval bridge woodland, extending north towards here took the old road to Liskeard, Saltash and and Pencarrow. Even here, however, the tops the world beyond the Tamar. The grounds of of many of the hills in Helland parish, and to house (and parish) provide an the east around , have been ornamental buffer between Bodmin and the enclosed and improved for agriculture only in wooded valleys of the Fowey and its the last two hundred years. tributaries the Cardinham and Maudlin Waters. Lostwithiel, the nearest urban The regeneration context neighbour, 9 km to the south, is reached by another old ridgeway (now the B3268). This ran through the divide between Bodmin’s two Georgina McLaren, Cornwall Enterprise great southern hills, the Beacon (162m) and Bodmin is located near the geographical Castle Canyke (166m), the latter crowned with centre of Cornwall, south west of Bodmin a great prehistoric enclosure. Bodmin General Moor. The two main roads into and through station was later built in this divide, the Cornwall, the A30 and the A38, converge on nearest the difficult topography would allow the outskirts of the town, giving it an the railway to get to Bodmin town; the important strategic position for employment looping lines running east and west to Bodmin and tourism. Bodmin is the largest town in Road and Boscarne stations pick out the hills’ North Cornwall and has experienced contours nicely. At Halgavor the Lostwithiel significant growth since 1965. In the 1960s road crosses by a bridge (previously a ford) and 1970s substantial areas of new public the stream (possibly once called St Lawrence sector housing were developed in association Water?) whose gently sloping valley wraps with the Greater London Council overspill around the south side of the Beacon. scheme. The population was recorded as Until the early modern period Bodmin was a 12,881 at the 2001 census. In-migration and town almost encircled by open downs, heaths the building of the A30 bypass have been key and moors. Carew wrote of Halgaver c 1600 factors in the growth of new light industrial that ‘the name signifieth the Goat’s Moor, and activity on the eastern edge of the town, close such a place it is, lying a little without the to the A30. Tourism is also important to the town, and full of quagmires.’ Leland in the local economy and Bodmin hosts a number of 1530s found the road from St Laurence’s to attractions including the Bodmin and Mitchell, ‘hilly and moory ground’. This Wenford Railway and the . setting is reflected in the 1994 Historic Bodmin acts as a district service centre and Landscape Characterisation of Cornwall, currently has a full range of social and which identifies much of the area to the east, community facilities relating to education, west and south of the town as Recently health, shopping, leisure, recreation and public Enclosed Land, typified by the straight-sided transport. There are regular bus services to early nineteenth century fields which now nearby towns including Wadebridge, Padstow, subdivide the Beacon; prior to enclosure these St Austell, Camelford and Truro, and to the areas would have been open rough ground, nearby Bodmin Parkway Station, which is on primarily used for extensive grazing and as a the main London to Penzance railway line. source of domestic fuel. Much of Bodmin’s

September 2005 Bodmin: the context 9 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

An important and unique feature in the in Cornwall and six SOAs in the top 10 regeneration context is Bodmin’s legacy from ranked for employment deprivation. its period as the . As such, the Levels of car ownership are generally lower town has a significant number of substantial than the county standard, although the nineteenth-century government properties. percentage of ownership of one car per Some have been adapted or developed household is slightly higher than the Cornwall relatively recently, whilst others still present average of 48.7% (50.6% in St Mary’s and significant future opportunities. These 50% in St Petroc’s). St Mary’s ward has, at buildings and sites include Bodmin Barracks 27%, a higher than national average (now employment land, home of the percentage of households with no cars. The Environment Agency, the DCLI regimental county average is 20.5%. museum and new and converted housing), the former Assize Courts (now the Shire Hall Employment, business and industry living courts museum and visitor centre), the The predominant employment sectors in Judges’ Lodgings (Bodmin Town Council Bodmin are wholesale and retail trade, light offices) and the County Lunatic Asylum (St manufacturing, health and social work, Lawrence’s Hospital), the latter now being construction and real estate, and renting for developed for private housing and as a tourism. A large proportion of businesses in flagship Business Park (Beacon Technology Bodmin are micro-businesses, employing five Park) by SWRDA. Walker Lines, a legacy of or fewer people (Bodmin Parish Profile 2005). World War II, is now an industrial estate. One From 1991-2001 employment levels in remaining important building in private Bodmin rose from 34.3% to 36.9%, whilst ownership that still awaits major regeneration unemployment fell from 6.2% to 3.9%. plans is Bodmin Gaol. During the same period the number of part- time employees and students has increased Socio-economic profile and the number of self-employed people has decreased slightly. Population profile There are two wards in Bodmin, St Mary’s and A town centre Health Check was carried out St Petroc’s, with populations at the 2001 in 2000 by consultants to provide baseline census of 6,806 and 6,075 respectively. Both information concerning the economic and wards show the proportion of population of environmental health of the town. Key working age is considerably higher than those findings included that around 1,000 people aged under 15 and over 65. From 1999 to were employed in the town centre and that 2001 the 20-44 years population age group there were 175 retail units in Bodmin Town, decreased whereas population age group 45+ mainly concentrated around Fore Street. The years increased. This is possibly a result of the Health Check concluded that retail space in younger working population being forced out the town centre had fallen by 11% from of the housing market and moving away to 116,290 sq ft in 1987 to 103,820 sq ft in 2000. find better paid, higher quality jobs. It is also Comparison goods shopping (defined as non- reflective of the influx of people in the early perishable goods which stocked in a wide 1970s. range of sizes, styles, colours and qualities, such as furniture, carpets, televisions, etc) has Indices of deprivation become relatively more dominant, while The Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2004 services and vacant space have remained breaks Bodmin down into nine Super Output broadly the same; convenience goods Areas (SOAs). Five of these SOAs are in the shopping (relatively inexpensive frequently ten ranked most deprived in North Cornwall purchased consumer goods) has fallen. One of and three are in the top 20% most deprived in the key findings from the Health Check was the whole county. Five of the SOAs are that there was a need for more ‘multiple ranked in the top 20% for income deprivation stores’, particularly in clothing, as this would

September 2005 Bodmin: the context 10 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin improve the attraction of the town as a aimed at improving, refining and expanding shopping destination. the tourism product and market in the district. Bodmin is a town that offers further potential Recent and current initiatives in this area. A programme of town centre enhancements As the result of the regeneration initiatives in was carried out between 1998 and 2002, 1998-2002 and the subsequent Bodmin including conversion of the Assize Courts, Market and Coastal Towns Initiative, a local landscaping of Mount Folly, new car parking representative forum - Bodmin Futures - has provision, streetscape improvements and evolved. In March 2005 Bodmin Futures traffic calming in Fore Street. This built upon published its 2020 vision for Bodmin and the earlier works carried out in Honey Street. A six surrounding parishes of Helland, Townscape Heritage Initiative led to Lanhydrock, Lanivet, , and successful refurbishment of a number of Cardinham. The vision covers all aspects of privately owned derelict and dilapidated community life and is built on core values of buildings in the town centre. quality and partnership; it focuses on the creation of a twenty-first century economy. Bodmin ‘Pride and Place’ is a three-year initiative aiming to strengthen the town’s Specific projects envisaged under the Futures unique landscape and cultural identity and to vision include undertaking an urban design use creativity to heighten its sense of place. study to create a development and marketing Starting in April 2004, the project has begun framework for the town centre and to assist local communities within and round Conservation Area, encouraging preservation Bodmin to recognise the unique character of of the historic built environment and the area and to record and celebrate its promotion of an ‘open building programme’ diversity and richness. Activities include for greater public access to important making tree sculptures, working with local buildings. There are also proposals for schools and the Cornwall Audio Visual improved interpretation, including walking Archive and running community workshops tours and measures to promote and increase and local exhibitions. understanding of ancient monuments and archaeological sites. In August 2003 a new East Cornwall Materials and Recycling Facility was set up in Bodmin Future planning approaches by North Cornwall District Council and District Council in partnership with North Cornwall Local Plan Cornwall Paper Company. The facility has a The Local Plan was adopted in 1999 and will visitor centre so that local schools and be succeeded by a new Local Development community groups can find out more about Framework in 2007. The Local Plan Annual recycling and watch the whole process from Monitoring Report 2003/2004 indicated that the viewing gallery. most of the local plan policies were operating The Walk to Work project in Bodmin is being successfully and were progressing to meet the led by the Coast and Countryside Service of relevant Local Plan objectives. NCDC to encourage walking and cycling to The Local Plan’s overall aim was ‘to develop work and school for leisure and health. The Bodmin’s role as the main centre for job project involves creating new safe off-road opportunities, services and facilities in mid- routes across the town and an extension of the east Cornwall’. This approach recognised that Camel Trail to bring this closer to the town Bodmin has the strategic location, centre. development opportunities and infrastructure The North Cornwall Tourism Strategy 2001- to accommodate development without undue 2005 sets out a range of strategic objectives detriment to the environment. The growth of

September 2005 Bodmin: the context 11 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin the town would also help to sustain and development should consolidate the current enhance services for the rural hinterland. employment and retail function of the town, Housing: Between 1991-2 and 2000-1, there maintaining the balance of homes and jobs. were 477 house completions in Bodmin; a The Structure Plan also designates Bodmin as further 124 completions took place in 2001-2. a Strategic Urban Centre, the only one in Permissions have been implemented at St North Cornwall, and recognises the town as Lawrence’s Hospital site, Scarlett’s Well Park, the largest population centre in the district. Respryn Road and Green Lane to meet Local Development Framework housing requirements, in addition to North Cornwall District Council published developments at various infill sites within the key results on the Local Development built-up area of the town. Framework Issues and Options Report Industry and employment: Industrial consultation in November 2004. Issues to be development in Bodmin has concentrated on addressed in assessing the capacity of Bodmin the east side of the town where there is good to accommodate further growth include: access to both the A30 and the A38. The environmental impact, infrastructure, social Local Plan highlighted that in addition to the and community facilities, employment conventional industrial estates, Bodmin’s opportunities, availability of previously strategic location would be suitable for a developed land and availability of greenfield business park development that could cater sites. Three areas have been identified in the for the special needs of high technology, undeveloped corridor to the east between the research and development and high profile eastern residential suburbs and the A30, where business establishments. There was also an allocations for future development for opportunity for mixed development with housing and employment are likely to be possibilities of housing where appropriate to made. Issues were raised in relation to the introduce the concept of Live-Work that is provision of adequate infrastructure and social currently being explored in other parts of the and community facilities in Bodmin. county. Historic environment designations Town centre and retail development: Bodmin provides a reasonable range of facilities although there are many Current historic environment designations for opportunities for these to be improved in Bodmin include two Scheduled Monuments order to attract more residents and visitors to (Berrycoombe Cross and the chapel of choose Bodmin as a destination for shopping Thomas à Becket) and more than 100 Listed and entertainment. The Local Plan stated that Buildings. The latter include St Petroc’s the future success of the town centre would church (Grade I) and several Grade II* depend upon consolidating and increasing structures: St Lawrence’s Hospital, Shire Hall, town centre activity in a well defined area and Shire House, St Guron’s well and the chapel creating an attractive town centre environment of Thomas à Becket (both within St Petroc’s with plenty of convenient car-parking. A churchyard), and several crosses. Much of the number of traffic management and historic extent of the town has Conservation environmental schemes in the public realm Area status, with the most recent major have since taken place to address this issue. amendment dating from c 1999. There is potential for some significant amendments to Cornwall Structure Plan its extent (see Section 7). The general planning approach described in the Cornwall Structure Plan 2004 is that

September 2005 Bodmin: the context 12 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

3 Historic and topographic Penhargard, north of Bodmin, Colesloggett, Tawnamoor and Kingswood to the east, St development Ingunger to the south and , in Lanivet parish, to the south west. The ‘Berry’ Figures 3 and 4 give an overview of Bodmin’s and ‘Castle’ names which occur on the historic development and historic topography northern valley side above the town may record the presence of another enclosed site Before Bodmin – the of this period (see below). prehistoric period At Nanstallon, the remains of a Roman fort – the only one firmly identified in Cornwall to The earliest known evidence for human date – have been excavated and shown to activity in the Bodmin area is a scatter of have been occupied for only 20-30 years in the worked flint of probable Mesolithic date second half of the first century AD. The (c 8,000-4,000 BC) from Castle Canyke, south proximity of this site to what was probably east of the town. The sites of Bronze Age then the highest navigable point on the Camel barrows, dating from approximately 2,500- may indicate that it was sited to defend, or to 1200 BC, are known or suspected on Bodmin function as, a shipment point for maritime Beacon, the former Bodmin Down south of trade. Evidence was found there of Barn Lane (with a stone cist nearby) and metalworking in silver and possible iron within the barracks; there are barrow groups smelting. Roman coins have occasionally been to the west of the town at Boscarne and found in the vicinity of Bodmin, including Tregear and on Penaligon and . examples from St Petroc’s.

Early medieval Bodmin

The eleventh and twelfth century Lives of St Petroc attributed the origins of a settlement at Bodmin to the saint having gone into a ‘remote wilderness’ inland from his earlier foundations at Padstow and and there taking over the dwelling of a hermit, St Uuron. Petroc’s followers joined him, according to these sources, eventually necessitating the construction of a second Castle Canyke, Cornwall’s largest Iron Age hillfort, monastic house on the hill above an earlier surrounded by the remains of a substantial ditch and foundation in a valley. There is currently no rampart; these have been much reduced by ploughing archaeological or documentary evidence to on the eastern side. The interior was subdivided and support an early religious settlement in or near enclosed in the post-medieval period (Historic Bodmin, however, and it is worth noting that Environment Service, ACS 714). such medieval legends were often constructed long after the events they purported to Activity in later prehistory is represented by describe to explain and provide a history and Castle Canyke, the largest Iron Age hillfort in pedigree for foundations existing at the time Cornwall, south east of the town, and another they were written. The available evidence very substantial enclosure of this period in rather suggests that a monastic or clerical Dunmere Wood, to the north west. A number settlement associated with the cult of St of rounds or defended farmsteads of the Iron Petroc, established earlier at Padstow, was Age – Romano-British period are known in founded at Bodmin at some point in the later the wider area of the town, including sites at centuries of the early medieval period. This

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 13 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin may have been around AD 800: it has been element ‘berry’ in this area, with documentary suggested that Bodmin was the site of a evidence to date this association to at least the monastery or church named as Dinuurrin in a fourteenth century. The word perhaps derives documentary source dated between AD 833 from the Old English burh, meaning a and AD 870. At this time the monastery was defended site, and therefore suggesting a link the seat of a bishop named Kenstec, the with the Cornish element din, a fort, which document recording his pledge of allegiance to occurs in Dinuurrin. No archaeological the Anglo Saxon church centred on evidence for such a feature has been identified Canterbury. This part of Cornwall appears to to date but there are local accounts of a have already come under Saxon control by possible site at Castlehill; the physical this period: much of the land formerly held by topography would suggest a possible location the earlier monastic foundation dedicated to on the ridge east of the house of that name on St Petroc at Padstow had been granted away the upper part of Castle Street. It has also by King Ecgberht in the wake of his military been argued that the late fifteenth century actions in Cornwall in the early ninth century; church of the Holy Rood, surviving now as removal from Padstow to Bodmin may have the Berry Tower, was constructed on an early occurred because the latter was a more ecclesiastical site. convenient base from which to manage the If such a monastic settlement on the northern remaining monastic estates. valley side did exist, the settlement which grew By the later tenth century Bodmin had up around the site of the present St Petroc’s become the primary centre of the monastic church could represent a later phase, perhaps foundation dedicated to St Petroc, perhaps associated with the founding of a second encouraged by Viking raids in the Camel monastic establishment. The place-name estuary in AD 981. The manumissions - that Bodmin is itself likely to derive from the is, formal grants of freedom to slaves - Cornish elements, bod + meneghi, with the recorded in the tenth-century Bodmin probable meaning ‘dwelling by church-land’. Gospels demonstrate that the Bodmin Early medieval activity in the area of the foundation was at this time closely integrated present town is attested by finds of distinctive with the wider Anglo-Saxon political and ‘grass-marked’ pottery from the western end religious orbit: slaves are noted as having been of the site of the former Priory (Priory House) freed for the benefit of the souls of several and from the area of the car park constructed later tenth century Saxon kings (Edmund, on the steep slope behind Mount Folly, south Eadred, Eadwig), bishops, nobles and others. of the east end of Fore Street. Such pottery There are also hints of an organised urban or typically dates from between the seventh and proto-urban settlement with its own officials. eleventh century and its presence, probably One of the manumission entries records an resulting from the manuring of agricultural individual purchasing a female slave and her land with household waste, provides an son ‘at the church door in Bodmin’, paying a indication of settlement in the near vicinity. toll to ‘Aeilsige the portreeve’ (broadly equivalent to a mayor or chief magistrate) and One factor in the development of a settlement another official, and then freeing the two at Bodmin at this period is likely to have been individuals ‘on St Petroc’s altar’. the presence nearby of the tin industry. Evidence for this comes from finds made at The location of the early elements of the Boscarne in the early nineteenth century. monastic foundation and developing These included a tin ingot and an early tin settlement has been the subject of some smelting site, together with the remains of oak debate. The early ninth century monastery shovels; the latter have been radiocarbon named Dinuurrin may have been on the hill dated to the period AD 635-1045 and were north of the centre of Bodmin. There are a almost certainly associated with number of place-names which include the streamworking.

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 14 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

The medieval period

Domesday book noted Bodmine as held in 1086 by St Petroc’s church, recording also that ‘St Petroc’s has 68 houses and a market’. By this point, therefore, Bodmin was already a small town, one of only three in Cornwall at this period (the others were Liskeard and St Stephen-by-Launceston). Bodmin’s market was again recorded in 1201 and a fair, known as the Longfair and said to be held in the king’s highway, was documented in 1274. The market and additional fairs were noted again in 1302. Ornately carved stonework revealed during The monastery of St Petroc was re-established archaeological excavations on the priory site in 1985. as a foundation of Augustinian canons in the 1120s or 1130s, one of a number of such The priory had substantial estates for its changes in the south west at this period support, including the town of Bodmin and whereby former monastic settlements of large areas around Lanhydrock, Withiel, ‘secular canons’ were converted to priories. Rialton and Padstow. There are also Bishop Warlewast of appears to have indications that it possessed two or three deer promoted similar moves at Launceston, with parks in the vicinity of Bodmin: a document the founding of the priory at St Thomas, and of 1389 referred to a ‘park by St Leonard’, at Plympton. At Bodmin a new priory ‘Borhull park’ and ‘Scu’s park . . . with complex was developed on a site a short meadows therein’. The locations and distance south east of the earlier monastic site boundaries of these parks are not known but (now St Petroc’s church). This may not have that referred to as ‘by St Leonard’ was occurred immediately: excavations in the mid presumably to the west of the town, beyond 1980s uncovered the north-west corner of the the chapel of St Leonard at the west end of aisled priory church and dated it to the late Bore Street; the tithe apportionment recorded twelfth or early thirteenth century. a block of fields named ‘Deer Parks’ to the north of the junction of Boundary Road and The new priory church would have been an Boskear Lane and the name ‘Eastpark impressive structure. ‘One of the finest Cottages’, shown on the south side of buildings in Cornwall’ of the time, suggested Westheath Avenue on the 1st edition Charles Henderson, and the architectural Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of c 1880 may historian E H Sedding was confident from the also be relevant. ‘Borhull’, if it incorporates surviving fragments of worked stone that the the same ‘bore’ element which appears in Bore ‘Norman architecture in Bodmin Priory must Street, may indicate a further park to the west have been equal to any specimens of their of the town. work in Great Britain’. The church was part of a substantial group of buildings which The shrine of St Petroc which had previously included a cloister, dormitory, chapter house, been kept in the monastery was removed to refectory and prior’s lodgings; a graveyard also the priory, representing a considerable asset, in developed around the priory – human remains terms of both the popular legitimacy it have been found on several occasions over the conferred on the new institution and the past century – and the complex was bounded offerings it attracted from visitors. The saint’s by extensive walled and gated grounds. relics are said to have been stolen from the priory within a few decades of its foundation and taken by a monk to his home monastery

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 15 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin at St Méen in ; they were restored in the south side of Mount Folly Square. The 1177, housed in an ivory reliquary (now in St church itself lay on the site of the present Petroc’s church). This story now forms part of Shire Hall and Public Rooms and it is likely the rich store of legends which has built up that other buildings, set around a cloister, around Bodmin’s religious history, but it is not ranged to the south. The complex was clear whether it should be taken at face value probably enclosed within a precinct wall and or perhaps conceals the association of the traces of a gatehouse have been identified in priory, if only briefly, with a religious house in the fabric of 4 Fore Street, opposite the south- continental Europe as was the case for other west end of Honey Street. The friary is said to foundations in Cornwall at this period have been founded by a London merchant, It is likely that the former monastic church, on John Fitzralph, and completed by Earl or close to the site of the present St Petroc’s, Richard of Cornwall. Little is known of its was retained initially as the parish church; the history but it is of interest that it was of Norman work which survives at the base of sufficient significance to attract support in the the tower of St Petroc’s may represent the form of obits – payments for funeral remains of the north transept of the Norman celebrations - for a range of important figures church or a detached campanile (bell tower) of the period, including Earls Richard and which formed part of the monastic suite of Edmund, Bishop Bronescombe of Exeter and buildings. (The majority of the present church members of several major landed families. fabric is late fifteenth century in date.)

The fine tracery of the east window of the ruined fourteenth-century chapel of St Thomas à Becket (listed A large octagonal ashlar column with moulded cap Grade II*), sited east of St Petroc’s parish church and base, almost certainly from the former friary. It is now re-sited in St Petroc’s churchyard and listed Grade II. In addition to its friary, priory and parish church, Bodmin also had a number of Bodmin’s role as a religious centre developed medieval chapels. These included a chapel of further with the construction of a Franciscan St Thomas à Becket immediately to the east of friary in the thirteenth century, possibly as St Petroc’s church and others located on early as 1239, certainly by 1260, on a site on

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 16 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin routes into the town: a chapel of St Anne was this period. In 1306 three members of sited close to Dunmere bridge, to the west, Bodmin’s St Margaret family were among the and one to St Margaret to the east of the town largest tin coiners in Cornwall and at about (before 1284); chapels of St Nicholas and St this time Bodmin was coining around one- Leonard were located close to the fringes of fifth of the tin coined in Cornwall, slightly the town to the west and south east. St more than Truro. Lostwithiel, however, Anthony’s chapel and lazar house lay north of drawing its trade from much the same area but the west end of Fore Street, probably on the with royal support as a trading centre and edge of the core urban area at the time of its direct access to the sea, was handling 60% of foundation in the twelfth or thirteenth Cornwall’s tin at this time. century, and St Lawrence’s lazar hospital, Unlike almost all other medieval Cornish founded in the thirteenth century, was located towns, Bodmin in the medieval period was not south west of the town, again on a major at the centre of a well-developed agricultural routeway. hinterland. In fact, more than half of the rural The extent of these foundations testifies not area within a 5 km radius of the town only to Bodmin’s significance as a religious continued into the nineteenth century as centre, attracting substantial support from upland rough ground - unimproved downland, benefactors and congregations, but also to its moor and heath - or woodland. Such areas of importance and success as a market and a ‘waste’ came close to the town: immediately to centre of communications and trade in the the west lay the West Heath and to the south medieval period. In large part this was due to Bodmin Down and Halgavor Moor. its role as a centre for the tin industry. Tin Considerable colonisation of such upland streaming was widespread on ‘Foweymore’ waste took place during the eleventh to (now Bodmin Moor) and in the Blackmore fourteenth centuries on, for example, Bodmin area around the Hensbarrow granite to the Moor and the Downs, and was south and south west. Numbers of blowing undoubtedly also present on the moors and (smelting) houses are known in the wider area heaths surrounding Bodmin. Neither was the (the place-name 2km south waste itself unproductive: these areas provided west of Bodmin is attested as an industrial site a major resource as extensive grazing for cattle only in the eighteenth century but may have and sheep, the products from both of which earlier antecedents). Bodmin was one of four were important in Bodmin’s industrial or five coinage towns in Cornwall by 1198. development, and they were also the location These were the statutory places to which for much of the tin streaming of the medieval smelted tin was brought for taxation purposes period. and which therefore also functioned as Bodmin’s economic influence undoubtedly markets for its sale. This trade was not solely extended over a wide area, encompassing local or regional. Merchants from Bayonne, in Trigg hundred and large parts of West and south-west France, were purchasing tin in Pydar. In 1284 there were complaints that the Bodmin in the early thirteenth century, Bishop of Exeter’s recently created deer-park shipping it via Lostwithiel, and in 1265 at Pawton, on the St Breock Downs some Bodmin was one of four south-west towns – 11km west of Bodmin, had obstructed the the others were Helston, Truro and Exeter – route taken by ‘travellers and horses and for whose burgesses a safe conduct was others with carts and waggons of Pyder up to sought from the mayors of Bordeaux and La the market of Bomyne’. Economic activity Rochelle, ‘when they come to these parts with around castles at Cardinham, 5km to the east, tin’. These ports were among Europe’s most and perhaps Castle Goff, 15km north of the important medieval centres of trade and the town, may also have contributed to the town’s fact that Bodmin was trading directly with role as a ‘central place’. them, rather than via other networks, says much about its importance and prosperity at

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 17 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Other aspects of the town’s economic life buttress the status and prosperity of his town included provision for a wealthy elite: five at Lostwithiel at the expense of other centres. wine sellers were recorded there in 1201, There were also tensions between the priory, increasing to nine, selling a total of 142 ‘doles’ the formal proprietors of Bodmin, and the (casks), a century later. One or two townspeople. In 1345 the prior complained goldworkers were recorded in the town in the that the priory had been attacked and that his late thirteenth - early fourteenth century (there servants were not able to enter the town, even were others in Truro and Lostwithiel) and to obtain food; the tradesmen of the town, he there are several references to ‘shops’ in added, refused to acknowledge his jurisdiction. Bodmin at about this time; two selds, or In the immediate aftermath of these events private bazaars, were recorded in Bodmin in the onset of the Black Death brought a 1307-8. The existence of gilds of skinners and substantial decline in population – one glovers and of cordwainers indicates an nineteenth-century historian suggested that involvement in tanning and leatherworking at the improbably high total of 1500 inhabitants this stage, certainly a significant element in the of Bodmin may have died in 1348 – and town’s economy in the post medieval era. certainly in tin production. It was not perhaps Bodmin may also have had a judicial and until the later fifteenth century that there was administrative function for a time during the a significant revival in the regional economy. thirteenth century. Earl Richard, with his One indicator of the reviving fortunes of the attention perhaps focused on the town by his town was a renewal of investment in religious involvement with the friary, is said to have buildings. Excavations on the priory site in the moved some of the county courts - previously 1980s revealed that a new west tower had held in Launceston - to Bodmin; the courts been added during the fifteenth century. St were subsequently removed to Lostwithiel by Petroc’s, the largest parish church in Cornwall Earl Edmund. and, according to Sedding, ‘one of the great churches of the west’, was built almost entirely in one phase in a few years after 1469, with both its size and the short construction period attesting to some prosperity in the local population. Almshouses associated with the chapel of St Anthony are first recorded in 1492, and are likely to have been established a relatively short time before that, and, commencing in 1501, a chantry chapel with a dedication to the Holy Rood was constructed on the valley side north of the town (now Berry Tower). This had an attached graveyard and appears to have had more than chapel St Petroc’s church, constructed in the later fifteenth status. A 150-foot spire – an unusual feature century, is the largest parish church in Cornwall, and on a Cornish church of this period - was one of the county’s finest religious buildings. added to St Petroc’s by, or in the time of, Bodmin lost its coinage town status towards Prior Thomas Vivian (d 1533); Thomas the middle of the fourteenth century: the Tonkin recorded in December 1699 that ‘the burgesses unsuccessfully petitioned parliament beautiful spire there, esteemed the loftiest and for its reinstatement in 1347, complaining that fairest in the west, was destroyed by lightning, they had lately been hindered by Edward the by which it sunk down into the square tower Black Prince, the new Duke of Cornwall, and under’. Prior Vivian’s ornate tomb, removed his men from buying or coining tin. It seems to St Petroc’s from the priory after the probable that the prince was attempting to Dissolution, offers a further hint of the prosperity of this period.

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 18 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Little is known of secular activity at this time routes linking the early core of Bodmin with but it is apparent from fifteenth-century its hinterland to the north: Berry Lane documentary references to a number of streets becomes Helland Road and Rhind Street (via in the town (see below) that Bodmin had Roseland Road) and Castle Street both already achieved most of its post-medieval connect with routes to settlements on the west extent. It was also well populated: according side of Bodmin Moor. At the same time, to Maclean, the burgesses claimed in the however, historic maps show the area earlier sixteenth century that the town enclosed by these streets to have itself been accommodated 1,800 ‘houselying people’. The subdivided into regular plots. This gridded town also appears to have become the area coincides with that highlighted by ‘berry’ acknowledged ‘central place’ for Cornwall by place-names and is clearly a relatively early this period. This may in part have been due to component of the town: Castel Street was first its convenient location in the county, partly its recorded in 1313, Reynestrete in 1400 (perhaps size and economic importance and partly its from the word reen, a slope), prominence before the Reformation as a Berry Lane and Pool Street in 1468. religious centre and place of pilgrimage. It is The name Castle Street is itself intriguing: notable that it was a primary place of assembly there is no evidence for Bodmin having had a during the Cornish rebellions of both 1497 medieval castle and the name may have and 1549, during both of which local men referred to the same earthwork feature which were prominent as leaders; was otherwise denoted in place-names by din chose Bodmin as the place at which to and burh. The location of this feature is proclaim himself king in 1497. unknown, although a site somewhere near the upper part of Castle Street or close to that ‘From west to east along in now occupied by Berry Tower seems possible. one street’: Bodmin’s medieval As well as holding the meaning of an topography enclosure, the Old English place-name element burh is associated with a number of St Petroc’s church is located alongside a spring late Anglo-Saxon urban settlements in Wessex named after St Guron, close to the bottom of and south-west England, notably those listed the valley. It lies within a substantial sub-oval in the document known as the Burghal area defined by the present Priory Road and Hidage; south-western examples include Church Lane and this may well mark the Lydford and Exeter. Key elements of these approximate extent of the former monastic places include a gridded street plan and, in precinct. It is clear that this site was an early some instances, a defensive earthwork circuit. element in the layout of the town: Castle Exeter offers a particularly notable example, Street, running uphill from the north side of with a grid laid out probably during the later the church, was the principal route into ninth century within the area defined by the Bodmin from the east and north east until the Roman town walls. There is no evidence of a early nineteenth century; Priory Road defensive circuit at Bodmin but the represents an historic route from the east and combination of an apparently early street grid south east, and St Nicholas Street, also aligned immediately adjacent to - and with its main on the church, from the south. axis (Castle Street) aligned on - the probable One intriguing aspect of Bodmin’s urban location of St Petroc’s monastery, together topography is the grid of streets which with the burh place-name element, raises the extends north up the hillside from the area of possibility that this area of Bodmin represents the church: Pound Lane, Castle Street, Rhind the earliest element of the urban settlement, Street and perhaps Berry Lane, with Cross planned and laid out as a town as part of the Lane and Pool Street. The streets rising up the incorporation of this area of Cornwall into the slope could simply represent a fan of historic wider Saxon sphere. This area of Bodmin

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 19 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin offers a striking topographical similarity to A new town? part of Marlborough, Wiltshire, where an undefended grid of streets, probably laid out When the priory was established in the first in the tenth century, extends up the northern half of the twelfth century it took on the slope of the Kennet valley from the parish estates of the former monastic foundation, church; part of this area was known as including the land on which Bodmin itself was Kingsbury, a name which also occurs in located; the prior was, in effect, the proprietor Bodmin’s ‘Berry grid’. of Bodmin. Elsewhere in Cornwall during the medieval period, a number of noble These comparisons raise the possibility that proprietors attempted to develop their estates the ‘Berry’ area of Bodmin represents the by ‘planting’ towns on them: examples include earliest urban settlement in the area, the town Truro, Helston, and . of the ‘portreeve’ referred to in the Ecclesiastical proprietors could act similarly, manumissions and of the 68 burgesses as at Penryn and St Thomas, Launceston; in recorded in Domesday. A scatter of Old the latter instance the new settlement of English place-names around the town – Newport was laid out in near proximity to the Holton, Norton, Whitley, Weatherly, new priory site. The urban historian Maurice , Newton, Woodley – suggests Beresford has proposed that Bodmin is an that the burh could itself have been the focus example of a town of ‘organic growth’ – that for some Saxon colonisation at this period; the is, without substantial planned elements. names incorporating -ley perhaps indicate However, Bodmin’s historic topography some clearance of woodland around the town strongly suggests that a similar entrepreneurial for new farm settlements. approach was taken to expanding or re- At the time that Bodmin’s tithe map and establishing the earlier town. In particular, apportionment were compiled, c 1840, Fore Street appears to represent a planned relatively few of the plots within the ‘Berry new element to the town, made up of a block grid’ were occupied by dwellings, particularly of burgage plots extending west from higher on the slope away from the town. approximately the present Crockwell Street Many of the small enclosures were then held and the corresponding point on the south as meadows or gardens by individuals who side. The date of this development is not clear: dwelt elsewhere in the town. Does this the rear boundary of the burgage plots on the represent the final remnants of a shrunken south side of Fore Street is set some distance early medieval town, as suggested above? Or, up the slope beyond that of the friary precinct, if the ‘grid’ did not originate in that way, could suggesting that the burgage plots were laid out it represent a planned extension of the town at after the friary was established in the middle some later time? The early occurrences of the decades of the thirteenth century. However, street names suggest not. Could it simply three of the burgage plot boundaries on the represent speculative partitioning at a later south side of Fore Street were subject to period to provide additional building and archaeological investigation in advance of garden plots in close proximity to the town, works to lay out the present car park. A range the underlying layout deriving simply from the of pottery was recovered from these, including multiple early routes ascending the hillside? some later early medieval ‘grass-marked’ wares These questions could perhaps be resolved and fifteenth- or sixteenth-century forms. through further documentary research and Based on material recovered from the primary fieldwork as well as by investigations which bank of stony clay underlying each boundary, arise through the Development Control however, the excavator concluded that the process. boundaries probably dated to the twelfth century. Further investigation of sites in the area and / or re-assessment of the pottery

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 20 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin finds could clarify the chronology and representing development along the direct sequence. ‘desire line’ between the east end of Fore From historic maps it appears that the early Street and St Petroc’s, was first recorded in block of burgage plots may have extended to a 1566. point approximately 25m west of Market Turf Street was first recorded in 1470, and Street, with the possible later addition of a few may indicate that the space was becoming further strips extending to somewhere in the infilled by that date. This street-name was vicinity of Chapel Street. The former presence unknown in the late eighteenth century, immediately west of Chapel Street of the however, when it was known as Back Lane. It medieval chapel and lazar house of St was renamed Turf Street in the 1830-40s but it Anthony, dating from the thirteenth or is not entirely certain that the fifteenth-century fourteenth century, suggests strongly that reference is to the same street. Historic maps when it was established this was the western show Turf Street / Back Lane running north extent of the town. from Mount Folly but making a sharp angle at A speculative reconstruction of the medieval its northern end to run west into Honey townscape would also include a large Street; the main route for traffic descending St triangular market space defined by Honey Nicholas Street to the church was via Mount Street, Turf Street and Mount Folly. St Folly and Honey Street, and remained so until Petroc’s would have overlooked this space some time in the twentieth century; the from the north, with the priory boundary and present direct route through to Church Square gate forming the eastern side and the friary was first recorded on a map in the early 1960s. wall and gate the southern side. Honey Street,

Bodmin’s burgage plots laid out north and south from Fore Street, shown on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map of c 1880. (Based on the Ordnance Survey and Landmark 1880 OS 1:2500 historic mapping with the permission of the Controller Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to Prosecution or civil proceedings. CCC licence No 100019590. All material copyright © Cornwall County Council 2005.)

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 21 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Fore Street runs west from the south-west marking the western bounds of Bodmin’s angle of the probable market area, taking an medieval core would be the upper end of the easy line as it rises up the southern valley side, present Fore Street, perhaps between Chapel with its burgage plots running more-or-less up Lane and Beacon Hill. and down the slope. It is not clear whether it Bore Street also shows evidence of burgage was laid out de novo on a greenfield site, with plots, but it is not clear whether these were the burgage plots perhaps following the formally set out as a planned expansion to the orientation of former strip fields, or whether it main settlement to the east or simply was laid out from an existing route: the latter represent development of urban holdings over is suggested by the extension of the axis of earlier strip fields. The former presence of Fore Street into Bore Street which can be such fields is particularly clear on the north plausibly identified as the site of an annual fair side of Bore Street in the area now occupied known as the ‘Longfair’, recorded in 1274 and by Hillside Park, where the strips shown on said to be held on the ‘king’s highway’. historic maps have a particularly characteristic Bore Street – the present Higher and Lower ‘reversed J’ form. On the south side of Bore Bore Streets – was undoubtedly an early Street a continuous rear boundary to the block element in Bodmin’s topography. It is named of strips extended from a short distance west in various fifteenth century documents and of Beacon Hill, at the west end of Fore Street, there are references to several pre- as far as the west end of Higher Bore Street. Reformation gilds having been located there; This may represent formally established gilds of St Margaret, St Anne, St David, All burgage plots but could also have been simply Saints and St Matthew were recorded ‘at the the uphill boundary of a block of strips; Bore’, with another recorded as that of the however, the medieval St Leonard’s chapel lay ‘Virgins of Bore-street’. That it was an early approximately 30m outside the western component of Bodmin’s topography is also boundary of this block, again suggesting a evident in the way that routes approaching the chapel located on the outer edge of a defined town from the western quadrant converge on settlement. the western end of Bore Street: were this area A late thirteenth century account mentions a late development (as has been suggested in ‘Aldermen of the Barre’ with jurisdiction to some accounts of Bodmin’s development) pursue malefactors. This implies a separate these routes would more probably have been civic authority from that of Bodmin but, as aligned more directly on the west end of Fore with most of Bodmin’s early history, further Street. research is required to confirm this. The elongated cigar shape of Bore Street is Settlements made up of paired boroughs are characteristic of a settlement based around a known elsewhere in Cornwall in the medieval street fair or market site. However, it is period – Lostwithiel and its adjoining probable that the ‘Bore’ street-name derives medieval ‘twin’ borough of Penknight from a ‘bar’ or town gate: a document of 1283 provides a near and contemporary example – refers to the street ‘of the Barre’ and another but in this instance it is perhaps less likely in of about the same period records ‘magno vico that the land occupied by the two areas was all versus La Bare’, the great street towards the under the control of a single proprietor. It is bar. It has been suggested that the bar or gate perhaps more probable that the fairs required was located slightly to the east of the present a distinct administrative establishment - the Town Wall. In this position, however, it ‘Aldermen’ - but that Bore Street was would have effectively divided the supposed effectively a large suburb to the medieval core fair site in two, which seems inherently of Bodmin. unlikely. An alternative site for a medieval bar

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 22 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Burgage plots laid off from Bore Street. The elongated ‘cigar-shape’ typical of a fair site is very clear. A block of former strip fields is evident on the north side of Higher Bore Street, west of the present Cardell Road, previously Bore Lane. (Based on the Ordnance Survey and Landmark 1880 OS 1:2500 historic mapping with the permission of the Controller Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright and Landmark Information Group. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to Prosecution or civil proceedings. CCC licence No 100019590. All material copyright © Cornwall County Council 2005.)

Early descriptions of Bodmin emphasise its the space of an eastern mile, whose south ‘one-street’ layout. Leland, c 1540, wrote that side is hidden from the sun by an high hill the ‘showe and the principale of the Toun is so nearly coasting it in most places, as from west to est along in one streate. There is neither can light have entrance to their a Chapel at the west ende of the toun. The stairs nor open air to their other rooms. paroch chirch standith at the est end of the Their back houses, of more necessary than town, and is a fair large thing . . .’ Norden, cleanly service, as kitchens, stables, etc, are towards the end of the sixteenth century, also climbed up unto by steps, and their filth by noted the long main axis, commenting also on every great shower washed down through the town’s ‘ragged lanes’ and ‘decayed houses’. their houses into the streets. Carew, c 1600, was critical of both the location The other side is also overlooked by a great and cleanliness of Bodmin, which, he hill, though somewhat farther distant, and suggested, ‘a man might, not unaptly, turn into for a corollarium their conduit water Badham.’ Of all the towns in Cornwall, he runneth through the churchyard, the said, he found none more healthily situated ordinary place of burial for town and than his own neighbouring town of Saltash, parish. It breedeth therefore little cause for ‘or more contagiously than this’. marvel that every general infection is first It consisteth wholly (in a manner) of one here admitted and last excluded. street leading east and west wellnear [sic]

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 23 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Other elements of medieval Bodmin included this date substantial private grounds remained at least two watermills, one sited on the attached to Priory House. Only in the later western side of the priory grounds and twentieth century did development pressures another in the vicinity of Mill Street, together produce expansion in this area. This with their associated mill pools and leats; Pool distinctive topography, the legacy of Bodmin’s Street was first noted in 1468 and another of medieval history, constitutes a significant the medieval gilds was based there. The mills element in Bodmin’s character to the present were served by the stream which follows the day. valley, rising to the east close to Prior’s Barn and running west via the Priory fishponds Without priory or friary: Bodmin in now in the Priory Grounds park and along the post-medieval period Berrycoombe to join the Camel at Dunmere. William Worcestre, writing after 1450, noted this as the ‘Carn water’, attributing the name The coming of the Reformation in the 1530s to a man named Carn ‘who built the bridge in could have had a major impact on Bodmin, Bodmin town’. This bridge was probably ending as it did several hundred years during somewhere in the vicinity of the north end of which the life and prospects of the town had Honey Street and Church Square. Leland, been substantially shaped by its religious c 1540, noted the ‘little broke’ which ‘servith foundations. During 1538-9 the friary and the milles and rennith by the est ende of the priory were surrendered to the crown and town of Bodmyn’. The stream has been their populations of religious dispersed. The almost entirely culverted over time – the only priory, its lands and other assets were valued part which is now easily visible within the at the then considerable sum of £289 per town core is a short length in the yard of the annum. The buildings were turned to secular Hole in the Wall pub. Assessment of the leat’s uses. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century archaeology in advance of a flood prevention sources record malthouses and a tanyard scheme identified lengths of the conduit with within the priory precinct and during the unmortared barrel-vaulting which may date earlier eighteenth century the former priory from the medieval period. church was used for metalworking, including bell-founding. Other parts of the priory Viewed as a whole, Bodmin’s historic complex continued as domestic topography is intriguingly lopsided: with the accommodation: a building referred to as the exception of the grid of streets north of the ‘Great House’ in the mid eighteenth century church, itself perhaps of some antiquity, all was demolished for the construction of Priory development from the medieval period until House in the 1760-70s. The friary church was relatively recent times appears to have taken acquired by the corporation of Bodmin (see place to the west of the early core, leaving the below). Both sites provided a ready ad hoc church on the eastern fringe of the built-up quarry for the town and architectural area. At the time of the 1st edition of the fragments from both the friary and priory are Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map, c 1880, the only widely distributed in Bodmin; fragments of buildings to the east of the churchyard and finely-worked stone, possibly an arch, found Turf Street were Priory House and the during archaeological investigations at 27-31 vicarage, both dating to the later eighteenth Fore Street, for example, are likely to have century, and the county police station of the been brought to the site as building stone. The 1860s. The probable explanation is that the town’s chapels appear mostly to have been presence of the priory and its extensive turned to secular purposes or allowed to grounds over much of the east side of the decay, although the leper hospitals continued town barred secular development in the area to function. until the Dissolution, by which time Bodmin’s urban layout was fully established. These lands Despite the major change which the remained undivided until 1812 but even after Dissolution brought there is little to indicate

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 24 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin any short- or medium-term negative impact took place in the later sixteenth century. on Bodmin. John Leland, visiting the town in Maclean notes that there were episodes of the immediate aftermath of the closure of the ‘pestilence’ in 1563, 1575, 1581 and 1590; priory and friary, was the first of a number of during the second of these outbreaks 350 commentators over the next two centuries or people died during a four-month period. more to note the continuing success of Carew also described Bodmin as the Bodmin as a market centre. He called it ‘that ‘convenientest and usual place of assembly for busy place’ and ‘the most famous market in the whole county’: Bodmin and Truro shared the whole of Cornwall’, adding that ‘Bodmyn the role of venue for the county quarter hath a Market on every Saturday lyke a Fair sessions at this period and the town was also for the Confluence of People.’ In 1563, the the location for regimental musters and a ’s manor of Domellick, at St variety of administrative meetings; county Dennis, was described as being ‘within 8 miles meetings were held there during the disturbed of Bodman, the chiefest market town of political climate of the 1640s and the Cornwall’. gentlemen of Cornwall petitioned in 1664 for The 1545 datestone on the water shute in the county to be moved to Bodmin Church Square suggests some level of civic from Launceston, because of the former’s initiative in the years immediately following more convenient situation. The overall the Dissolution. Formal creation of a population of the town and surrounding corporation to administer the town only took parish in the early 1640s was in the region of place in 1563, however, when a charter was 1600, and it was then probably the largest obtained from Elizabeth I establishing a body urban settlement in Cornwall. made up of a mayor and 36 burgesses. This Bodmin was in Royalist hands for most of the gained possession of the former friary site at Civil War, although in November 1642 it was Mount Folly, including the large friary church; attacked by what the historian of Bodmin part of the building was used initially as a Maclean described as ‘500 or 600 fishermen, ‘house of correction’ for the idle and vagrant with their wives, armed with spits, clubs, and but, according to Hals, writing c 1730, the stones, in a violent and rustic manner’, the townsmen . . . soon after converted or horde plundering the inhabitants of ‘all their profaned it further to a common market plate and pewter’. There was also some house, for selling corn, wool and other skirmishing in the vicinity during 1643 and a commodities weekly’. A stone corn measure reference to ‘trenches’ in the mayoral accounts said to have been used in the market is now in for the year suggests that some temporary the town museum. In addition to the weekly defences may have been constructed. The market the charter confirmed two fairs town was taken briefly by Parliamentary forces annually. in 1644 but quickly retaken for the king, Carew, c 1600, noted Bodmin’s weekly market falling finally to Fairfax and Cromwell’s army as the ‘greatest in Cornwall’ but, in addition to in the spring of 1646 shortly before the end of his unfavourable observations on the town’s hostilities. location and sanitation (see above), he also Figures presented by Whetter show a commented that the ‘many decayed houses significant decline in the number of baptisms prove the town to have been once very in the later decades of the century when populous’. Whether the implied decline was compared with levels in the period 1600-40, recent or based on a longer perspective is not although burial numbers remained roughly clear; similar comments were made at intervals similar across the two periods. This may until at least the late eighteenth century. The indicate a temporary decline in the number of decline in population which Carew implied, younger households, perhaps through however, may in part have been a migration. Charles II is reputed to have consequence of a series of epidemics which remarked that Bodmin was the ‘politest town

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 25 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin that he had ever seen, as one half of the houses appeared to be bowing, and the other half uncovered’. The implication is of houses in poor repair and unroofed. Some element of civic initiative in stimulating trade is suggested by the construction of a purpose-built butter market at the junction of Fore Street and Honey Street in 1679 and support for a yarn market at about the same time. Improvement to water supplies is suggested by the 1700 datestone on the Bree Shute, or Eye Well, set behind the burgage plots on the north side of Fore Street. Overall, however, Bodmin’s surviving seventeenth-century buildings suggest some prosperity in the town. There are several fine examples of substantial timber-framed town houses and merchants’ dwellings of this period in Fore Street, likely to have originated in the seventeenth century and 20 Lower Bore Street, one of the few historic buildings in Bodmin to have been subject to detailed investigation, shows evidence of having originated around 1600 as a town house of Nos 33 Fore Street (above) and 8 Fore Street (below), some prestige. two examples of prestigious seventeenth-century buildings in Bodmin’s core. Hals reported in c 1730 that Bodmin ‘for number of inhabitants far exceeds any other town in Cornwall’, noting also the weekly market ‘wherein is vended of all creatures both living and dead, corn, fish and fowl, and all other things necessary for the life of man, in such great abundance, and at a moderate price, as the same equals if not exceeds the markets of Tavistock and Exeter.’ There were four fairs in the town annually, and others at St Lawrence. Angerstein visited Bodmin in 1754 and described it as an ‘extensive and, according to Cornish standards, fairly considerable town. They were now having the biggest market of the year, the main activity being the sale of cattle’, he said, noting also the ‘great supply’ of cattle and sheep from the ‘extensive moors and wastelands’ of Bodmin Moor; sheep were shorn in July and produced an income of 5-6s per head annually. The importance of the cattle fairs may have been one of the factors behind the opening of Cornwall’s first bank in Bodmin in 1744.

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 26 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

There was a considerable woollen industry in Masters have entered into an article . . . not to Bodmin in the post medieval period and give any more wages . . . there is but three perhaps earlier. A fuller and a dyer were journeymen at work in town, four are gone off recorded there in the early seventeenth today to get work and several more are going century and the town corporation gave tomorrow’. This and other small-scale craft financial support to a yarn market in the later trades would have operated from small 1670s. Theophilus Botanista noted in 1757 workshops in or close to domestic premises. that the town was ‘once the only staple [principal market] of the county for the yarn ‘Poor Bodmin’ manufacture, but that is since greatly decayed.’ (John Wesley, 1774) The Reverend Maton, visiting in 1785, observed that the town ‘must formerly have From 1716 Bodmin became Cornwall’s been a very flourishing, extensive place, and second assize town (discontinued between was famous for its manufactories . . . A 1727 and 1736), despite the reported protests manufactory of yarn too continues, but is said of the judges of the circuit, who were credited to be much on the decline.’ Of the 17 Bodmin with the comment ‘Out of the world into traders listed in Bailey’s Western and Midland Bodmin’. The Summer Assizes were held Directory, published in 1783, two were noted as there annually, the winter court being held at yarn merchants and four as yarn jobbers; Launceston. The impact on the town of its several others were recorded as mercers and new status was not immediate. Bishop drapers. William Clift (born 1775), recalled in Pococke, visiting in 1750, noted Bodmin as ‘a later life that during his boyhood his mother long town but seems to be very poor’, noting and sisters ‘occupied themselves in carding also that the former friary church, with a fine and spinning wool, which was the staple east window, had been converted to serve as a employment of most of the poor people courthouse. Nonetheless, the Assizes brought during the winter months’. In the 1790s his substantial numbers of people to Bodmin, sister Elizabeth prepared warps for Joseph partly for the legal proceedings but also for an Eyre, listed with his brother Thomas as yarn associated round of social events, attracting merchants in 1783, who put out wool for substantial representation from Cornwall’s spinning and may also have employed nobility and gentry. Bodmin Races, in weavers. Eyre built a tucking mill at Margate, particular, attracted considerable attendance. east of the town, in 1792, replacing one he had The races were held during the week after the previously operated in the Priory precinct. A assizes on a course ‘considered one of the woollen blanket manufactory was noted at finest in England’. (Racecourse Downs lay Clerkenwater, to the north, in 1794. about 3km north east of the centre of Bodmin, immediately outside the municipal Tanning, another industry deriving its raw boundary.) The provision of accommodation materials from Bodmin’s wide pastoral and other services for these visitors over a hinterland, was also important. The town’s period each summer must have had significant 1563 charter provided that tanners and implications for the town’s economy. The curriers from outside the borough should not construction of numbers of good-quality town purchase ‘new hides’, effectively restricting the houses and the refurbishment of others in the supply of raw materials for the important mid and later eighteenth century – there are tanning and leather trade to the town’s own surviving examples in Castle Street, Church entrepreneurs. Lime pits associated with the Square, Honey Street, Fore Street and Lower tanning trade were recorded in Berrycoombe and Higher Bore Streets – is likely to have during the sixteenth century and in 1662 been in some part a response to demand for Bodmin was said to have a ‘great many lodgings during the Assize season and for tanners’. Boot and shoe making also became improved accommodation for some important. Elizabeth Clift noted a strike by prospering residents. These houses, together journeymen shoemakers in 1796: ‘all the

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 27 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin with the substantial Priory House, built on the place of secondary importance. Maton noted priory site and dating from 1766-72, certainly in 1785 that Launceston continued to be the suggest some enhancement to the town’s ‘chief town in the county’ and William housing stock through the second half of the Marshall in 1796 stated that Bodmin, ‘though eighteenth century and beyond. one of the county towns, is much inferior [to Liskeard] in size and respectability’; Liskeard he described as a ‘large, populous, decent- looking place, and would appear respectable in any part of the kingdom’. In the early 1810s the Lysons pointed out that Bodmin’s population of a little over 2,000 was smaller than those of Helston, Liskeard, or Penryn, and considerably lower than St Austell, Truro, Penzance, Falmouth or Redruth. John Wesley, in 1774, found a small group of Methodists in Bodmin and was invited by them to preach in the ‘town hall’, the ‘most dreary one I ever saw’ (it is not clear whether he was describing the assize hall or the guild Priory House, one of a number of prestigious residences hall). Having preached to a ‘mixed built in Bodmin during the later eighteenth century. congregation of rich and poor’ he concluded Other building of this period included a parish that ‘who knows but some good may be done workhouse constructed on Crinnick Hill in even in poor Bodmin’; it is not clear whether 1756 (later the first premises of the East the poverty he noted was spiritual or material Cornwall Hospital) and, more significantly, the but a similar impression of a place somehow construction of Bodmin Gaol on a site to the unfortunate also occurs in repeated references west of the town centre beginning in 1779. A to ‘poor old Bodmin’ in William Clift’s new brewery building ‘as high as Bodmin recollections of the town as it was in the later church’ was constructed on the site of a eighteenth century. former Bridewell on Church Square in 1792. Further, it is clear that despite its status as The Court of Probate of the Archdeaconry of assize town and its central location, Bodmin Cornwall moved to Bodmin from Lostwithiel did little to challenge Truro’s primacy as the in 1773. focus of social and cultural life in Cornwall. Communication links improved in the second When William Borlase proposed a county half of the eighteenth century with the library for Cornwall in 1740, it was intended creation of new turnpike routes. Bodmin was that it be based in Truro, not in Bodmin; some distance from the 1759 route from when such an institution did eventually Truro eastwards to Launceston via St Columb emerge, in 1792, it was located in Truro, as Major, Wadebridge and Camelford, but in was the Royal Cornwall Hospital a few years 1769 a direct route across Bodmin Moor later; in the latter case land which had between Bodmin and Launceston opened. formerly provided an endowment for the leper This, in Maclean’s words, became the ‘chief hospital at St Lawrence’s went to support the highway through the county, so that great part new foundation. Truro was also the location of the traffic passed through Bodmin.’ for the Royal Institution of Cornwall, founded in 1818. Furthermore, Truro had a dedicated Despite these improvements it is clear that, Assembly Rooms and theatre in a handsome despite its nominal county town status, purpose-built building from the 1770s; in contemporary commentators found Bodmin a Bodmin the monthly Assembly meetings

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 28 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin during the ‘season’ were held in cramped slaughtered carcases in summer from rooms at the rear of the Royal Hotel. ‘The frying, to erect there a market-house . . . room they dance in is perhaps twenty-five feet The following year it was reported that St long, the boards laid the contrary way, and Petroc’s church was in semi-ruinous state: some of them much higher than others, which ‘great part of the roof of the building is off, occasions various trippings as you go down and part of the wall is down; so that this the dance,’ noted the Reverend Skinner in venerable fabric is likely to become a heap of 1797. Bodmin was the location for the ruins; neither the corporation, their noble formation of the Cornwall Agricultural patron, nor the parishioners will be at the Society, in 1793, but the establishment in the expense of providing a place of worship for early 1840s of a literary institution and library, the town.’ In 1816 public worship was being based in the former parish workhouse carried out in the Assize Hall because of the building on Crinnick Hill and shared with the state of the church. The Corporation was said newly founded East Cornwall Hospital and to be bound to carry out the repairs but was dispensary, came some time after the founding unable to afford the expense. of cultural institutions in other Cornish towns outside Truro. Penzance, for example, had the ‘The capital town of the Principality’ Royal Geological Society of Cornwall (1814), (Evelyn Burnaby, visitor, 1892) (1818) and Penzance Natural These negative impressions, however, are History and Antiquarian Society (1839), counterbalanced by some significant Launceston had a subscription library by indications of resurgent economic and civic c 1815 and Falmouth had a Public Reading vitality. Elizabeth Clift commented at the end Room (1826) and the Royal Cornwall of 1793 on the ‘great alterations’ in Bodmin in Polytechnic Society (1833). the 18 months since her brother had left the Neither was Bodmin’s status reflected in its town: ‘There hath been more buildings since built environment. William Clift recalled the you have been wanting than ever I remember annoyance caused to late eighteenth century before’. The following year she reported that London visitors to the assizes and races by the ‘houses never was so scarce in Bodmin before absence of paved footways along the streets. for there is so many strangers in the town . . .’ A satirical poem on Penzance published in In 1805 her brother John commented on 1811 began ‘what vast number of houses there have been built in the course of a few years’. Meeting ‘If Penzance, like Bodmin Town, houses for both Wesleyan Methodists and Look’d like one great tumble-down, Independents were built in the town in the Where the buildings, one and all, first decade of the nineteenth century, the Bend in sympathetic fall . . .’ Methodists on a site at the upper end of Fore In 1814 a correspondent to the West Briton Street and the Independents in a yard off complained that a stranger arriving in Bodmin Honey Street. Bodmin Races were revived in at night 1807 for the first time in 20 years and the probably encounters a lamp-post (lamp- Lysons noted in the early 1810s that Bodmin’s irons and posts only have been fixed at was ‘still a very considerable market for corn, Bodmin for some years). Avoiding this, he fish, and all sorts of provisions, and well stumbles on a clean [sic] assemblage of pigs, attended’, adding that shoes were made ‘in or is precipitated over a butcher’s block great quantities at this town, and exposed to into the neighbouring gutter; for though sale in standings at the markets and fairs’. The Bodmin is resorted to, at times, by all the parish church was eventually repaired and rank and beauty of the county . . . it has not embellished in the later 1810s, at least partly yet been found practicable out of decency under the patronage of Lord de Dunstanville. to strangers, and for preventing the F W L Stockdale, while noting in 1824 that Bodmin’s houses were in general ‘low,

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 29 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin decayed, and irregular’, was moved to add that 1829 when the Gaol, originally constructed in ‘much improvement has been made within the the 1770s, became the county prison for last twenty years’. In general, the early decades Cornwall after the closure of that in of the nineteenth century saw a clear change Launceston. in fortunes for the town: a series of county The Cornwall Grand Jury had pressed from institutions came to be based there and major the early 1820s that Bodmin should become improvements took place in communications the sole assize town for Cornwall, largely and civic provision; there are also indications because of the inconvenience of Launceston’s of a new economic vitality and a substantial location for much of the county. This finally rise in the urban population. came about in 1836 and the achievement of primary county town status was followed by a wave of public building in Bodmin. The old friary church on the north side of Mount Folly had until this time functioned as the assize hall, accommodating also the corn market; a notice in the West Briton in July 1833 complained that ‘all other commodities are vended in the open air; even the butchers are obliged to stand in the open street’. Now, a handsome new granite-fronted assize court (now Shire Hall) was built on part of the friary church site and opened in 1838, complemented in 1840 by the substantial The distinctive ‘panopticon’ form of the initial phase of Judges’ Lodgings, designed by local architect the Cornwall Lunatic Asylum, c 1820. Joseph Pascoe, immediately to the east. A new ‘shamble’ and fish market building was erected The first of the county institutions to come to in Fore Street in 1839. The West Briton the town was the Cornwall Lunatic Asylum, described this in November 1838 as having completed in 1820 on a large site west of the been planned to provide accommodation for town. It was designed by John Foulston, an 63 butchers, with cast iron fittings similar to influential architect who was also responsible those in new market houses in Penzance and for much of the re-shaping and development Helston and a reservoir supplying each stall of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse in with piped water. the 1810-20s. Initially housing 112 patients, the new complex was conceived to an This period also saw significant building and innovative ‘panopticon’ design with a strongly rebuilding of other institutions around classical component. The first asylum utilising Bodmin. The asylum complex was extended a radial plan had been built in Glasgow in to designs by the architect George Wightwick 1810, but the Bodmin institution, with its six from the late 1830s – the ‘High Building’ was wings radiating from a central polygonal hub added in 1842 and the ‘New Building’ in 1847 and fronted by an administration block, was - and the same architect subsequently rebuilt the first on this principle in England and part of the gaol during the 1840s. Bodmin remained the only fully radial asylum complex Union workhouse, constructed on a to be built. Stockdale described the new prominent site above the town in 1839-42, asylum as ‘very handsome and commodious’, continued this pattern of institutional also noting that a grammar school had complexes located just outside the urban area. recently opened in the town. A datestone at It was built to the then prevalent model of a Town Walls records some rebuilding or central ‘hub’ for supervision within a improvement here in the mid 1820s. Bodmin’s rectangular complex of buildings enclosing county town status was further reinforced in four segregated yards.

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 30 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Cornwall Hospital and dispensary in the former parish workhouse building on Crinnick’s Hill in 1844. Some improvement to public water supply at this period is suggested by the 1849 date on Cock’s Well, close to the formerly densely occupied area around the north end of Chapel Street. In 1846 a Catholic mission chapel opened at West End.

Bodmin’s ‘Great Rebuilding’: four of the major institutional and civic buildings constructed in the immediately aftermath of Bodmin becoming Cornwall’s assize town. Above: the market hall (1838) and assize court (1838). Right, above: Methodist chapel (1840) and (below) Judges’ Lodgings (1840).

These developments were paralleled by other civic and public buildings in the centre of the town. Fore Street was further enhanced by the completion in 1840 of the substantial classical façade of a new Methodist church, set back from the street line behind an imposing forecourt and steps. The same year saw the building nearby of a distinctive pedimented three-storey bank (53 Fore Street). A new This rapid change in Bodmin’s civic and clock tower, a visual focal point from much of public face was preceded by significant the length of Fore Street, was erected in 1845 changes in its transport links. The railway on the site of the former butter market at the between Bodmin and Wadebridge opened in junction of Mount Folly and Honey Street. 1834 and was then one of the earliest in south- Other new public provision at about this time west Britain, the first to carry passenger traffic. included a United Methodist chapel on the The line was primarily intended to carry sea south side of Pool Street in 1842 and the East sand inland for improving agricultural land,

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 31 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin not least the large areas of unenclosed Briton in May 1815 indicated that an downland in the vicinity of Bodmin; the tithe application to Parliament for a bill to enclose apportionment in 1840 noted two ‘sand the commons round Bodmin to pay for wharfs’ at the new station built in the bottom repairing the church had proved unsuccessful, of the valley north-west of the town. While perhaps in consequence of the popular riots not connected to the mainline network for against the proposal. By the time of the tithe another 50 years, the railway did give Bodmin map, c 1840, however, almost the whole of the a direct link to a port able to handle vessels of former commons and waste around the town up to 150 tons at Wadebridge, with the had been partitioned and enclosed with a consequence that the price of coal in Bodmin patchwork of tightly rectilinear fields. Only a fell from 25s to 15s per ton. The link also relatively small area at the Beacon, deliberately improved the potential for exploiting local set aside for public benefit, remained resources; granite from moorstone working on unenclosed. the western side of Bodmin Moor was being As county town Bodmin was the venue for a shipped out by rail soon after the line opened variety of sporting events, mass meetings and and china clay operators also used the link. In other public gatherings. Four thousand people this respect the new line appears to have had attended a wrestling match in 1811 and large an influence on Bodmin’s architecture: anti-tithe meetings were staged in 1821 and relatively little granite is evident in earlier 1822. The West Briton announced in July 1824 building in the town but within only four or that the ‘ancient festival’ of Bodmin Riding, five years of the railway link the new market ‘which for some time past has been on the house and Shire Hall, together with the plinth decline’ was to be revived, with games, for the Judges’ Lodgings, were constructed in including wrestling, on an ‘unusually extensive fine granite ashlar. A granite plinth was also scale’. Further political mass meetings were provided for Townsend House and other held in the early 1830s around parliamentary buildings in the St Lawrence’s complex and reform and in the 1840s for protests against granite detailing and steps appeared on other the Corn Laws. Bodmin Races were again buildings such as the Methodist chapel in Fore revived in 1833, continuing until 1842. Street. At about the same time as the opening of the new railway there were also changes in Bodmin’s road links. A new turnpike route to Liskeard via the Glynn valley was constructed in the 1830s and in 1834 the link between the town centre and the turnpike to Launceston was re-aligned to run east from Church Square via Barn Park, a line with rather easier gradients than the former route up the steep slope of Castle Street. A major alteration to the environs of the town took place during the 1820-30s with the enclosure of the former commons extending Bodmin gaol, from the hillside to the south. around much of the west, south and eastern fringes of the urban area. These would The largest crowds, however, were drawn by previously have provided grazing, fuel and public executions. From 1816, if not earlier, other benefits to the town population, and these were held outside the south wall of the had also been used for meetings and popular prison, with vantage points for onlookers in events such as the games associated with the Borewell Meadows in the valley bottom and annual Bodmin Riding. A report in the West on the facing slope. The opening of the

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 32 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin railway facilitated greater attendance: an there is no clear indication of development execution in 1840 was said to have drawn a here on earlier maps and it is conceivable that crowd of 20,000 people, many of whom had this was an early speculative venture. travelled by train, and a similar number were reported to have attended the execution of Mathew Weekes for the murder of Charlotte Dymond in 1844. Another execution in 1846 was said to have attracted 25,000. On the occasion of the last public hanging in Bodmin, in 1862, the West Briton reported that the ‘drop’ was constructed ‘nearly over the same site as that of the old gaol; and, consequently, the fields sloping down from the northern side of the street at the western part of the town – the “Bodmin highlands” – afford the same facilities for view of the dread spectacle that have been available to so many thousands at previous executions’. Such large public events, although occasional and relatively few in Above: Early nineteenth century row housing at St number – only 31 public executions are Leonard’s, associated with the rapid rise in Bodmin’s recorded for the period 1790-1862, for population at this period. Below: The Friaries, one of example – made a significant contribution to a number of modest villas and larger houses built Bodmin’s economic life. On each occasion around Bodmin in the first half of the nineteenth roads into the town were reported to have century. been thronged and the public houses full. The population of Bodmin reached 4,200 in 1841, the total having more than doubled in the previous 30 years. Maclean attributed the increase to the ‘flourishing trade . . . carried on in the town in shoemaking’. The rise in population was not matched by any major expansion of the built-up area, however, although there may have been some spread along approach roads such as St Nicholas Street and St Leonard’s. Most of the additional population was accommodated by increased density of development in the central area. This was particularly the case on the north side of Fore Street, with the tithe map of The early nineteenth century also saw a scatter c 1840 showing an intricate and densely built- of new villas and substantial houses around up area of courts, alleys and lanes accessed the town, all set within more-or-less extensive from Honey Street and Crockwell Street and landscaped and planted grounds. These along the opes off Fore Street. Development included St Petroc’s on St Nicholas Street, also infilled many rear plots on Higher and Berrycoombe House overlooking the town Lower Bore Street. Downing Street (now the from a large site north of Pool Street, Finn VC estate) was also tightly built-up along Rounceville Cottage and Barn Park to the east, an axis perpendicular to the town’s main east- Plasnewyd on Lostwithiel Road, Windsor on west alignment. The area may have been built Pound Lane, Coomberry on a large plot on up along an existing lane connecting Bore the west side of Chapel Street and the stucco- Street with Burnard’s Lane to the north but

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 33 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin fronted house known as The Friaries south of Royal Cornwall Militia; the construction of a Mount Folly Square. These developments are substantial barracks complex did not take significant both in reflecting the enhanced place until almost 20 years later (see below). prosperity of the town at this period, and the The keep did, however, add a further notable overt ‘polite’ element in its character, but also building to the town: it was constructed of as the mechanism by which the green and coursed, dressed killas with granite dressings wooded quality of much of its immediate in impressive ‘French Provincial’ style, with a surroundings was established. striking steep-pitched slated roof with prominent gables. It was accompanied by a stable range and bounded by a perimeter wall and gate and, as with other institutional buildings of the period, was located prominently on one of the principal approach roads to the town. At St Lawrence’s a further substantial building was added in 1867 and a waterworks and reservoir system installed c 1870. A new police station was opened in 1867 and became the county headquarters of the Cornwall Constabulary which had been established 10 years earlier; the building, erected on a site east of St Petroc’s, was again sited on a principal The militia ‘keep’ constructed on a prominent site to road into the town but in this instance was the south-east of Bodmin in 1859, now the Devon and one of the first to extend the built-up area of Cornwall Light Infantry museum. the town in this direction. A new fire station The 1850-60s saw further development of was constructed in 1870 at the north end of public and institutional buildings in and Crockwell Street. around Bodmin. The gaol complex was Other prestige building of the mid nineteenth expanded considerably in the 1850s, partly to century also took place away from the central a striking ‘Baronial’ design, with new wings of commercial area of the town, with a particular up to six storeys. Although the prison was not concentration to the west. A Bible Christian a major employer - the 1851 census shows a chapel was erected close to Town Wall in total staff of only ten, including the governor 1851 and a new Anglican church dedicated to and matron, with 110 inmates, rising to St Lawrence was constructed at West End, somewhere over 200 after the expansion – it is adjacent to the county asylum site in 1859, likely to have had some economic benefits for enlarged in the late 1860s. An Anglican the town in addition to the prestige conferred mission chapel – St Leonard’s – was built in by its physical presence. Higher Bore Street in 1871 and in the same In 1859 an impressive militia ‘keep’ was year a Congregational chapel and schoolroom, constructed for the depot company of the described by Maclean as in a ‘Gothic style of former 32nd Regiment of Foot, renamed the architecture’, was erected at the west end of 32nd (Cornwall) Light Infantry to mark Fore Street. In 1872 St Petroc’s rectory was distinguished service during the Indian Mutiny converted from an earlier house on the site. campaign. This regiment had been associated Closer to the core were the bank (now Lloyd’s with Launceston earlier in the century and the TSB) of about 1870 erected opposite the immediate impact on Bodmin of this military Market House in Fore Street, a new town link is unclear: the initial development was house for the Robartes family (now Barclay’s essentially a storage facility but was also the Bank) on Mount Folly Square, adjacent to the focus of an annual muster and review of the Judges’ Lodgings. The Square was itself

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 34 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin further emphasised as the focal space of the General Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert, whose town by the siting there in 1872 of a family held Priory House, reflects Bodmin’s decorative fountain, donated by the organising prosperity, confidence and civic pride at this committee of the Royal Cornwall Agricultural period. Association to mark the staging of the first Surviving historic fabric in the town centre at Bodmin. indicates that the rise in civic and institutional building of this period was paralleled by a major rebuilding of commercial and residential structures (in some cases re-fronting older buildings) during the middle decades of the nineteenth century and continuing into the 1870s and beyond. The strong showing in the commercial core of well-designed buildings of this period, often stucco-fronted and with some moulded decoration (for example, the fine house and shopfront on the south corner of Fore Street and Mount Folly Square: 2 Fore Street) testifies to the prosperous and ‘polite’ character of the town at this period; it is clear from contemporary illustrations of Fore Street such as the print of c 1850 reproduced in the Bodmin Conservation Area Character Appraisal that this was then a shopping street of some status.

The spectacular Gilbert memorial on Bodmin Beacon. A town gasworks was established before the mid 1850s and a large new cemetery was laid out around the Berry Tower about 1860. Some 15 years earlier Joanna Clift had complained of the overcrowding in the parish churchyard: ‘. . . they are filling up that small churchyard and not to get a proper burying place for so many strangers; there’s the asylum, the Union [workhouse] and the jail Located on a prominent site on the corner of Bodmin’s until there is scarcely room for the major civic space at Mount Folly Square, the quality townspeople; they don’t let fellow creatures of architectural form and treatment on the house and [lie] more than one year before they are dug shop at 2 Fore Street is testimony to Bodmin’s up again.’ The Beacon, described in the mid commercial prosperity in the mid nineteenth century. nineteenth century as a ‘favourite public Some expansion of the residential extent of promenade in fine weather’ was chosen as the the town also took place around this period. site of a significant new landmark, with the Robartes Road, providing direct access to the area around it reserved for public use. Beacon from the town, was probably laid out Completed in 1857, the 144-foot granite about the time the Beacon obelisk was erected obelisk raised to the memory of Lieutenant in the late 1850s; Maclean, writing about 1870,

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 35 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin referred to it as ‘the new road leading to the became the focus for a new regimental depot Beacon’ and it was the location for a for the combined 32nd and 46th Light substantial Anglican school for ‘Boys, Girls Infantry; the regiment was renamed the Duke and Infants’ which opened in 1865. New of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in 1881. By the terraces expanded the built-up area at the west early 1880s several substantial ranges of end of Higher Bore Street - it was noted in the barrack buildings and ancillary facilities were late 1860s that the corporation had recently let laid out around a tree-lined square, separated building leases on the site of the former burial from the earlier building by a large parade ground of the medieval chapel of St Leonard ground. – and some new villas were constructed in the Berry area to the north of the town core. The earlier rapid rise in population had slowed considerably, however: the total in 1881 was something over 5,000, an increase of around 800 individuals on the figure in 1841, representing perhaps 140-160 additional households in the town. Trade directories of the middle decades of the nineteenth century list considerable numbers of boot and shoe makers. However, Maclean observed about 1870 that the trade, formerly a very significant part of the urban economy, had ‘of late years dwindled away, and has now, for some time, almost ceased to exist as a staple; no other branch of industry has taken its place.’ In the absence of this specialisation Bodmin’s urban economy was that of a market, commercial and service centre for a wide hinterland, itself with a varied economy. St Lawrence’s cattle fair, held just outside Late nineteenth century development to the south east Bodmin to the south west, was noted in 1856 of Bodmin town centre, around the terminus for the as ‘one of the largest and best attended in the newly constructed (1887) rail link to the Great county’ and Dr T Q Couch referred in 1866 to Western main line, included a cluster of villas and the ‘mixed mining and agricultural villa terraces (above) and the grammar school (1895). neighbourhood of Bodmin’. Some mining took place in the near vicinity of the town: Bodmin United operated at Kirland between 1851 and 1862, and others working around the middle decades of the century included Bodmin Wheal Mary, near Bodwannick, Mulberry (open cast tin working) and Boscarne (mining and streamworking). The second half of the century saw the rise of both granite quarrying and china clay working on the western side of Bodmin Moor, with output going by rail to Wadebridge. The final component of Bodmin’s suite of county institutions developed from 1877 when the earlier militia keep on Lostwithiel Road

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 36 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

This quarter of the town, hitherto less necessitating the demolition of the final developed than other areas on the fringes, standing remains of the medieval friary became the site for the new terminus (now church; the fine public library, to a design by Bodmin General) on a newly constructed the Cornish architect Silvanus Trevail, was branch line to the Great Western Railway erected in 1897. Another of central Bodmin’s main line at Bodmin Road. This line opened in more prominent buildings was completed in 1887 from a station at the southern end of St 1902, with the conversion of the former Nicholas Street; in the following year a further Robartes town house on Mount Folly Square link was constructed, looping around the into a bank (now Barclays). south and west of the town to connect with the Bodmin - Wadebridge line at Boscarne Junction. The area around the station almost immediately became a focus for residential development in the form of villas and substantial terraces, followed in 1895 by the grammar school. There was a similar focus of development at the west end of Bodmin. An Augustinian priory with a Catholic chapel was established on a site south of the asylum complex in 1881. A convent was added in 1902 and an orphanage during the next decade. This area also saw some expansion of residential terraces, including Bodmin’s earliest public housing: Corporation Terrace was built on St Mary’s Road in 1905, followed by Coronation Terrace in 1910. About 1900 a cattle market was established on a new site adjacent to the Catholic convent, with a new Fair Field Above: Quarry Park Terrace, one of a number of immediately adjacent. This area also saw modest but well-designed residential terraces built development of some modestly superior around Bodmin in the late nineteenth and early terraces – Quarry Park Terrace on Dunmere twentieth century. Below: The substantial orphanage Road, for example - and similar developments building, probably built in the years immediately before took place in Higher Bore Street and nearby World War I, formed part of the complex which streets including Robartes Road and Bore developed after the establishment of St Mary’s priory Lane (now the west end of Dennison Road). at West End in the late nineteenth century. The late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw a further phase of new public and institutional building within the core of the town. Much of this was of a form and scale which made it highly visible and it represents the last major horizon for the construction of prominent landmark buildings in the town. These included a substantial Sunday school adjacent to the Methodist chapel (1884) on Fore Street, with the chapel itself enlarged and remodelled in the following year. The Public Rooms, to an elaborate Gothic design, were constructed on Mount Folly in 1891,

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 37 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

This period saw also other more modest additions: a pair of lodges were added to the prison in 1892, a Nonconformist mortuary chapel in the cemetery around Berry Tower (1893) and another public school on Robartes Road (1894); the Elizabeth Barclay Home, an ‘industrial home for girls of weak intellect’, was built on the corner of Love Lane and Pound Lane (1898), the Silvanus Trevail designed Foster Building was added to the St Lawrence’s site in 1904 and the more modest but also impressive Regimental Homes on Beacon Lane in 1905. Bodmin’s polite public face was enhanced by the demolition of the brewery opposite St Petroc’s church on Construction of the Public Rooms (above) of 1891 and Church Square in 1898 and the construction conversion of the former Robartes family townhouse of the Robartes Pleasure Gardens and a (below) for use as a bank in 1902 completed the Church Institute (1905) on the site. In the Victorian face of Bodmin’s primary civic space at years before World War I a new Masonic Mount Folly Square. Lodge was constructed on a prominent site on St Nicholas Street (1910) and the handsome ‘Jacobethan’ style East Cornwall Hospital on a site overlooking the town from the northern slope of the valley was begun in the same year. In principle, Bodmin continued into the early twentieth century as Cornwall’s county town; the cluster of prestigious new buildings of this period emphasises its continuing importance. In fact, however, the long-running westward shift of Cornwall’s economic centre of gravity, had undermined Bodmin’s suitability for the role; Truro had undoubtedly become the de facto centre in terms of its economic and commercial functions and this position was The presence of its county institutions crowned in 1876 by its nomination as the nevertheless remained vitally important to location for the county’s diocesan seat and Bodmin. In 1911 the town had a population cathedral and its erection to city status in the of 5,700, an increase of several hundred on following year. When the new Cornwall the total 30 years earlier. As the historian County Council was set up in the late 1880s its Ronald Perry has pointed out, however, initial meeting was held in Bodmin; almost one-fifth of this number was made up subsequent meetings were held in Truro, of individuals associated with the barracks and however, not least because of the ease with asylum, as residents, inmates, staff or which the city could be reached by rail from dependents. The overall contribution of these all parts of the county. Although Bodmin institutions to the town’s economy, direct and continued to be referred to as Cornwall’s indirect, plus that of the gaol, was therefore ‘capital’ – and is still regarded as such by some substantial; in their absence Bodmin would – its effective demise as county town was have been a relatively minor local market symbolically marked when the new County centre. The first knock to its position came Hall was completed adjacent to Truro’s with the closure of the gaol in 1922; the site railway station c 1912.

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 38 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin and buildings were auctioned off in parcels in in 1924 and substantial war memorials were the late 1920s and subsequently used for a erected at the barracks (1924) and at West variety of low-intensity small business uses. End (1925), the latter in the form of a clock tower sited at the road junction. There were some further significant housing developments, including a number of villas squeezed onto a site just within the borough boundary on Westheath Avenue in 1921; the terraced Berrycoombe View was built on what is now Dennison Road in 1927 and Flora Terrace on Beacon Road at about the same time, with the semi-detached dwellings of Jubilee Terrace extending the built-up area out along Dunmere Road in 1935. In 1936-7 work began on a new on the St Mary’s site at West End – this was abandoned

during World War II – and a new Catholic Above: Bodmin Post Office (1924), using local school was built on Barn Lane in 1938. materials – killas and granite – and with an eclectic architectural form, is one of a small number of well- The rise of motor traffic during the 1920s had designed Post Office buildings constructed in Cornwall a significant impact on Bodmin. The CPRE in the first half of the twentieth century. Below: the Survey of Cornwall, published in 1930, noted clock tower at West End, erected in 1925 to that a ‘serious problem has arisen in dealing commemorate staff of St Lawrence’s who died in with the congestion of summer traffic’, World War I. Quarry Park Terrace is to the right. concluding that if a new by-pass route for the A30 running south of Beacon Hill were not considered desirable, it would be necessary to widen Honey Street. The accompanying comment suggests that even to the conservation-minded authors of the report this was a potentially positive move: We do not consider that the individuality and character of the town would suffer unduly from reconstruction; indeed, if carried out on a comprehensive plan with control of the design of the new façades, such a scheme might be a great success, not only from the economic point of view but in the encouragement of street As elsewhere in Cornwall, the post World architecture more worthy of the capital. War I period saw relatively few major new During World War II the Walker Lines were urban buildings. The most significant new developed to the south east of the existing development in the town centre was the Turret barracks as an extension camp. They were cinema (later the Palace), a substantial building used for troops returning after and with an elaborate classically influenced four- they subsequently accommodated American storey façade built in 1919 on a prominent site forces prior to D-Day. Part of the former on the east side of the junction of Crockwell prison complex was used for the storage of Street with Fore Street. A new Post Office national treasures during the war and was constructed on St Nicholas Street, fortunately escaped damage when bombs fell immediately adjacent to Mount Folly Square, around the nearby station, destroying a mill

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 39 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin and damaging the adjacent gasworks. After the with redevelopment of a substantial area war part of the Walker Lines complex became following the closure of the railway station in an Armed Services college operated by the the 1960s. Army School of Education and subsequently, in the context of the Cold War, for training in Russian provided by the Joint Services School of Linguists. ‘So far as appearances go, probably no town in Cornwall has such opulent dignity . . .’ Ward Lock Red Guide, Newquay, and North Cornwall, c 1950 The early post war years saw some public housing development, notably on fields south of the burgage plots on Fore Street, on the east side of Beacon Hill. More significant was the beginnings of development on the eastern side of Bodmin; the presence here of the priory and later the grounds of Priory House had effectively excluded this area from inclusion in the growth of the town over a Dennison Road was driven through an historic built- period of more than 600 years. Priory House up area close to the town centre as part of Bodmin’s and its grounds were acquired by the town in ‘ringway’ traffic relief system, opened in 1959. 1948 and a public park laid out over part of Other changes to the road network at about the area from about 1950. There was also this period included a re-alignment of the line some small-scale development of private of Priory Road into Church Square, sector housing around the Launceston road in accompanied by part demolition of the 1905 the post-war period, heralding the much Church Institute and conversion of the former greater development which occurred from the Robartes Gardens opposite St Petroc to 1960s. commercial uses. Turf Street, previously a The resurgence of Cornwall as a holiday quiet link between Mount Folly and Honey destination in the 1950s, and particularly the Street, was widened and driven through to associated rise in popular motoring, re- Church Square to create a through link from emphasised Bodmin’s traffic problems. In the St Nicholas Street to the new ‘ringway’ route. late 1950s a radical new road engineering scheme was carried out, creating a direct link Bodmin up to date between Bore Street and Pool Street which avoided the narrow and congested Honey Bodmin’s population in 1961 was 6,200. Over Street – Fore Street axis. The new line was the following 20 years the total almost completed in 1959 and termed the Dennison doubled, reaching 9,200 in 1971 and 12,200 by Road ‘ringway’. It cut through the formerly 1981. The rapid expansion was primarily due densely built-up area between Pool Street and to major developments in public housing, Burnard’s Lane, necessitating the demolition much of which was undertaken through the of a substantial number of buildings and a London overspill scheme begun in the early significant alteration to the historic street 1960s. New schemes of this period included layout. The clearance of historic features and the Finn VC estate and Ringway flats, the resulting creation of an area dominated by Berrycoombe Hill and Bosvenna View off road-related uses continued the process begun Beacon Road in the mid 1960s, developments by wartime bomb damage and continued later around Barn Lane, off Priory Road (a major

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 40 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin expansion of the town to the east) and to the Bodmin’s remaining institutional complexes. north of Higher Bore Street in the later 1960s, Military uses of the barracks wound down and Tanwood View and the Berryfields estate from the early 1960s. The former gymnasium in the early 1970s. Local historian Pat Munn was used to accommodate a new swimming referred in 1973 to new development that pool for the town and the 1859 militia keep ‘sprawls about the hills unclothed until the became a regimental museum in 1974; other young trees of the landscaping scheme grow former military buildings were turned to a up’. The overall scale of housing development variety of uses, including public housing, a since the early 1960s, public and private, has at pub, office space and industrial uses. At St least doubled the physical extent of the town. Lawrence’s there was some demolition from the early 1960s, including the distinctive three- storey ‘High Building’, and the residential mental health complex was run down during the 1970s. A substantial part of the historic fabric was retained, however, and has been converted subsequently for private sector housing. Bodmin’s rail links closed in 1967-8. Bodmin General station has survived and is now the centre for the preserved Bodmin and Wenford Railway, a significant visitor attraction. The sites of the former Bodmin North station and its accompanying yards have been redeveloped for commercial uses, including a large Post-war housing rising up the hillside north of supermarket. The opening of a by-pass route Berrycoombe Road. for the A30 around the south of the town in The 1960s also saw some light industrial the mid 1970s reduced the previous serious development, including the former Walker traffic problems, but also removed the Lines and part of the barracks site and other commercial benefits which for a considerable provision to the east of the town. There was part of Bodmin’s history had derived from a also a range of new public infrastructure location astride Cornwall’s major spinal route. provision. A new telephone exchange was Within the town centre the Royal Hotel was built on Crinnick’s Hill in 1959, reportedly the substantially rebuilt for retail use in 1969, first purpose-built STD exchange in the retaining only part of the original façade; country, and a new secondary school on major alterations were carried out on the Lostwithiel Road in 1960. The former Priory former Town Arms Hotel on the north side of grounds to the rear of Priory House were Fore Street in same year. The Palace cinema partly developed from the early 1960s with a was closed in the early 1980s and the former new old peoples’ home, Athelstan House, a four-storey main elevation to Fore Street health clinic and a new school; a new rebuilt as two-storey retail premises. The swimming pool opened in 1967 and a town county assize courts were removed to a new landscaping scheme was carried out in 1969. A justice complex in Truro in the late 1980s. county junior school opened on Barn Lane in With this Bodmin lost the last of its former 1972 and a new police station was opened off attributes as county town. Priory Road in the same year. Construction of By this period Bodmin, in common with a Catholic church at West End, first conceived much of Cornwall, and despite the boosts of before World War II, was completed in 1965. housing and industrial growth of the 1960-70s, The same period saw the beginning of the was suffering significant levels of social and closure and partial adaptation to other uses of economic stress, including relatively high

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 41 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin levels of unemployment and associated Local Nature Reserve in 1994. A ‘Buildings at deprivation. Parts of the town acquired a Risk Survey’ in 1998 provided the basis for a rather blighted visual appearance, deriving Townscape Heritage Initiative scheme, both from the impact of major traffic operating from the late 1990s, which led to engineering projects and from development successful refurbishment of a number of which, typically for the period, demonstrated privately owned derelict and dilapidated little respect for the town’s existing character buildings in the town centre. In parallel with and ‘sense of place’. Within Cornwall, at least, this a programme of town centre Bodmin acquired a comparably negative enhancements was carried out between 1998 reputation, developing beyond longer-standing and 2002, which included new car parking jibes about the presence there of the county provision, streetscape improvements and asylum. Both these factors – visual quality and traffic calming in Fore Street. reputation – represent important issues for present and future regeneration planning. The fine listed late eighteenth or early nineteenth century townhouse at 96 Fore Street was substantially repaired as part of Bodmin’s successful Townscape Heritage Initiative scheme.

A new urban landmark: the millennium cross, designed by Andrew Langdon at Town Wall, Bore Street. The former Assize Courts building, renamed Shire Hall, was equipped as a museum and visitor attraction, also housing the town’s Tourist Information Centre, and a major public realm initiative was carried out in the important open space fronting the building at Mount Folly. The most recent substantive addition to the town has been a monumental commemorative cross at Town Wall, erected From the early 1990s a number of townscape in 2002. regeneration measures were carried out within and around Bodmin’s commercial core. These included the pedestrianisation of Honey Street in 1993 and designation of the Beacon as a

September 2005 Historic and topographic development 42 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

4 Archaeological potential These merit research and investigation accompanied by careful recording of all fragments identified and collation and Archaeology could be a rich asset for Bodmin, interpretation of results. with the potential to make significant contributions in cultural and economic terms. Remains of the past have obvious value for education, tourism and leisure, for example, but can also underpin and foster pride, ‘ownership’ and an enhanced sense of place in the local community. Much about Bodmin’s history is obscure and archaeology is almost certainly the only way in which certain key aspects of its historic development and character can be better understood. Archaeological remains are an important and non-renewable resource and as such are protected by national and local planning legislation. Appropriate implementation of PPG 15 and PPG 16 legislation should continue to be a fundamental part of the development control process. It is strongly recommended that all future proposals for new building or other significant interventions within the historic urban area are assessed for their archaeological implications and that, where appropriate, adequate mitigation Above: Fragments of medieval worked stone measures are undertaken. incorporated in a modern shrine at St Mary’s Catholic It should be emphasised that ‘archaeology’ church, West End. Below: well-preserved masonry does not refer solely to buried remains. revealed during excavations on the site of Bodmin Information on historical sequences derived priory in 1985. from standing buildings and other ‘above ground’ features is also potentially extremely valuable; a building survey of the town would be likely to yield significant new information. Opportunities for investigation and recording should therefore be sought whenever historic buildings are refurbished or undergo substantial alteration. Figure 5 indicates the survival of historic fabric, much of which may offer potential for such investigation. In addition, numerous fragments of architectural stonework are known to be dispersed around Bodmin, many deriving from the town’s medieval religious buildings, and offer potentially invaluable testimony.

September 2005 Archaeological potential 43 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Further well-conducted documentary research Simply, any location within the urban area into Bodmin’s history is also likely to yield which had developed by the early twentieth valuable data. This area of study, together with century (as represented on the 2nd edition participation in building survey and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map of c 1907; topographical investigation, could provide a Figure 2) is regarded as having potential for challenging and worthwhile avenue for standing or buried archaeological features or involvement by local people and interest remains. The historic core of the settlement – groups wishing to investigate aspects of their represented here by its extent in c 1840 and an heritage. outline of the area of medieval settlement – is likely to be of particular archaeological interest Indicators of archaeological potential and sensitivity. Deposits here may provide valuable new information on the town’s early form and subsequent development. Figure 6 indicates the potential extent of Archaeological remains are likely to be more urban archaeological remains, although it must complex in such areas. be emphasised that this depiction of potential is indicative, not definitive, and future NB. Brief overviews of the archaeological archaeological investigation and research will potential of the six Character Areas in the test and refine its value. On this Figure, an town are presented in section 7. assessment of potential is derived from the historic extents of the settlement itself.

Bodmin from the west. Archaeological potential throughout Bodmin’s central area should be regarded as high (Historic Environment Service, ACS 6053).

September 2005 Archaeological potential 44 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

5 Bodmin: statement of significance

Bodmin has an important place in Cornish history. It was one of the county’s major religious centres from relatively early in the Christian period and probably its earliest urban settlement. For most of the medieval and post-medieval period it was Cornwall’s largest town, an important market centre and, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the county town. In the later historic period it was the location for the major county institutions: the county asylum, the gaol and the barracks. In the twentieth century Bodmin was the only Cornish town to undergo a major planned expansion. The town has in recent decades been undervalued and is frequently represented in popular perceptions as damaged and degraded. An alternative view, underlined by the findings of this study, is that while in many respects the town’s historic fabric and sense of significance have been poorly treated over the past four decades or more, it remains one of Cornwall’s most interesting, characterful and distinctive towns. Bodmin possesses a particularly notable array of historic buildings, including St Petroc’s, Cornwall’s largest parish church and certainly one of the finest. It has a good range of public buildings, some unique examples of nineteenth-century institutional buildings, and an interesting collection of distinctive commercial and residential structures in the historic part of the town. The historic fabric is set around a street layout which derives directly from the town’s medieval origins and parts of which may even be earlier. In Honey Street, Fore Street, Bore Street and Mount Folly Bodmin offers some of Cornwall’s most interesting and arresting areas of urban streetscape. Bodmin – ‘one of Cornwall’s most interesting, characterful and distinctive towns’.

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September 2005 Statement of significance 45 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

6 Present settlement Physical topography and settlement form character Bodmin’s historic core lies in the valley of the Much of Bodmin’s distinctive character west-flowing Carn Water, with the valley sides derives from the variety of roles it has taken rising steeply to north and south. Early during its more than 1000-year history as a development may have focused on the settlement. It has been a religious centre, an northern slope (see above), but the medieval important market town and commercial focus, and later town extended from the valley and, during the eighteenth and nineteenth bottom around St Petroc’s church up and west centuries, Cornwall’s county town, with a across the southern side of the valley. This consequent aggregation of major institutions setting means that the historic area of the and associated buildings and activities. During town is not readily visible from a distance, the later twentieth century it underwent a other than from the facing slope to the north. period of rapid residential and industrial Arriving in the town from the west in c 1795 growth, paralleled by the loss of most of its W G Maton noted that ‘Bodmin is screened former administrative and institutional on all sides by rising ground, and was invisible functions, its rail links and position astride to us until we were almost in the streets.’ Cornwall’s main spinal road. At the same time parts of the town underwent substantial redevelopment and there were major adaptations to the needs of road traffic. Traces of all these functions and phases are strongly evident in its topography, surviving buildings and streetscapes. Its varied history also underpins its extended, polyfocal extent. The historic extent of the town continues to be relatively well defined, with the character of almost all of the central area deriving strongly from the high level of survival of historic buildings and the distinctive historic street layout: for the pedestrian the primary impression of the town as ‘one long street’ is still essentially the same as that of sixteenth- century commentators. There are also very clear boundaries between the older built-up area and more recent development. This is particularly strongly marked on most of the main roads into the town, where landmark buildings and groups of buildings mark the The view from the east end of St Petroc’s church transition: particular examples are St Petroc’s towards the south side of the valley and the obelisk on church on the main route from the east, the the Beacon beyond. combined St Lawrence’s and St Mary’s complex to the west and the former barracks Bodmin’s major historic axis is formed by and Bodmin General station on the route Honey Street, Fore Street and Lower and from the south. Higher Bore Streets, essentially one long urban street following a route west from the early focus at St Petroc’s church. Other important roads are also aligned on the church - St Nicholas Street approaching from the

September 2005 Present settlement character 46 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin south, Priory Road combining routes from the in the town incorporate some early fabric: north east and south east and Castle Street detailed analysis of what appeared to be an representing an earlier road from the north eighteenth or nineteenth century building at east. With the exception of the latter, there is 20 Lower Bore Street found evidence for it little evidence for development along any of having originated around 1600 as a town these routes until relatively late in the historic house of some social significance. There are a period. From the late eighteenth century a number of good eighteenth-century structures, series of institutions – prison, asylum, including Priory House, St Leonard’s House workhouse, barracks – were sited around the on Higher Bore Street and a number of town periphery of Bodmin, on or close to these houses in Fore Street, Honey Street, Higher routes; there was some suburban infilling in and Lower Bore Street and elsewhere. the same areas. While Bodmin’s overall extent Much the largest component of Bodmin’s expanded substantially, however, its essential historic fabric dates from the nineteenth and ‘one-street’ form persisted. early twentieth century, with a notable and The very substantial physical expansion of varied range of fine civic and institutional Bodmin since the 1960s, extending well buildings, numerous commercial structures beyond its original confines around the slopes (particularly in Honey Street and Fore Street), of the valley and beyond, means that the villas and a quantity of terraced ‘industrial’ settlement now has a considerably greater housing. There is a small interwar twentieth visible presence in the wider landscape. The century component, including the Post Office character of recent developments, however, (1924) on St Nicholas Street, the 1920s clock has been essentially suburban or ‘out-of-town’ tower at West End, Jubilee Terrace on and the primacy of Bodmin’s historic core Dunmere Road (1935) and other terraces at persists: Bodmin’s distinctiveness is still based the east end of Beacon Road. on the street layout and settlement form There have been some significant individual which derive from its medieval history. losses within the town in the relatively recent past; examples include the former Royal Hotel Survival of standing historic fabric in Fore Street, of which part of the façade is all that survives, the early nineteenth century Within the historic extent of the town the (or earlier) townhouse named Chestnuts at the character of the built environment is primarily upper end of Fore Street, the Turret cinema derived from the high level of survival of (later the Palace) of 1919 adjacent to Mount historic buildings. There has been some loss Folly, and a number of nonconformist and replacement but, with the exception of chapels. Important elements within the former the Dennison Road area (Character Area 4), St Lawrence’s site such as the ‘High Building’ the visual impression in most areas is of have also gone, and the setting and context for streetscapes in which a large majority of important parts of this complex and of the buildings date from before 1900 (Fig 5). gaol, workhouse and barracks building groups As in most Cornish towns, the earliest have been compromised in recent years by surviving structures are religious buildings: the inappropriate development. fourteenth-century chapel of Thomas à Becket The most extensive area of loss of historic and fifteenth-century fabric of the parish fabric is around the central portion of the church and Berry Tower. There is a significant present Dennison Road – Pool Street link scatter of seventeenth-century structures, road, extending to the former station and including several prominent timber-framed gasworks sites south of Berrycoombe Road. houses in Fore Street, one with a sixteenth- The historic street layout in this area has also century wing to the rear. The interesting been radically remodelled. Areas such as the Tower Hill farmhouse incorporates a 1614 former Downing Street (Finn VC estate), its datestone. It is likely that many other buildings junction with Lower Bore Street and the west

September 2005 Present settlement character 47 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin side of Robartes Road have also seen mix and juxtaposition of elements which has comprehensive replacement of historic emerged over the many centuries of its structures. history. In the core of the town many of the commercial buildings are of the mid or later nineteenth century, generally of narrow three- storey form with relatively plain rendered or stucco colourwashed elevations; many of them are elaborated with some moulded detailing around the openings. These are interspersed, however, with, for example, seventeenth-and eighteenth-century timber-framed buildings, some of them jettied, and a scatter of elevations in killas, freestone, red brick and granite ashlar.

Above: Tower Hill farmhouse is one of a number of surviving seventeenth-century buildings in Bodmin. Below: a fine early-mid nineteenth century town house at 64 Fore Street.

A variety of building styles and periods in commercial buildings on the north side of Fore Street. Stucco finishes predominate. Most historic buildings in the main streets in the central commercial area are of three

storeys, with a less frequent occurrence of Architecture, materials and detail four- and two-storey structures; the narrow streets mean that even the latter can maintain No one period, architectural style or material the strong sense of enclosure within the is wholly dominant in Bodmin and, taken as a central area. The single-storey Greek Revival- whole, the town’s visual distinctiveness is style market house on the north side of Fore based very firmly on the overall diversity of Street is a significant exception to the these elements: Bodmin’s real character and prevalence of taller buildings; in this case, unique sense of place result from the organic however, the use of granite ashlar together

September 2005 Present settlement character 48 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin with the parapet cornice and frieze of carved eclectic detailing. Examples include the Public bulls’ heads above the façade give the building Rooms (1891), Grammar School (1895), a presence in the streetscape as great as that of Library (1897), Barclays Bank (1875, re- taller neighbouring structures. On the side modelled 1902), Foster Building at St streets two-storey buildings predominate. Lawrence’s (1904), East Cornwall Hospital (1910), Masonic Hall (1910) and the former orphanage building at St Mary’s (c 1910). This latter group is paralleled by a small group of prominent commercial buildings of similar date which show a similar degree of elaboration. These include the fine four-storey commercial building with terracotta panels on the façade at 15 Honey Street and, almost opposite, 14 Honey Street, with pedimented first floor window openings, granite quoins and brick upper storey, and, in Fore Street, the brick and terracotta details of the upper storeys of the building currently occupied by Clarks Shoes and Cancer Research (the ground-floor shopfront has regrettably been Use of ornate terracotta work on (above) the Masonic altered inappropriately and could be reinstated Hall (1910), on St Nicholas Street, and (below) the to advantage). No 26 Fore Street incorporates fine façade of 26 Fore Street. granite ashlar piers on the ground floor shopfront and a remarkable red brick and red and cream terracotta first-floor frontage. These are exceptional buildings, however. For the most part a variety of less exotic building materials and finishes were used. Many structures are in the local killas, usually semi- coursed or coursed. Maclean noted about 1870 that the local stone ‘if quarried to a sufficient depth, divides into large slabs traversed by parallel joints, and with a little labour is well suited for building purposes’. Many former quarries can be identified on the valley sides overlooking the historic town, including the large Cuckoo Quarry, east of the gaol, from which much of the stone for the Bodmin has an enviable collection of other complex is reputed to have come. institutional and public buildings, in a variety This stone was often squared to provide what of architectural styles. These include the is in effect a pleasantly coloured and textured classical granite ashlar frontage of the Shire freestone which contributes significantly to Hall, the ‘Baronial’ style of the former the quality of many of Bodmin’s buildings. governor’s house and chaplaincy at the gaol, The killas appears relatively rarely as rubble, and the ‘French chateau’ form of the barracks and then only on boundary walls and the more keep (DCLI museum). A particularly varied humble working buildings; rubble walls may and interesting group of large late nineteenth occur on other structures but were typically and early twentieth century buildings is rendered. Non-local freestone is unusual, distinguished by a robust use of materials and appearing only on a few commercial buildings

September 2005 Present settlement character 49 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin such as Lloyds Bank (c 1870) on the south side Granite was relatively little used in Bodmin of Fore Street. until the late 1830s, after which the new rail link to quarries on the west side of Bodmin Moor made it more readily available as a building material. The market house and assize hall were both built in granite ashlar in the late 1830s, the Fore Street clock tower in 1845. In the later nineteenth century granite was widely used, most often in rock- or quarry-faced form, for quoins, lintels and other detailing, on major buildings but also on less prominent structures such as the Regimental Homes (1905), at the east end of Beacon Lane. Rock- faced granite is also notably used for quoins and a through course continuing the line of lintels above ground floor doors and windows, on terraced housing on the east side of Robartes Road; another terrace of closely similar design is situated on the north side of Higher Bore Street.

Above: Well-finished squared killas used on ‘Roscrea’, a fine later nineteenth century townhouse in St Nicholas Street. Buildings of comparable ‘Ruskinesque’ Gothic design are also found in Liskeard and Launceston but are otherwise scarce in Cornwall. Below: A distinctive later nineteenth or early twentieth century terrace on the north side of Higher Bore Street, in squared killas with decorated granite lintels and cream brick detailing.

The red-brick façade is a distinctive feature of the large three-storey building on the corner of Fore Street and Beacon Hill. It has granite quoins on the two lower storeys with contrasting yellow-cream brick on the upper storey; the side elevation is of semi-coursed killas interspersed with pale brick. Brick was widely used for stacks on eighteenth and earlier nineteenth century houses and much less frequently around openings, as on the pair of early nineteenth century town

September 2005 Present settlement character 50 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin houses at 4 and 5 Church Square. From the were also slate hung. Renovation of the completion of Bodmin’s link to the mainline structure during the recent THI scheme rail system in the late 1880s, yellow-cream and, necessarily used smaller slates and limited the less frequently, red brick, probably from south area treated to the upper storey; it continues, Devon, were used very widely for detailing on however, to be one of the most prominent commercial buildings, terraces and villas. It is buildings in this area. most often used in combination with killas as the principal structural material - the yellow- Views and streetscapes cream brick combines well with the colour of the killas - but there are a limited number of Within the core of Bodmin there are some buildings for which brick is the main structural memorable views within certain streets – up material; examples include a fine three-storey and down Fore Street, for example, along red brick townhouse on St Nicholas Street, a Higher Bore Street and up St Nicholas Street pub in Honey Street (currently Nical’s) and the from Mount Folly Square. There are also good post-1907 Flora Terrace, with dormers and views to particular buildings, including those bays, on Beacon Lane, close to the junction across Church Square to St Petroc’s, to the with Harleigh Road. Shire Hall and Public Buildings from within Mount Folly Square or to the DCLI museum building from the southern end of St Nicholas Street. Bodmin’s situation also creates important views across the town from the northern and southern slopes of the valley; notable instances are the striking glimpses of the Gaol complex from the upper end of Cardell Road or to the rear elevations of buildings along the north side of Fore Street from Berrycoombe Road. Other historic structures similarly serve as landmarks, with frequent views and glimpses of them from within and around the town; examples include the Gilbert obelisk on the Beacon, the main building of the former East Cornwall Hospital, St Petroc’s church and the distinctive roof of the barracks ‘keep’. A notable exception is Berry Tower, concealed by trees; there is a good case for planning Slate-hanging on the rear of a building off Fore Street. future tree management in the area of the Tower which would reveal this landmark. Slate-hanging most often appears on side and rear elevations, particularly on studwork Overall, the lasting impression of Bodmin for framed structures; it is a notable component much of the year is the dominance of trees of several views to the rear of buildings in and greenery in views. Views out from the Fore Street and elsewhere. A fine eighteenth central area are universally to thickly tree- or early nineteenth century three-storey covered skylines and valley sides which townhouse with full-height canted bay at provide a green backdrop for the town. From 96 Fore Street is one of the few buildings with higher vantage points such as Cross Street or a slate-hung front elevation. This was until Barn Lane, the dominant impression of the recently hung with very large slates, skyline around the town is of a thick cloaking colourwashed and forming a very distinctive of mature trees. The Gilbert obelisk is a element in the streetscape. The side elevations notable object on the southern skyline in such

September 2005 Present settlement character 51 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin views; to the north east three substantial paving and granite steps in Arnold’s Passage industrial structures interrupt the wooded and Beacon Hill has gulleys paved with water- horizon, regrettable intrusions in an area in worn cobbles. Fine granite kerb stones are which development has otherwise been widespread through the town, with some relatively unobtrusive within the longer views. particularly notable examples with chamfered Closer to the centre of the town it is notable edges in Lower Bore Street close to Town that many of the areas developed during the Wall. later twentieth century are lacking in greenery and thus stand out from the wider character of the town.

Trees and wooded skylines are a feature of most views One of the few surviving examples of historic surfacing across the historic area of Bodmin. in Bodmin is this distinctive scribed granite paving in There are striking long views from the upper Crockwell Street. part of Robartes Road and the higher ground around the Beacon to and Brown Identifying Character Areas Willy on Bodmin Moor, and from the Beacon itself to Helman Tor, the Hensbarrow Downs and clay country; from within the town there The CSUS investigation, in addition to are several glimpses of countryside in other identifying the broad elements of settlement directions, most notably south along St Mary’s character that define Bodmin as a whole, Road and looking west from Town Wall to identified six distinct Character Areas within the St Breock Downs and its wind farm. the town’s historic urban extent. These are described in detail in Section 7, below (see In general Bodmin’s public realm is poor. Figure 7 and Character Area summary sheets Several of the key streetscapes are cluttered 1-6). and partly obscured by a jumble of signs, posts, poles, bollards, traffic engineering The Character Areas are: features and other items. Surfacing is for the 1. Down Town: Fore Street, Honey Street most part poor or undistinguished; the and Mount Folly exceptions are the few surviving examples of historic surfacing materials: short lengths of 2. Church Square, Turf Street, St Nicholas good-quality granite slab paving survive Street, Crinnick’s Lane and Priory grounds outside 71 Fore Street, at the north end of 3. Top Town: Lower and Higher Bore Street Crockwell Street and in Town Arms Passage; and St Leonard’s there is also a distinctive area of ‘stable block’

September 2005 Present settlement character 52 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

4. Dennison Road, Berrycoombe Road, Pool are evident in the current townscape. In Street simple terms, each Character Area may be said 5. The Berry: Church Lane, Castle Street and to have its own individual ‘biography’ which environs has determined its present character. 6. The county institutions: St Lawrence’s, Taken with the assessment of overall Bodmin gaol, Bodmin barracks settlement character in this section, the Character Areas offer a means of These Character Areas are differentiated from understanding the past and the present. In each other by their varied historic origins, turn, that understanding provides the basis for functions and resultant urban topography, by a positive approach to planning future change the processes of change which have affected which will maintain and reinforce the historic each subsequently (indicated, for example, by character and individuality of each area and the relative completeness of historic fabric, or the town as a whole – this provides a sound significant changes in use and status) and the basis for planning and achieving sustainable extent to which these elements and processes local distinctiveness and sense of place.

September 2005 Present settlement character 53 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

7 Regeneration and • Bodmin’s location is a key element of its character. The valley with its steeply

management sloping sides and vista opening to the west is a distinctive topographical feature in Characterisation of the historic environment itself, not least in that it means that trees of Bodmin has revealed the essential dynamic and greenery form the skyline for much of factors underpinning the town’s character. the town. The physical topography is also Regeneration planning which is informed and important in the degree to which it inspired by these elements can take a sure- renders most parts of the historic footed and proactive approach to creating settlement visible from a wide circuit of beneficial change, reinforcing and enhancing potential viewing points: many buildings existing character and ensuring that new and areas in the town are easily visible developments are closely integrated into the (and therefore require care in their existing urban framework. Change can be presentation) from almost all sides. focused on enhancing Bodmin’s • The urban hierarchy and pattern of distinctiveness and strong ‘sense of place’ and diversity which Bodmin’s different therefore ultimately more successful. Character Areas represent are key The characterisation process has also elements of the town’s unique character. produced a valuable dataset on the historic Respect for this hierarchy and for the fabric, archaeological potential and townscape distinctive differences between areas character of the historic town. This should be key considerations in planning information can be used as a conventional and executing future change. conservation and planning tool to define • A commitment to achieving quality and to constraints, as a yardstick against which to maintaining, enhancing or reinstating measure new development and policy character should be fundamental both in proposals, and as the basis of well-founded new developments in the urban area and conservation management, restoration and in promoting a positive and proactive enhancement schemes and policies. approach to repairing past mistakes. • Bodmin should be perceived - and Character-based principles for accordingly managed, presented, regeneration interpreted and promoted - as an historic Cornish town of quality, character and The following principles have been derived significance. from the analysis of Bodmin’s overall character and assessments of its Character The historic environment and Areas. These principles should underpin all regeneration: key themes for Bodmin regeneration planning. • Bodmin’s historic built environment – Characterisation has highlighted regeneration buildings, historic topography and and conservation opportunities both for streetscapes – represents a major asset, the Bodmin’s historic extent as a whole and for primary component of the town’s unique specific areas and sites. These opportunities character, charm and significance. The fall into the following themes. importance of this distinctive ‘sense of place’ in differentiating Bodmin from Recognise the asset other potentially competing centres means Future economic and community regeneration that actions which maintain and enhance planning should be guided by a perspective the historic environment are potentially which fully recognises and values the assets key contributions to regeneration. provided by Bodmin’s distinctive character

September 2005 Regeneration and management 54 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin and high quality historic environment. Lower and Higher Bore Streets, in other Fundamental to this is perceiving the degree respects potentially comparable with the finest to which the town’s character and sense of urban environments in the county, is place provides a positive and uniquely frequently greatly reduced or made impossible different ‘brand image’, differentiating by extremes of noise and air pollution, Bodmin from other competing centres in unceasing vehicle movement, the difficulties Cornwall and beyond. of crossing roads and the overall sense of risk to the pedestrian. Reducing perceived vehicle- Recognise priority opportunities pedestrian conflict and the overall dominance for change of traffic, parking and traffic engineering in the historic built-up area of the town is Bodmin’s clearest opportunity for significant therefore a key requirement for harnessing new-build regeneration activity within the Bodmin’s distinctive historic built historic area of the town is the wider zone environment to regeneration. focusing on Dennison Road (Character Area 4). This offers potential for considerable new Some steps in this direction have been taken - build of mixed residential and small business for example, the pedestrianisation of Honey premises on brownfield sites in immediate Street and a degree of traffic calming at Mount proximity to the historic core of the town. Folly and Fore Street – but there is a need for The area is currently underused and much of more general improvement. Church Square is it is of extremely poor townscape quality; this a particular priority. Mount Folly and Fore could be radically improved and brought into Street also continue to see relatively high full contribution. The former historic volumes of through traffic, much of it topography of the area, a network of streets, apparently utilising the route solely as a short- lanes opes and more extensive industrial cut to the west side of the town rather than spaces, provides a model for reinstating living for access to shops and businesses. Beneficial and working zones of significance and measures here could include restrictions on character. There are surviving examples of delivery times for goods vehicles, reductions distinctive historic housing which provide a in vehicle speeds and an emphasis in broad model for appropriate forms. Such an engineering these spaces on presenting them initiative could be undertaken in phased as shared by vehicles and pedestrians. stages, as land can be acquired, but A number of individual parts of Bodmin have fundamentally requires a masterplan to ensure been re-shaped to facilitate traffic movement, that development follows appropriate forms. or to separate vehicles and pedestrians, with A second high priority for substantive change little regard for the impact of these must be the area facing St Petroc’s on Church interventions on the character and quality of Square / Priory Road. Redevelopment of this the historic townscape. Examples include site should create high-quality townscape Church Square, West End, Bore Street and appropriate to its situation opposite one of both ends of Honey Street. These spaces merit Cornwall’s finest churches and in a key an urgent re-assessment of traffic engineering location within the historic core of the town. measures, with the aim of mitigating or reversing past errors. Future traffic Reduce the dominance of traffic management interventions should be planned and parking and carried out with a full understanding of character and a primary aim to maintain and It is arguable that traffic levels in Bodmin have enhance it. a greater negative impact on the ambience and sense of character and significance of its core On-street parking levels in many areas are historic area than in any other town in high, frequently masking and degrading the Cornwall. Enjoyment of places such as quality of historic spaces. Part of the aim of Church Square, Mount Folly, Fore Street and any future redevelopment in the wider

September 2005 Regeneration and management 55 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Dennison Road area should be to reduce the Reinstate character and quality visibility and visual impact of the large parking areas (and car display spaces) there while Bodmin suffered significantly in the post-war maintaining appropriate capacity. In the short period from inappropriate and poor urban term most of these spaces would benefit very design. There are, in consequence, a number substantially from landscaping and planting. of buildings or groups of buildings which have an essentially negative effect on townscape and the town’s wider sense of quality and significance. The clearest instances are the wider Dennison Road area and the Church Square site highlighted above, but other examples include buildings around the junction of Lower Bore Street with Finn VC estate and Robartes Road (excluding the library) and a cluster of individual later twentieth century buildings at the western end of Fore Street, most notably the present Job Centre. Targeted redevelopment of these and other later twentieth century buildings which are clearly inappropriate in form and scale for their specific setting should be promoted throughout the historic area of the town. It would also be appropriate to identify buildings Above: Church Square is potentially a key heritage and developments which, while not a priority asset for Bodmin but is also one of the places in the for change, do not make a positive town most blighted by high traffic levels. Below: Traffic contribution and for which, when eventually engineering associated with the pedestrianisation of renewed or redeveloped, designs which Honey Street divides what should be a unified space reinstate a sense of character and quality will fronting the landmark clocktower. be required. Additionally, there are numerous individual historic buildings and elements of the public realm which have been marred by inappropriate interventions, with consequent negative impact on local streetscapes and sense of place. These should be identified, together with the appropriate remedial action, and the potential for amending these errors explored. Characterisation provides a basis both for identifying ‘targets’ in each of these cases and for preparing detailed briefs for replacements.

Build character into change The importance of character to Bodmin’s future requires robust scrutiny of all development proposals within the historic urban area. At the application and design

September 2005 Regeneration and management 56 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin stages for new development it is crucial that at removing or replacing poor quality and the fundamental elements of character are inappropriate components, minimising the defended, not least in terms of maintaining or amount of clutter and the over-fussy reinstating the small scale, tight grain and treatment of public spaces, and sense of distinctiveness and significance which complementing historic quality and distinguishes many of the town’s historic distinctiveness with an equivalent contribution townscapes. from modern design and materials. This Design of all new elements of the built approach is promoted as good practice by the environment should observe and respect the English Heritage ‘Streets for All’ campaign, differences inherent in Bodmin’s distinct endorsed by the National Federation of Character Areas, with the aim of maintaining Womens Institutes. English Heritage has their separate identities and the hierarchic produced a helpful regional guidance manual – relationships between them Streets for All: South West – on minimising street clutter and improving surfacing, street Maintain and enhance the asset furniture and traffic engineering measures. Such improvements should be relatively easily Bodmin’s unique assemblage of historic achievable in the short to medium term. buildings, topography, natural setting and Public realm provision should everywhere be streetscapes is an extraordinary asset and sensitive to its immediate context, tailored to resource. It is important, however, that this the character of specific places and areas receives ongoing care and maintenance to within the town rather than based on overall ensure that it is sustained to work for design solutions; character will be diminished regeneration and the community in the long- by approaches to the public realm based on a term. This requires proactive monitoring of single design palette. An appropriate approach condition and careful oversight of the quality would be to identify surviving historic public and appropriateness of all interventions. Basic realm elements (surfacing, street furniture, conservation management - with the primary detail, etc) in each area through detailed survey goal of maintaining and enhancing quality and and research, and use these findings as starting distinctiveness - is essential; the alternative is points for inspiring and planning new continuing erosion of overall character provision. through piecemeal loss of individual elements and the damage generated by inappropriate Maintain the green element conversions, extensions and other alterations. In addition to this kind of fundamental long- Trees and greenery are a key element of term care, there is also potential to enhance Bodmin’s character. Mature trees are a major and reinstate elements which contribute to component of many views within, across and character and the sense of quality. This could over the town, dominating the skyline in include, for example, schemes to restore almost every quarter and providing a missing ornamental railings or reinstate significant feature on several routes into and distinctive fenestration or boundary features, through the urban area. Bodmin is also one of or provide appropriate high-quality surfacing only a few Cornish settlements in which street in certain areas. All such work should be trees are a distinctive presence. informed by detailed characterisation of the To maintain Bodmin’s ‘green’ character in the immediate historic context. long term requires both a review of protection for existing trees, to ensure fully Enhance streetscapes and the comprehensive designation with Tree public realm Preservation Orders (TPOs), and a programme of proactive liaison and There is a need for a comprehensive review of partnership with landholders to ensure that Bodmin’s streetscapes and public realm aimed

September 2005 Regeneration and management 57 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin adequate and appropriate replacement valuable resource for education at a variety of planting is carried out. Where new levels, for academic study, for community development takes place it is important that interest and pride and to enhance visitor existing levels of tree cover on sites are information, as well as aiding in developing maintained and enhanced through new appropriate conservation and management planting. strategies. Much remains obscure, however, There is substantial potential for additional and it is important that future development planting of street trees in a number of areas and alterations to historic structures in the (see section 7). town continue to be subject to appropriate archaeological assessment. Review conservation designations There are additional measures which should be undertaken, however, to advance the Bodmin currently has more than 100 Listed present state of knowledge. One of these is Buildings, but there are others which are the full analysis of the archaeological arguably of equivalent special architectural or investigations undertaken in the 1980s during historic interest and should be considered for North Cornwall District Council works on the the additional protection and aid which listing site of Bodmin Priory. These rescue confers. There is certainly potential for a ‘local excavations recovered important information list’ to acknowledge the significance of locally on the early priory church, associated burials important historic structures. The ‘other and the fifteenth-century tower, together with historic buildings’ identified on Figure 5 and evidence of the later use of the complex for in CSUS digital mapping offer an initial industrial activities and hints of early medieval baseline for such a list. In this context it occupation. It would be of very significant should be noted that many historic buildings benefit in furthering understanding of of quality and interest have been omitted from Bodmin’s history if this material could be those indicated as of Local Importance in the appropriately assessed and published. mapping included in the Bodmin Town Conservation Area Character Appraisal (2000). A further opportunity is presented by the large There is potential for some revision of the number of fragments of architectural criteria for this attribution. stonework which are distributed around Bodmin. These are likely to derive from the The present Conservation Area boundary former friary and priory buildings and perhaps could be beneficially extended to incorporate also from some of the town’s many medieval some historic buildings and areas of significant chapels. They represent a key resource for character which are currently excluded (see improved understanding of Bodmin’s religious Section 7). and architectural heritage. A project to The priory site is of demonstrated identify, record and analyse all surviving archaeological potential and significance but stonework around the town would be valuable currently has no statutory protection. It in itself, but could also offer opportunities for should be considered as a matter of some significant community involvement; with the priority for Scheduled Monument status. associated educational and visitor information benefits and the potential for using advanced Identify, record and understand the modern technologies to record and present archaeological resource the information gained, such a project might attract significant external funding from A number of past archaeological investigations sources such as the Local Heritage Initiative and building recording projects in Bodmin or Heritage Lottery Fund. have revealed important information about the history of the town and its people This report has highlighted the possibility that (Appendix 1). This knowledge offers a the pre-Conquest town lay within the grid of streets running up the hillside to the north of

September 2005 Regeneration and management 58 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

St Petroc’s church. A project aimed at of associated elements (chapel of Thomas à proactive archaeological evaluation of the area, Becket, holy well, architectural fragments, etc), accompanied by assessment of documentary a ‘package’ of other elements associated with resources, would serve to clarify the origins the town’s long religious history could be and character of the area and provide a better developed, bringing in the possible early indication of its archaeological and historical monastic site(s), Berry Tower, the priory significance. remains, friary and former chapel sites, wells (including the former pilgrim’s well known as Further develop historic and Scarlett’s Well), nonconformist chapels, St cultural tourism Mary’s, etc. There is potential for further promotion and Architecture and development history interpretation aimed at encouraging tourism Bodmin’s unique range of historic buildings based on Bodmin’s rich historic environment and the intriguing development of its historic and distinctive historic and cultural assets. At topography merit appropriate interpretation the simplest level this could be supported by and promotion. better identification and signposting of Literary associations historic elements throughout the town; casual visitors currently find nothing to direct them Bodmin is known as the birthplace of Sir to Bodmin Beacon, for example. Similarly, Arthur Quiller Couch (the town appears as there is potential to ‘add value’ with additional ‘Tregarrick’ in some of his works) and had well-informed interpretation of popular longer connections with the Quiller Couch features such as the Camel Trail (when opened family; H C McNeile, who as ‘Sapper’ was the in 1834 this was Cornwall’s first railway to be author of the 1920-30s Bulldog Drummond locomotive hauled and the first to carry stories, was born in the governor’s house of passengers) or the very fine Tudor fireplace Bodmin Gaol. The town was also the home of exhibited in the Edinburgh Wool Shop in Emma Gifford, first wife of Thomas Hardy. Fore Street. In addition to the current themes Other places in the surrounding area – not of justice and punishment (Shire Hall and least Bodmin Moor – also have significant Gaol), military heritage and railway history, literary connections. Together, these there is potential for other strands, including: associations could be made the basis of a package closely linked to Bodmin’s historic Religious history fabric. In addition to placing further emphasis on the significance of St Petroc’s church (listed Grade I and sometimes referred to as ‘Cornwall’s cathedral’) and the interesting suite

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8 The Character Areas tight grain, which is also fossilised in the surviving burgage plots.

1 Down Town: Fore Street, Honey Street and Mount Folly

(Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 1)

Bodmin’s commercial, retail and civic centre, with high-quality historic buildings set along a busy, narrow and strongly enclosed principal street and around the town’s focal public space. The Character Area includes much of the medieval core of the town and derives its layout from it.

The Character Area lies on the north-facing southern slope of the valley through which the Carn Water stream flows. Honey Street rises gently from the bottom of the valley to meet Mount Folly and the eastern end of Fore Street, both of which are terraced into the valley side with the slope rising steeply behind them. Fore Street itself runs west, rising transversely across the slope; it ascends gently Honey Street (above) and Fore Street (below): tightly for most of its length but becomes enclosed by three-storey historic buildings and formerly significantly steeper at its western end. the major road route through the centre of Bodmin. Although from within the Character Area is This primacy - and their role as the commercial and strongly enclosed and feels secluded from the retail focus of Bodmin - is not fully reflected in current remainder of the town, the position of the treatments of the public realm. Area, and Fore Street in particular, perched on the southern valley side, means that its buildings and roofs are prominent in many views from elsewhere in the town. Mount Folly Square and Honey Street probably represent parts of a medieval market place; Mount Folly itself was the site of the medieval friary and its precinct. After the Reformation the former friary church was used as a market hall and for a variety of other civic functions and became a focal point of the town down to its replacement by the Shire Hall in the 1830s. Mount Folly Square has therefore been an important space within the town over a long period. Fore Street was a planned expansion of the medieval town. The narrow plot frontages along Honey Street and Fore Street reflect these origins and impose a

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Present character rear access, are entered via arched openings in the street frontage. Honey Street and Fore Street are both relatively narrow throughout their lengths and Around Mount Folly Square, Honey Street dominated by close-set buildings on each side; and the eastern end of Fore Street buildings there is therefore a canyon-like, strongly urban are generally of three storeys, strongly urban sense of enclosure through most of the area. in form and for the most part set hard to the This effect is emphasised in Fore Street by the pavement. There is one striking four-storey narrow pavements and carriageway and, when building, in Honey Street, and two-storey viewed from its east end, the strong buildings form a larger proportion within perspective effect as the street curves away streetscapes at the western end of Fore Street uphill. Mount Folly Square is less confined, and on the minor streets and opes running off although here the height and mass of the Fore Street. Where two-storey buildings occur surrounding buildings maintains the sense of in the core of the area there tends to be a enclosure; perception of the real extent of the significant erosion of character (see below). Square is sharply diminished, however, by the A fine mid nineteenth century building at the west end change of level within it and its division by a of Fore Street (no 71), where two- rather than three- line of trees and a major road. storey buildings predominate. The building is fronted by an area of high-quality granite paving.

Although the Character Area has a unity as a Shire Hall and the other civic and institutional whole, there are some significant variations buildings around Mount Folly Square emphasise its within it. Fore Street and Honey Street both role as Bodmin’s primary public space. have a good range of historic buildings and a In addition to Mount Folly there are strong sense of enclosure. The latter street is important focal spaces at the junction of Fore distinguished by having been pedestrianised in Street, Honey Street and Mount Folly Square, the early 1990s and having subsequently marked by the clock tower, and at the junction developed uses, including several cafés, which of Honey Street with Church Square. Despite have worked with the historic character to its strong overall sense of enclosure, the area make a place of real charm; Honey Street is permeated by several minor streets, opes presents an unusually cosmopolitan ambience and lanes, particularly on the north side of for a Cornish town. Fore Street is a busy Fore Street. There are also courts and yards commercial street with relatively high traffic behind the main street frontages; those on the levels. It undergoes a significant change of south side of Fore Street, to which there is no character west of Chapel Lane, with a concentration of derelict and recently

September 2005 The Character Areas 61 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin redeveloped sites; building heights are lower maintains some historic residential terraces here, some structures are set well back from and rows, and also houses the court and the street line and presentation and the public probate registry buildings, among them a fine realm is significantly poorer than elsewhere in single-storey slate-roofed building in killas the street. with a pillared porch, set back from the road Mount Folly Square is visually dominated by in what was formerly a walled yard. There has the scale and distinguished architectural forms been some loss of historic fabric at the north of the four major buildings set around it, Shire end, immediately behind Fore Street, to create Hall, the Public Rooms, the Judges’ Lodgings parking spaces for businesses fronting the (now occupied by Bodmin Town Council) and main street, and some recent residential Barclays Bank. The other historic buildings redevelopment on historic plots. Provision of fronting onto the square are on a smaller scale parking spaces for the new housing, however, but also of an architectural quality to enhance has produced terraced units set back from the the overall character of the space. The street line with residential accommodation on presence of a significant public space and of the first floor accessed by stairs and walkways: street trees also distinguishes this from other the visual effect is of rear elevations, not parts of the Character Area. frontages which work with and complement the historic street. While some more substantial development has taken place on Crockwell Street, responding to the essentially urban character of the area, the effect of recent change on these side streets has been a general loss of enclosure and historic character. Building uses on the main streets are now almost entirely commercial, with retailing predominant, although a substantial proportion of the historic buildings in this area originated as town houses. The side streets are generally a mix of residential and working buildings although there are also a small number of more prestigious houses set back behind the principal streets; these include The Friaries, behind Shire Hall and the Public Buildings, and Coomberry, west of Chapel Street With the exception of the former market house, centrally located on Fore Street, civic and institutional buildings are mostly Stepped building and roof lines are distinctive aspects sited on the outer fringes of the Area: there is of Fore Street’s character. a cluster around Mount Folly to the east and the public library and Methodist Chapel lie at The almost complete loss of historic the extreme west end of Fore Street; St topography and structures in the rear service Petroc’s church is beyond the north end of areas to properties on the north side of Fore Honey Street and a former chapel of Lady Street, means that these areas, while Huntingdon’s Connexion survives in a yard historically associated with this Character off its west side. The Diocesan Probate Court Area, now more clearly form part of Character was formerly located on Market Street, off Area 4. The transition in character and uses Fore Street, and the present County Court between Fore Street and the ‘backlands’ is building is also located there. particularly evident on Market Street. This

September 2005 The Character Areas 62 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

Historic buildings in the Area are of a range of pavement, with buildings frequently set back periods, styles, materials and treatments. The or projecting forward from the local largest component dates from the nineteenth alignment. In some instances this is a century but there is a significant earlier consequence of minor encroachments in the element, including some jettied timber historic period, through the addition of shop buildings of the seventeenth century and a frontages to town houses, for example. Some number of eighteenth-century structures. later twentieth century developments Many later façades are likely to conceal traces unfortunately incorporate shopfronts set back of earlier buildings: the remains of the from the street line behind ground floor medieval gatehouse to the friary are known be pillars, creating gaps in the street frontage at incorporated within 4 Fore Street and a fine pavement level and introducing a cluttered Tudor fireplace survives in the Edinburgh visual effect. Wool Shop a short distance to the west. The absence of a prevailing hard building line Rendered or stuccoed elevations are frequent, over much of the area is an unusual and some over studwork, but there are also distinctive element of its character, adding façades of dressed killas, granite ashlar and significantly to the dense grain and ‘busy’ brick. A few notable elevations feature visual appearance of its streetscapes. Fore moulded terracotta. Many of the mid and later Street also presents significant variations in nineteenth century stuccoed elevations feature width along its length. It is not clear whether some moulded decoration, particularly around this is an early feature, perhaps fossilising first-floor window openings. There are very functional spaces of some kind, or has few surviving historic shopfronts in the Area resulted from later encroachments. and a regrettably large number which are inappropriate in quality to the buildings they There is a diversity of building heights – front and to the wider streetscape; there are buildings nominally of three storeys vary particular problems with over-dominant considerably in height – and consequently of signage. Nevertheless, the essential impression roof lines. Views up Fore Street, or towards it throughout the Area is of good historic along its side streets, show gable ends stepping buildings predominating, particularly above up the hill and a variety of chimneys. There is ground floor level. a range of roof pitches. Where visible, it is clear that many roofs in this area retain good By comparison with many other Cornish historic slate coverings; some of these have towns, the later twentieth century built been subject to bitumen covering. component in Bodmin’s main commercial streets is fairly small. For the most part this Re-development has in a few instances element is relatively unobtrusive and neutral in introduced buildings which are significantly its impact, with broadly appropriate scale and lower than the generally three-storey buildings overall form; in general, however, the recent in the central area; the clearest examples are at structures lack the detailing which contributes the upper end of Fore Street and at the strongly to the ‘grain’ of the older elements in southern end of Crockwell Street. In the latter the streetscape. The more obtrusive instance, the HSBC Bank premises have exceptions are mainly focused at the west end sufficient elaboration of design and materials of Fore Street, above Chapel Street. The small to maintain the sense of significance of the overall extent of the modern component in building at this key focal point in the this Character Area is undoubtedly one of the townscape; on the opposite corner, however, key factors underpinning Bodmin’s retention the two-storey building on the former Palace of a strong historic character and sense of cinema site fails to meet the challenge of this significance and quality. context. Overall, the impact of later twentieth century redevelopment has for the most been In Fore Street there is no strongly defined neutral, maintaining the form and scale of the single building line at the rear of the historic buildings of the area but lacking the

September 2005 The Character Areas 63 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin detailing or use of quality materials which patched, stained and pierced by a haphazard would have enabled them to contribute set of utility and service covers. substantially to its built character. The most Other public realm provision in the Area is visible negative element is a former extremely cluttered, with excessive quantities supermarket, now Bodmin’s Job Centre, at the of poles, signs, planters, seats, bollards and head of Fore Street. other street furniture. This is particularly marked in the immediate vicinity of the Shire Hall, an important visual focal point in the Area, where it is difficult to find a view to the historic buildings around the space which is not intruded on by one or more of these elements. In Honey Street the tables and chairs, signs, etc, put out by cafés and other businesses create an appropriate ambience in a pleasant pedestrianised space, but the sense of the street as an important historic through- route and a principal street of the town is eroded by the clutter of poles, benches and other objects along its main axis and the near blocking of the visual link to St Petroc’s at its northern end.

Archaeological potential

This area represents an important part of the medieval extent of Bodmin and archaeological potential should be regarded as high throughout. Street frontages are likely to have The quality of many otherwise well-preserved historic seen sequences of development over a long façades in Bodmin’s commercial core has been eroded period and rear plots may contain evidence of by the insertion of inappropriate shopfronts and over- both early urban uses (refuse and cess pits, or prominent signage. small-scale industrial activity, for example) and later high-density functions such as residential Little historic surfacing survives in the Area, courts. The friary site at Mount Folly is of the major exceptions being a short length of major interest and has revealed human fine granite slab paving outside 71 Fore Street remains at various times; there are also and short lengths at the north end of graveyards within the area associated with the Crockwell Street (west side) and in Town Methodist church at the head of Fore Street Arms Passage. Good quality granite kerbing is and the former chapel of Lady Huntingdon’s widespread, however, with some notable wide, Connexion off Honey Street. Previous scribed, examples sited outside the Methodist archaeological work has recovered important church at the west end of Fore Street. There dating evidence from the boundaries dividing are also some unusual chamfered granite kerbs the burgage plots south of Fore Street. Several in Town Arms Passage. The modern granite historic structures in the area have been surfacing fronting the Shire Hall is a demonstrated to incorporate fabric from considerable improvement on what preceded earlier phases - the survival of a high-status it, but other surfacing in the Area is generally sixteenth-century fireplace in the Edinburgh poor: most pavements are recent, many of Wool Shop offers an easily accessible example them formed of small concrete paviors now - and it is likely that many others conceal important historic remains.

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Regeneration and management piecemeal demolition to create service and parking areas. Issues • Pedestrianisation and associated public • There are significant issues of maintenance realm works in Honey Street have created and presentation on a number of buildings what is effectively a pleasant side street, at in prominent positions in the Character the cost of a clear sense that this was Area. Visually this erodes the local sense formerly part of the main historic route of quality but in the longer term it also through the town and the principal jeopardises the survival of these structures approach to the parish church. Views to St and thus the future character of the Area. Petroc’s along Honey Street have been The loss of the listed eighteenth-century partly blocked by planting, street furniture building known as Chestnuts provides a and other public realm elements. salutary warning of the potential consequences of continued neglect. Neglect is particularly evident on the rear elevations of some premises on the north side of Fore Street. Here, as over much of the area, opes provide easy visual access to these features and instances of poorly maintained or inappropriately treated buildings are very obvious. Under- occupation is a particular factor in exacerbating neglect and poor maintenance in such cases. • There are also major issues around the treatment and presentation of many historic structures here. The visual quality of many otherwise significant buildings The link between Honey Street and Church Square – has been eroded by installation of the principal historic route through the centre of inappropriate replacement windows and Bodmin – is not emphasised by present public realm doors (including listed structures such as provision. the jettied seventeenth century timber- • Other key spaces in the area have been framed town house at 33 Fore Street) and artificially divided by traffic management insertion of poor shopfronts and signage. and public realm works. Thus, Mount • Much of the public realm in the area is Folly Square, Bodmin’s most important inappropriate for the high-quality setting. public space, is effectively divided by the Particular issues include the extraordinarily treatment of the road running through it. cluttered nature of many spaces – Honey The important focal space overlooked by Street and Mount Folly Square are the the Clock Tower at the southern end of most obvious examples – and the poor Honey Street is similarly divided from quality of the modern surfacing. Opes, Fore Street by the bollards and raised kerb side streets and rear access areas are guiding traffic from Mount Folly Square generally poorly presented through a into Crockwell Street; pedestrians on the combination of poor public realm and the south side of Fore Street are visually cut failure to present service areas and rear off from Honey Street and Crockwell and side elevations in ways appropriate for Street also appears to have primacy over publicly and visually accessible spaces. Honey Street. At the northern end of the These areas have also been subject to latter the important link into Church Square is masked by an array of bollards,

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planters and provision for delivery • Traffic levels are high, particularly through parking. Mount Folly Square and Fore Street. The • The present treatment of the upper, quality of the urban environment is western end of Fore Street, between significantly undermined by the attendant Chapel Street and the buildings associated noise, movement, air pollution and risk to with the Methodist chapel, is not pedestrians. appropriate to its significance as part of Recommendations the historic primary commercial area and through route. This area is currently • This key area of Bodmin, the principal marked by gap sites and a cluster of later commercial and civic area of the town, twentieth century buildings, including a would benefit from a wide-ranging and former supermarket, which with its flat detailed review, leading to a roof and large windows is of particularly comprehensive management plan. This inappropriate form and design for the should be aimed at realising and setting. Buildings here are generally of subsequently maintaining the fullest two-storeys rather than three (as elsewhere potential of the very high quality historic in Fore Street), but the sense of enclosure environment of the area and placing this and significance is further diminished by asset at the heart of regeneration planning. the fact that some structures on the north Such a review should include assessments side are set back from the street line and of the issues raised above, and have a their forecourts used for off-street particular focus on carrying forward points parking. noted below. • The burgage plots on the south side of • Undertake substantial further THI-type Fore Street survive well to the west of the initiatives to promote and support high recently created car park accessed from St standards of maintenance and decoration Nicholas Street. This area is now heavily on historic buildings in the area. overgrown, however, masking the historic • Initiate measures to promote and enforce form of the strips and their boundaries, more appropriate shopfront design and and the area has become degraded signage, together with effective future through informal access, litter and controls. There is considerable scope for dumping. encouraging improved quality and Low, stony banks divide the remaining medieval appropriate character in the design of new burgage plots to the south of Fore Street. shopfronts. • Improve the quality of public realm provision, particularly in terms of surfacing and reducing significantly the present clutter of street furniture and signage. The small surviving areas of historic surfacing should be retained and managed appropriately. Modern surfacing should be of appropriate design for its streetscape context, and give an impression of comparable quality of materials and workmanship. • Explore the potential for LOTS-type initiatives, and / or promoting new commercial uses, with the aim of increasing occupancy of under-utilised

September 2005 The Character Areas 66 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin

historic buildings and thereby • Ensure that further redevelopment along underpinning their long-term maintenance the streets and lanes running off Fore and retention. There is a particular priority Street maintains the historic high density to identify a beneficial use or uses for the and strong enclosure of these spaces. Most former Methodist Sunday School building importantly, provision for parking should at the upper end of Fore Street; while not dominate street elevations on new there is a lack of parking in this area, developments. refurbishment of this building and an • Explore opportunities for creation of associated increase in activity could serve more formal public access to, and uses of, as a catalyst for more general the surviving burgage plots on the south redevelopment and improvement in what side of Fore Street. This important historic is otherwise an area of degraded feature of the town requires improved townscape character. management, not least to reduce dumping, • Work to remedy traffic and parking but also has potential for presentation as a problems: a key objective should be to key element of Bodmin’s historic reduce traffic flows through Mount Folly topography. These are probably the most Square and Fore Street, creating an area of extensive set of surviving undeveloped increased pedestrian priority. The absence burgage plots in a major Cornish town and of rear access to commercial premises, could form a significant additional feature particularly on the south side of Fore in presenting Bodmin’s history, Street, will necessitate continuing particularly its medieval origins, to the movement of delivery and other service public. vehicles in the area; however, there is • Honey Street should be more clearly potential to reduce conflict with emphasised as a primary historic axis of pedestrian use through some degree of the town. This could be achieved through restrictions on delivery times. improvements to the public realm, • Encourage new high-quality development particularly minimising the present clutter on selected sites, targeted to reinstate of street furniture, improving surfacing character where it has been eroded and to and reducing the blocking effect at the reverse past mistakes. Examples of northern end which diminishes the visual priorities would include the gap sites and association of Honey Street with Church inappropriate structures at the west end of Square and St Petroc’s. Fore Street and the two-storey building • Extend the Conservation Area to (currently occupied by Stratton Creber) on incorporate the surviving area of burgage the former cinema site at the south end of plots to the south of Fore Street. These Crockwell Street; the latter is a prominent plots with their associated boundaries site in the heart of the town and merits a constitute a significant element of the building of appropriate scale and form. historic character of the area and merit • Ensure that design for all future protection. interventions in the area, both buildings • Apply robust conservation management to and public realm, is shaped by a detailed historic buildings in the Area, probably understanding of the immediate context as through enhanced provision of well as by the area’s overall character. appropriate Article 4 Directions, in order Although the Character Area has a to retain historic character and quality. number of clear unifying characteristics there is very considerable variation within it which should be acknowledged, maintained and enhanced.

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2 Church Square, Turf Street, widened to link St Nicholas Street to Church St Nicholas Street and Priory grounds Square at about the same time. The effect of these interventions has been to extend (Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 2) elements of the character of Character Area 4 – Dennison Road and Berrycoombe Road – into this Area, in the form of the vehicle This Area fringes and is secondary to related uses and empty plots on the south side Bodmin’s commercial and civic core of Priory Road, opposite St Petroc’s, and the (Character Area 1). It includes St Petroc’s loss of historic fabric and topography on the church, some large houses, residential streets west side of Turf Street. and open green spaces. This Character Area is a product of Bodmin’s Present character unusual development history which has left the parish church outside the commercial core Topographically, the Area extends east along and preserved green open space (the former the valley bottom from Church Square to priory grounds) within a very short distance of Priory House and the Priory grounds, with St the town’s ‘centre’ at Mount Folly. The lop- Nicholas Street and Crinnick Hill running sided nature of development has also left what south up the valley side. There are in developed as primarily modest residential consequence some dramatic views down St streets – Turf Street and St Nicholas Street – Nicholas Street and Turf Street to Church in immediate proximity to the commercial Square and across to the treed valley side area. While its components are of high behind, and also up Turf Street to the importance in themselves, and historically substantial buildings at Mount Folly and primary, this Character Area is now essentially beyond up St Nicholas Street to the wooded defined by its secondary position in relation to skyline. Trees, greenery and green open space the commercial and civic core of the town. are also important in the churchyard and Priory grounds / car park area. The major components of the Area are significant buildings – including the parish church, Priory House and the villa known as St Petroc’s – set within substantial green spaces. These are fringed by strongly urban streets which are mostly residential in character. There is therefore a contrast between the open spaces of the churchyard and Priory Grounds, for example, and the tight townscape of Turf Street, St Nicholas Street and the west side of Church Square. The historic built environment is particularly diverse and rich. In addition to the church, often claimed as the finest in Cornwall, the Turf Street. churchyard has a collection of interesting and The Area has been subject to some significant significant building remains – St Guron’s well, changes to its road layout. Priory Road’s the chapel of Thomas à Becket with its fine entrance into Church Square from the east fourteenth-century east window (judged the was realigned and the east side of the Square ‘best in the county’ by the architectural re-developed as part of a road widening historian E H Sedding) and a variety of scheme in the mid 1960s; Turf Street, formerly intriguing architectural fragments. The Area a quiet ‘back lane’ to Honey Street, was includes a number of substantial houses,

September 2005 The Character Areas 68 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin including the later eighteenth century Priory end of the former West Side Press building House on the former priory site, some between St Nicholas Street and Crinnick’s impressive eighteenth and nineteenth century Hill; this building, with its fine curving slated town houses around the west side of Church roof is a notable landmark in views uphill Square and the east end of Pool Street, and from Mount Folly Square and Turf Street. the large rectory, substantially rebuilt from an This area close to the centre also has a number earlier building in the Victorian period. The of impressive and substantial nineteenth- former county police station in the same area century two- and three-storey town houses, is similar in form and scale to these large including the listed George and Dragon pub, residences. mostly rendered or formerly so and some partly converted to commercial use with shopfronts inserted; perhaps because they are on the fringe of the commercial area these include some of the better surviving historic shopfronts in Bodmin. A later nineteenth century ‘Gothic’ styled villa named Roscrea has a three-storey gabled elevation in coursed dressed killas with decorative bargeboard and is a distinctive feature in this area. These larger buildings are intermixed with a few smaller, almost cottage-scale houses. Most buildings in this part of St Nicholas Street are set directly behind the narrow pavements; this, with the height of many of the buildings creates a strong sense of enclosure but also contributes Above: St Petroc’s, Cornwall’s largest and - some to a fine piece of streetscape as St Nicholas claim - finest parish church. Its setting is blighted by Street curves sharply away uphill. Further heavy traffic flows and road-related uses. Below: south on St Nicholas Street, away from the Substantial three-storey nineteenth-century buildings on centre, there are suburban terraces in killas St Nicholas Street. and yellow-cream brick. At the southern extent of the Character Area the early nineteenth-century villa known as St Petroc’s lies in its own grounds on the east side of the road, backing onto the priory grounds; it is accompanied by a small group of later semi-detached villas on the west side of the road, similarly set back among gardens and greenery. Buildings on Turf Street, despite their proximity to the core, reflect the road’s former character as a back lane to Honey Street. Those on the east side include a good mid nineteenth century group in dressed and coursed killas with granite detailing and

interesting arched pedestrian and cart access On the northern part of St Nicholas Street to the rear; the building to the south has fine proximity to the centre is marked by the tripartite sash windows on the ground floor. presence of the interesting 1920s Post Office Other buildings here are relatively modest in killas and granite and the stuccoed rounded urban cottage-style structures, most of which

September 2005 The Character Areas 69 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin have seen significant alterations to their Archaeological potential elevations. Crinnick’s Hill has terraces in killas and brick, one with ground-floor bays Much of this area falls within the probable stepping up the slope on the west side, and footprint of the early medieval and medieval another, appropriately named Prospect town and the priory site; archaeological Terrace for its elevated position, set at right potential is therefore high. St Nicholas Street angles to the street. This area also has one or represents an historic route and, although it two modest nineteenth-century villas. and Crinnick Hill are not likely to have seen continuous roadside development until a relatively late stage, their proximity to the primary urban area means that earlier remains may also occur here. Proximity of the area to the town core means that it is also likely to retain evidence for a variety of industrial, craft and service activities. The priory site is known to have accommodated a variety of industrial activities in the post Dissolution period, including a fulling mill, with associated leat and pool, a tanyard and a malthouse.

Regeneration and management

Issues

• The Area experiences very high levels of Above: The view from Crinnick Hill towards St through traffic in Church Square and on Petroc’s church. Below: Priory House, successor to the St Nicholas Street and Turf Street; for priory as a key component of Bodmin’s urban much of the day, particularly in summer, topography. movement here is practically constant. This has the effect of severing the centre of Bodmin from some of its most important associated structures and spaces. The traffic flows have had a particularly severe impact on the character of Church Square, which is now effectively a traffic roundabout. • This immediate area has also become dominated by road-related uses, particularly on the north side of Priory Road, which are inappropriate to the quality of its historic components, most notably the church. The key area facing (and thus providing the immediate outlook for) St Petroc’s incorporates a garage / car rental business, a tyre depot, Boundaries form key elements of the built vacant plots and two single-storey environment in several places, notably the shopfronts in apparently temporary killas revetment around the raised churchyard buildings; the 1905 Church Institute at the and other stone walls fronting Priory House east end of this area was partly removed and St Petroc’s. and given an undistinguished frontage in

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the later twentieth century. The of large openings, render stripped to realignment of Priory Road to the east expose stonework on buildings which resulted in a loss of the enclosure which were historically stuccoed, inappropriate formerly signalled proximity to the urban porches, sun lounges and conservatories core area for traffic along this route and added to historic buildings, distorting their erosion of the setting for Priory House. historic form, and poor signage on • The overall effect of these factors has commercial premises. been to degrade the sense of quality and Recommendations significance of one of Bodmin’s most important focal points and thresholds for • The key benefit to achieve in this Area is a arriving traffic. From its architecture and reduction in traffic levels, allowing its internal appearance it is clear that St high-quality and distinctive character to Petroc’s was established in what was then contribute more fully to Bodmin’s the most prosperous and important town presentation of itself. There is a need in in Cornwall; its present setting gives no the short-term to improve pedestrian hint that this has been the case or that facilities, particularly making it easier to there is an aspiration that Bodmin should cross Church Square. What is required are again be considered as a place of measures which will make this a space significance. which is effectively shared between vehicles and pedestrians. • The blighting effect of high traffic levels may also account for a number of other • Promote appropriate redevelopment of negative elements in the Character Area the sites facing the church on the north arising from an apparent general side of Priory Road and corner of Church propensity to treat it simply as the setting Square. This is a particularly sensitive site for a through road. Examples include the and merits the most careful attention, not clutter of signs in and around the least detailed characterisation carried out churchyard, poor presentation of some in advance and used to inform the buildings along the roadside, the development brief. inappropriately tall street lights in the area • Maintain the well-kept park character of and the partial blocking of the visual link the former priory grounds and promote between Church Square and Honey Street appropriate replacement planting to by a clutter of street furniture. ensure continuation of the wooded nature • The Area’s historic features are not of gardens and the churchyard. presented to best advantage: the sixteenth- • Improve the presentation and century shute adjoining the churchyard interpretation of the area’s historic gate has been encroached on by an monuments, particularly the exposed increase in the height of adjacent road and portion of the priory and the chapel of pavement surfacing, reducing its visibility Thomas à Becket. and diminishing its significance; the • Undertake a thorough review of the public exposed archaeological remains of the realm, including street lighting, road signs, priory site and the chapel of Thomas à other street furniture and planting. Becket could both potentially be more Consider introducing a small number of effectively presented and interpreted. street trees as an alternative to the present • A number of buildings in the Area have clutter at the north end of Honey Street. been subject to inappropriate • Apply robust conservation management to interventions which individually and historic buildings in the Area, probably cumulatively have a significant effect on through enhanced provision of character and quality. Problems include poor replacement windows and insertion

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appropriate Article 4 Directions, in order Leonard’s - and in the form of roads set off to retain historic character and quality. more or less perpendicularly from the main axis. Downing Street (now Finn VC estate) 3 Top Town: Lower and Higher Bore was established prior to 1840, Robartes Road Street and St Leonard’s around the mid nineteenth century and terraces on Barn Lane and Cardell Road towards the end, with St Mary’s Road in the (Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 3) early twentieth century. A very long and wide, predominantly residential street of strong urban character. It fossilises the site of a medieval fair on one of the major historic routes into Bodmin. The historic origins and topography of Bore Street are discussed in some detail in Section 3. It is clear that it is of medieval origin and its distinctive elongated ‘cigar-shape’ form echoes that of other towns or parts of towns of this period which grew up around fairs. Although it is clearly secondary in Bodmin’s urban hierarchy, it nevertheless forms an impressive space. It is more extensive and more visually striking than the principal streets of many other Cornish towns and is in itself more like the main street of a small market town than a subsidiary component of a larger centre.

The Passmore Edwards Free Library (1895), designed by Cornish architect Silvanus Trevail, is the major landmark building on Bore Street (here viewed from Robartes Road). Bore Street itself follows the contour across the southern slope of the valley, and is more or less level throughout its length. Its side streets, however, to north and south, are relatively steep. St Mary’s Road, running south west around the western flanks of the hill on which the Beacon is sited, slopes a little more gently than the others.

Present character

Bore Street is long and wide, testifying to its origins as The most striking element of Bore Street is its the site of a medieval fair. It is one of Bodmin’s most overall form, long and wide, with the extent of distinctive streets. the space emphasised by the near-continuous building line along each side. The near-level While its early form remains essentially topography means that there are relatively complete, there has been some obvious long views down the length of the street. The expansion beyond the original extent, both only interruption to the large space is the along the main through route to the west – St Town Wall, a division along its axis nearer the

September 2005 The Character Areas 72 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin eastern end marking a change in levels Street, and others on Lower Bore Street, for between the higher southern and lower example – and some with structural features northern sides, enabling an easier gradient for which hint at an earlier date. Archaeological traffic from the late-1950s ‘ringway’ along investigation at 20 Lower Bore Street revealed Dennison Road. Although now essentially an that although externally of eighteenth- or elongated traffic island, Town Wall is of nineteenth-century origin the building had its considerable local significance. It was formerly origins about 1600 as a town house of some the site of a public spout or well, has an 1826 prestige. Away from Bore Street, St Leonard’s datestone on the stonework noting the mayor and the side-streets off Bore Street are almost of the time, Robert Flamank, and also hosts a entirely made up of nineteenth-century 1986 Cornish Nationalist Party terraces and rows; exceptions include a barn commemorative plaque to the memory of and a few other working buildings on Barn , ‘leader of the Cornish host’ Lane, and Beacon House, dated 1886, at the in 1497. A large, modern Cornish cross has junction of Barn Lane and Rock Lane, which been sited on Town Wall within the last few formerly incorporated a slaughterhouse. years and it also accommodates a planting scheme and safety railings.

Lower and Higher Bore Street remain predominantly residential in character, with a marked diversity in the form, scale, style and age of buildings.

Piecemeal development and redevelopment along Bore Street has created a streetscape of The modest and unusually narrow town house at some variety. There is a mix of building types 22 Lower Bore Street is of the early nineteenth and forms and of function and social status: century; building research on the fabric of no 20 Lower good town houses are intermixed with cottage Bore Street, partly visible to the left, revealed that it rows and terraces of ‘industrial’ appearance; dates from c 1600. there are a few pubs, typical accompaniments Almost all buildings are of two storeys – the to an urban fair site, and a small number of major exception is the three-storey Garland Ox institutional buildings. Much of the standing public house on the north side of Higher Bore historic fabric is nineteenth century, but there Street – but there is great variation in building are some eighteenth-century structures – the heights, again reflecting the prevailing style at fine St Leonard’s House and adjoining different periods at which individual buildings buildings on the south side of Higher Bore or terraces originated and the mix of social

September 2005 The Character Areas 73 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin status and building type. The overall effect on offers a particularly good example of this use Bore Street is of a stepped or dentillated roof of materials and detailing. There are also line along both sides of the street. With the instances of elevations of colourwashed exception of the library at the east end, pubs rubble or semi-coursed killas. Buildings in such as the Garland Ox and the substantial these forms are for the most part relatively town house with a pedimented front elevation plain, but some, particularly those with at 4 Higher Bore Street (St Leonard’s House), stuccoed elevations, show additional there are few large buildings, or buildings with elaboration: vermiculated quoins and ground- an extended street frontage. Overall this is floor window surrounds on St Leonard’s fine-grained and intricate townscape. House, for example, or the occasional Buildings on Bore Street are mainly residential occurrence of moulded brackets and hoods on in form and origin but a proportion have had ground-floor openings. Many of the later the ground floor converted for retail or nineteenth century terraces are in coursed or commercial use. There are some older semi-coursed killas with detailing in yellow- shopfronts but many of these conversions cream brick or, in some instances, alternating appear relatively recent. Nineteenth-century red and yellow brick. Granite is occasionally directories show this as an area of mixed used for lintels, steps and plinths; there are a gentry, tradesmen and working class housing handful of notable terraces with rock-faced granite forming a string course which aligns and yards and courts behind buildings, accessed through arches and narrow lanes, with and incorporates the lintels over the have served as coach or wagon yards, or as ground-floor openings. bases for craft or small-scale industrial Roofs throughout the area are of slate with a activities in the past. significant number having been coated with Overall levels of survival of historic fabric are bitumen or similar coverings. high over most of Bore Street, with the major exception being the important focal point at the crossroads formed by the junction of Lower Bore Street with Finn VC estate (formerly Downing Street) and Robartes Road. This was marked historically by the striking library building on the south-east corner, but was poorly served by redevelopment of the other corner sites as part of the wider overspill housing schemes of the 1960-70s. The west side of the northern part of Robartes Road and the whole of the former Downing Street were also redeveloped at this time. There has been some loss on the west side of the junction of Dennison Road at Town Wall, deriving from road widening Poor public realm at the junction of Lower Bore Street undertaken as part of the ‘ringway’ of the with Finn VC estate late 1950s. Some components of the public realm in the Older buildings on Bore Street are for the area are remarkably good: the combination of most part either stucco fronted or in dressed wide pavements and street trees on the south and coursed killas; some of the latter are side of Higher Bore Street is particularly notable for keyed segmental arches over notable and Town Wall is an unusual feature openings, both cambered and flat, in dressed in the street-scene. Other elements are poor or killas. The fine early nineteenth century inappropriate, however, and diminish the cottage row on the south side of St Leonard’s sense of significance of the area considerably.

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These include a general clutter of street Regeneration and management furniture and signage around junctions, together with over-prominent traffic Issues management features. These are particularly obtrusive in the area between Robartes Road • Several different factors continue to erode and Town Wall, where the scale and form of Bore Street’s distinctive character and the historic streetscape are masked by sense of quality. The first is its role as part extensions to the pavements, elongated traffic of a major through road with high traffic islands and other features. Much of the area of levels; noise, air pollution and movement wide pavements on the south side of the street have a significant impact on pedestrian is encumbered by unnecessary bollards. experience and the quality of life of Surfacing is generally undistinguished with residents. Additionally, traffic engineering instances of particularly inappropriate block and street lighting are tailored to the needs paving, some of it pink, around the junction of through traffic flows rather than as of Lower Bore Street with Finn VC estate and appropriate components of a significant Robartes Road, a further negative element in urban space. an area of generally poor public realm • Localised redevelopment in the 1960-70s provision. Street lighting along the main axis is around the junction of Lower Bore Street generally by over-large lamp-posts which with Robartes Road and Finn VC estate dwarf the buildings they abut; a few ‘heritage- introduced buildings of inappropriate pattern’ lamp-posts have been installed form and scale at a key focal point. The towards the western end of Higher Bore Street consequence has been a loss of enclosure where they work well with the character and an intrusion of suburban rather than established by the street trees in this area. urban character, interrupting what is otherwise a streetscape of generally high Archaeological potential quality. The poor design quality of the modern buildings here is emphasised by Much of this area falls within Bodmin’s their close proximity to some notable medieval extent and should therefore be historic buildings to east and west. regarded as an area of high archaeological potential. Along Higher and Lower Bore • Public realm provision around this focus is Street there is potential for the remains of markedly poor. More generally within the sequences of buildings along the street Area public realm elements fail to enhance frontage and for evidence of associated character. activities in rear plots. Part if not the whole of • The presence of the filling station and tyre the medieval extent here lies over former strip depot on the north side of Town End are fields. The site of the former St Leonard’s inappropriate elements in the streetscape; chapel lies on the south side of Higher Bore these functions relate to the through road Street towards its western end. Lake reported rather than the predominantly residential that human bones had ‘frequently been found character of the area. in a little meadow adjoining the street, said to • Access to some recent development to the have been the burying ground’; this site is rear of the street line has been achieved by reputed to lie on the north side of the road in removing a building within the street the area of Hampstead Terrace. frontage or widening existing access, The former Downing Street, now part of Finn creating a gap in what is otherwise a VC estate, was densely developed by 1840. It strongly defined street line. is likely to represent post-medieval expansion • Inappropriate alterations, ranging from of Bodmin and may preserve remains of both replacement windows to conversions to housing and small-scale industrial or craft retail use, have eroded the character of a activities.

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substantial number of buildings in the and school at the southern end of area. Robartes Road. Recommendations • Close conservation-oriented monitoring and management of this Area is required, • Bore Street should be perceived and aimed at maintaining its surviving historic treated along its whole length as primarily resource and reversing inappropriate past a principal urban street rather than simply interventions. An essential tool in part of a major through road. The achieving this will be designation of implications of this are in the selection of appropriate Article 4 directions. appropriate forms for traffic engineering

and public realm elements, in determining appropriate planning uses, setting priorities for reducing traffic levels and seeking alternative routes, and in achieving a proper balance between vehicle and pedestrian / resident priorities.

• Conduct a substantive review of the public

realm in the area, with the aim of substantially reducing the present clutter, improving the quality of surfacing, and minimising the negative impact of traffic engineering on the street’s historic In this Area, as elsewhere in Bodmin, a variety of topography. relatively minor interventions on historic buildings • As part of this review, assess the potential (including inappropriate replacement windows and to extend provision of street trees along doors) have had a substantial impact on the visual the whole length of Bore Street, and to the quality of streetscapes. northern side of the street. Widening the pavement on the north side to make provision for street trees would narrow the carriageway and could therefore have beneficial consequences in slowing through traffic. • Ensure that new development maintains the characteristic tight street frontage of the Area and that access to rear plots does not create over-large gaps; arches should be kept to the proportions of surviving historic examples • Promote appropriate redevelopment around the junction of Lower Bore Street with Robartes Road and Finn VC estate with the aim of reinstating appropriate character and quality. Characterisation should contribute strongly to the development brief. • Extend the Conservation Area to incorporate the surviving historic terraces

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4 Dennison Road - Berrycoombe Road between Church Square and Bore Street in the late 1950s. This followed the former Burnard’s (Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 4) Lane to the west but then, from the present junction with Berrycoombe Road, drove through the densely built-up area to meet Pool Formerly occupied by a mix of residential, Street at the northern end of Crockwell Street. industrial and communications uses, this area A wider programme of demolition in the area has been subject to major change since the created new parking areas and substantial mid twentieth century, resulting in substantial change also took place around the rear, loss of historic fabric and topography. It is northern ends of plots occupied by premises traversed by a busy main through route and on the north side of Fore Street, creating service uses associated with cars and traffic loading and service areas and additional predominate. parking. Similarly large-scale change occurred Historically, the eastern end of this Character in the zone to the west after the closure of the Area was occupied by a densely built-up area railway (late 1960s) and gasworks, with a large north of Fore Street, set around several supermarket and a variety of piecemeal sinuous minor streets – Bell Lane, Mill Street, developments of broadly ‘industrial estate’ Pool Street – and opes, alleys and passages form. running south between the burgage plots Roads, traffic and traffic-related uses are dominant in extending north from Fore Street: Town Arms the Area. Passage, Bree Shute Lane. Buildings in this area included courts, cottage rows and terraces, a variety of workshops, stores and other small industrial buildings, nonconformist chapels and pubs. Two public water sources – Eye Well and Cock’s Well – survive here and it is likely that there were others. The Carn Water stream is now culverted for most of its length within the area but was formerly open in parts. A mill was sited in the area and its mill pool is remembered in the name Pool Street; the leat for a saw mill and Berrycoombe Mill to the west also came off the stream in this vicinity. The area to the west was the focus for industrial and other extensive uses over a long period. It was the site of tanning pits in the Present character sixteenth century and in the nineteenth century accommodated a saw mill, Bodmin This Character Area lies along the valley of the gas works and the early railway station with its Carn Water – many of its historic functions sand and coal ‘wharfs’; a more extensive were related to the watercourse – and across goods yard and engine shed complex was the lower slope of its southern flank. From it created here at the end of the nineteenth there are views to the tree-fringed valley century. This western zone also had a few slopes to north and south and across the ‘industrial’ terraces and cottage rows. valley to the prison and wider landscape to the west. Because of its position it is highly visible The area suffered some bomb damage during from many points on the slopes on either side World War II, including a hit on the gasworks of the valley. More importantly, it is also the site, but remained largely intact until the ‘public face’ of Bodmin to the occupants of creation of the Dennison road ‘ringway’ vehicles moving along Bodmin’s major

September 2005 The Character Areas 77 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin through route, parking adjacent to the town extensive areas of public parking space and centre or going to the supermarket and other parking provision associated with individual businesses. business premises, car showrooms and display areas, a filling station and various drive-in facilities. Other extensive uses include the late twentieth century fire station and Royal Mail yard. There are also some gap sites and others left vacant during road widening and re- alignment. Commercial buildings in the area are predominantly utilitarian in design and materials, of a scale and form more often seen in edge-of-town roadside or industrial / trading estate contexts. Most occupy large plots with the buildings set back from the road and surrounded by parking areas; boundaries between plots are generally poorly Above: The view to Pool Street from Dennison Road. defined. Below: Later twentieth century developments at the Some historic fabric remains, most notably rear of plots on the north side of Fore Street relate to some interesting cottage rows, terraced parking provision rather than to formally defined housing and small villas. There are hints of the ‘streets’. In both these views the important wooded former character of the area in the surviving element in Bodmin’s setting provides a skyline built-up (albeit much-gapped) streetscapes at backdrop which to some extent softens the impact of the northern end of Market Street and the the degraded townscapes. western part of Pool Street, and some surviving individual buildings and groups of buildings, rows and terraces at the northern end of Chapel Lane and around Berrycoombe Road. Most of the surviving structures appear to date from the mid and later nineteenth century; most have elevations in semi-coursed killas with brick detailing, but there is also a significant stuccoed component. The buildings in the area are generally relatively modest and unelaborated, but there are exceptions: a mid nineteenth century terrace towards the west end of Pool Street (south side) has good-quality doorcases and a

substantial building nearby set around an arched entrance – now a garage but almost The present character of the area is effectively certainly originally a stables or waggon yard – that of a trading estate, merging with service has the entrance arch itself and rusticated areas and car parking behind Fore Street and quoins in granite ashlar; there are good, small, the town centre, threaded by a major road and later nineteenth century villas facing the fire fringed by the gapped remains of the area’s station on Berrycoombe Road. The Westberry former terraced and row housing. The area as Hotel, at the southern end of Rhind Street, is a whole is dominated by uses and spaces based around a nineteenth-century villa now related to vehicles and traffic. These include rendered almost invisible by the accretion of extensions and alterations.

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the junction with Berrycoombe Lane. Some enhancement work has been undertaken in recent years around Eye Well and Cock’s Well; this has improved the immediate setting of these features but has not ameliorated the generally poor quality of the public realm here.

Archaeological potential

The eastern part of this area was densely occupied until the major clearances and road schemes of the post-war period and archaeological potential over much of it is likely to be high. The limited surviving historic fabric in the Area is almost wholly mid or later nineteenth century in date, but there is potential for much longer archaeological The historic character of the Area came from the mix sequences. One or more mills, with an of industrial activity with small workshops and terrace associated mill pool and leat system, were and cottage-row housing. The surviving historic located here and part of the Area was formerly structures and topography offer a model for the scale the rear portion of the medieval burgage plots and character of regeneration activity aimed at on the north side of Fore Street and Lower reinstating a sense of quality and significance in the Bore Street, which possibly retain evidence of Area. Above: the western end of Pool Street, looking earlier uses. The low-lying position of part of west. Below: the northern part of Market Street. the Area also raises the possibility of their being waterlogged deposits and / or sequences of dumping or midden deposits here deriving from the nearby central area of the town.

Regeneration and management

Issues • Despite this Area’s high visibility and its proximity to Bodmin’s historic core, there is little here to present the town as a place of quality, character and significance. The modern buildings within the area are generally not urban in character and the The public realm in the area is generally poor, public realm is generally poor. Traffic, dominated by road engineering, a clutter of with the associated noise, air pollution, posts and signage, prominent overhead wiring constant movement and sense of and poor quality boundary materials. There insecurity for pedestrians, and the large are some street trees, particularly where there areas occupied by parked vehicles, are has been planting on spaces left unused after significant negative factors in an area so the road widening scheme. These create close to the core of the town. welcome green ‘islands’ within the otherwise • The area’s surviving historic fabric, poor townscape of this area; a particularly including wells / shutes, dwellings and important example is the tongue of land working buildings, are set within this between Dennison Road and Pool Street, at

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degraded environment and are therefore • In the shorter term there are opportunities limited in the positive contribution they for significant improvements to the public can make to character, quality and sense of realm and in reducing the impact of traffic place. The quality of many of the surviving and vehicle-related uses. One appropriate historic buildings and streetscapes has intervention would be to extend the been significantly eroded by inappropriate presence of street trees, particularly on treatment, including extensions / Dennison Road east of the junction with alterations and installation of replacement Chapel Lane and Pool Street. This would windows and doors and satellite dishes. make a substantial improvement to the • There are relatively few trees in the Area, appearance of the otherwise poorly when compared with other areas of enclosed streetscape here but would also Bodmin. Those that do exist are in a poor associate this area with the wider ‘green’ setting but represent major public realm element of Bodmin’s distinctive character. assets. • Most of the links to the adjacent areas of the town, particularly Fore Street, are via areas of particularly poor townscape and there is little visible from within the Character Area which signals the interest, high quality and distinctive character of what is nearby. Further, walkers and cyclists arriving in Bodmin via the Camel Trail must pass through this Area in order to reach the town centre. Recommendations • This Character Area offers the single most significant opportunity for a major regeneration initiative in Bodmin. There is potential to create here a new urban The western extent of the Character Area provides the quarter of quality and significance, re- setting for Bodmin gaol, which itself represents a major shaping the area in the form of enclosed heritage asset in immediate proximity to the Area. ‘streets’ and reinstating an appropriate Regeneration planning would beneficially view the two scale and intricacy. A master plan is in association. required to co-ordinate the diverse range • A proactive approach is required in of contributing elements required and to encouraging improvements to the inspire components of appropriate quality appearance of commercial premises in the and character. The surviving historic fabric area, not least the highly visible structures in the area should itself contribute and open delivery and service areas at the significantly in defining the form and scale rear of plots fronting onto Fore Street. of further development and the historic This zone, together with the opes leading layout of the area offers an appropriate to Fore Street, is essentially the ‘gateway’ model for reshaping its topography. to Bodmin for many people arriving by car • The proximity of the western part of the and merits significantly better Character Area to Bodmin Gaol presentation. (Character Area 6b) means that the two • Extend the Conservation Area to should be considered together in incorporate those parts of the Area which regeneration planning. retain significant historic character, most particularly the western portion of Pool

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Street and adjacent northern end of grid there is a strongly rectilinear historic Market Street, together with part of division into discrete plots. Berrycoombe Road. • Close conservation-oriented monitoring and management of this Area is required, aimed at maintaining the surviving historic resource and reversing inappropriate interventions undertaken in the past. An essential tool in achieving this will be designation of appropriate Article 4 directions.

5 The Berry area: Church Lane, Castle Street and environs

(Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 5)

A quiet suburban area of cottages, former farms and smallholdings, villas and larger houses and institutions, with trees, gardens and greenery, set around an historic grid of streets overlooking the centre of Bodmin from the hillside to the north. Berry Tower, all that survives above ground of the The historic origins of this area are obscure former chapel of the Holy Rood, dating from c 1500. but it is a strong possibility that elements of The twelfth- or thirteenth-century cross below the tower the early monastic settlement and early is set into the substantial bank of the former chapel medieval town were located here (see Section enclosure. Until re-erected here in 1860, it was sited 3). The presence of Berry Tower and two nearby on Cross Lane, at the junction with Berry listed stone crosses emphasises the link with Lane. the town’s religious history. The main historic Around this layout are a number of buildings route towards Launceston and the west side of and building groups which derive from farms Bodmin Moor ran up Castle Street until the or smallholdings: these include the early 1830s. seventeenth century (or earlier) Tower Hill farmhouse, on Church Lane, with its cluster of The area lies on the northern side of the valley associated outbuildings (including a listed in which Bodmin is set; William Clift, in 1845, apple loft and school room), and others on recalling his youth in this area in the late Pound Lane, Cross Lane and Rhind Street. eighteenth century, referred to this as the There are a number of cottages, often set with ‘sunny side’ of the town. the front elevation facing directly onto the street and the gables stepping up the slope, Present character some small villas with gardens and larger The character of this area derives in part from houses set in their own grounds. The area also the unusual street layout. Four roads ascend has several institutional buildings within and the hillside by hollowed routes lying roughly around it: the former workhouse, police parallel to each other, and are connected by station and East Cornwall Hospital Church Lane, Church Square and Pool Street complexes, and, at the head of Pound Lane, at the bottom of the slope and by Cross Lane Belmont House, built in 1898 as the Elizabeth towards the upper end. Within the resulting Barclay Home for ‘girls of weak intellect’. These too are set within substantial plots.

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colourwashed rendered or stucco walls. The mid eighteenth century Windsor House is of coursed killas. Many of the later prestige buildings include some granite detailing and there is a widespread use of brick. Thus, for example, the villa historically known as Parkhill on Pound Lane, St Petroc’s rectory at the east end of Church Lane and the former workhouse are all of dressed killas with brick detailing around the openings and granite quoins. The former East Cornwall Hospital of c 1910 is in mock ‘Jacobethan’ style with round-topped main entrance door and mullioned windows, and constructed of a dark killas with rock-faced granite detailing. The former county police station is notable for its ‘Victorian Gothic’ styling.

Rhind Street, looking south across Bodmin to the Beacon. The resulting combination of narrow lanes, a mix of vernacular and more obviously ‘designed’ historic buildings, boundary walls and Cornish hedges, trees and greenery creates an overall atmosphere which, despite proximity to the heavy traffic flows of Pool Street and Church Square, is essentially rural rather than urban, and has much of the feel of a quiet churchtown. Views within the area are for the most part constrained by boundaries, Late eighteenth - early nineteenth century stucco-fronted dense greenery and the hollowing of the lanes, townhouses in Bodmin’s ‘churchtown’. The right-hand except those along the streets, either uphill to building was formerly a public house, lying alongside the tree-fringed skyline or south across the turnpike road which until the 1830s followed the Bodmin towards the Beacon. steeply-sloping Castle Street. Architecture within the area is varied, ranging Later twentieth century developments have from the vernacular of the cottages, farms and generally failed to respond to the historic working buildings, through the modest ‘polite’ character of the area, in terms of the scale, designs of villas (including the fine ‘Cornish form and materials of individual buildings and Regency’ of Emma Place) to the more of over-high development densities, elaborate forms of institutional buildings and inappropriate placing of structures within large detached houses. The dominant material plots and over-suburban public realm throughout is killas, in buildings and boundary elements. walls and hedges, although cottage-scale Historic maps show that many of the dwellings and smaller villas often have rectilinear plots in this area were used as

September 2005 The Character Areas 82 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin enclosed gardens and meadows, undeveloped (density control is a high-priority), buildings other than small barns or sheds. Only one set back from the road frontage behind such enclosed plot, at the bottom of Rhind Cornish hedges or good-quality stone walling, Street on the east side, is now clearly evident. buildings set among and partly obscured from the road and in distant views by mature trees, Archaeological potential absence of overtly ‘suburban’ components such as pavements, kerbs, excessive street This area has been identified as potentially of lighting, timber fencing, etc. key significance in the early development of

Bodmin; this may be in the form of early monastic settlement, an earlier enclosure or, as suggested in this study, the site of a late Saxon urban foundation on a gridded street plan. Appropriate investigation to refine and resolve these possibilities should be a priority for the Development Control system. In addition to the potential for buried archaeological remains, it should be understood that many of the standing historic structures in the area, including boundaries, are significant and merit archaeological observation and recording if they are to be altered. The ‘Jacobethan’ main building of East Cornwall Hospital, established on this site immediately prior to Regeneration and management World War I. • Care is required where existing large Issues historic buildings are converted for other • The primary issue in this Area is the threat uses that character is not eroded by the of loss of character resulting from visibility of additional parking, new access development at inappropriately high openings in boundaries, etc. densities and an accompanying • The historic character of this area includes suburbanisation of the public realm. This the use of many plots as meadows and area is highly visible from a wide area of gardens. There should be a strong the town to the south and loss of presumption for retaining all currently character here would have a significant undeveloped plots such as that on the east impact beyond the immediate area. side at the lower end of Rhind Street. • A substantial part of the Character Area • Any development on the East Cornwall lies outside the Conservation Area. Hospital site should retain the major early • Inappropriate treatment of historic twentieth century buildings. New uses buildings – replacement windows and should recognise the former significance doors, roof coverings, alterations, of the complex to the wider community extensions, etc – and boundaries erodes by retaining normal public access (i.e., it the Area’s overall sense of significance and should not be permitted to become a quality. gated development). Recommendations • Extend the Conservation Area to include the whole of this Character Area. New development in this Character Area should be strongly guided by the key elements • Robust planning and conservation of the prevailing historic character: low density management is required to ensure

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retention of elements such as historic These areas developed in tandem with boundary features and appropriate Bodmin’s emerging status as Cornwall’s fenestration and roof covering on historic county town, beginning with the construction buildings, and in avoiding division of of the gaol in the later eighteenth century and historic plots. continuing with the County Lunatic Asylum • Provide appropriate direction signs to (St Lawrence’s) at Westheath from 1820 and enable visitors to find Berry Tower and the barracks complex from the late 1850s. promote this Area as another historic part Little further development took place around of Bodmin within a short distance of the the gaol, although the complex was itself centre. extensively expanded and remodelled. The asylum, however, expanded substantially in a • The ‘green’ and wooded character of the number of phases through to the early area requires ongoing action to ensure that twentieth century and the character of this it is retained and enhanced in the long area was confirmed and enhanced when a term. This could be achieved through a Catholic priory, convent and orphanage were programme of replacement planting, constructed nearby, again on a well-bounded including proactive liaison with site, from the 1880s. householders to encourage appropriate planting within private gardens. • Glimpses of Berry Tower, an important historic landmark for Bodmin, could be restored through appropriate tree management (selective surgery or minimum removal) in the immediate area.

6 The county institutions: St Lawrence’s, Bodmin gaol, Bodmin barracks

(Fig 7 & Character Area summary sheet 6) Earlier nineteenth century buildings of the Cornwall Three discrete areas on the outer edge of County Lunatic Asylum at St Lawrence’s, now Bodmin’s historic extent are characterised by adapted for residential use. the presence of large complexes of well The barracks complex developed very designed nineteenth-century institutional substantially in the later nineteenth century. In buildings set within strongly bounded this case the construction nearby in the later grounds. nineteenth century of Bodmin General railway 6a Westheath Avenue, Dunmere Road and St station and goods yard and of a grammar Mary’s Road: the former St Lawrence’s school underlined the key component of the hospital and the St Mary’s complex of area’s character: substantial prestige buildings Catholic institutional buildings. fronting large ‘special-purpose’ spaces. 6b Scarlett’s Well Road: Bodmin Gaol. Each of these complexes was originally sited well outside the contemporary extent of the 6c Lostwithiel Road, Castle Canyke Road, urban area but has been incorporated within it Harleigh Road: Bodmin Barracks, Bodmin subsequently by the growth of the town along General station and the former Grammar the radial routes alongside which the School [equivalent to Sub-Area 3 of Bodmin institutions were sited. The Bodmin Barracks Conservation Area Character Appraisal] / Bodmin General area was a focus for suburban villas and villa-terraces, and

September 2005 The Character Areas 84 Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey Bodmin comparable development, although on a Scarlett’s Well Road is not a major routeway slightly smaller scale, also took place around St but here again trees and greenery are Lawrence’s. important as the setting for the gaol.

Present character

The character of these areas derives from the presence there of architecturally distinguished groups of buildings with some degree of prominent elaboration – the central tower on the gaol, the radial building at St Lawrence’s, the keep on the barracks and a crenellated tower on part of the St Mary’s Catholic complex, for example – and of their common history in more recent times, becoming redundant and seeking, more or less successfully, new uses which retain them as historic features. Each of the areas developed cumulatively over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and their character is made more intricate by the variety of – and contrasts between - building styles. By way of example, the striking Silvanus Trevail-designed Foster Building on the St Lawrence’s site dates to 1904, more than 80 years after the initial Above: The Bodmin and Wenford Railway is an phase on the site. important visitor attraction, and its ‘live steam’ In each of the sub-areas large bounded areas, operations add a dynamic element to the Area’s in most cases with substantial stone perimeter historic character. Below: Stone boundary walls and walls, are the key components of the substantial buildings with a degree of ostentation and topography; this is not solely the case for the elaboration beyond their basic functions – here the major complexes – the asylum, barracks and Catholic convent viewed from St Mary’s Road – are prison – but also applies to the Catholic key elements of character in each of the three sub-areas. convent and other buildings, the early twentieth century cattle market nearby, the station and yard and the former grammar school. These are not only important as visual elements in streetscapes but also in terms of the limitations they impose on movement within and around the areas. Both the St Lawrence’s area and the barracks and station group are on main roads into Bodmin; in each case these complexes provide significant ‘thresholds’ for arriving traffic, indicators that the historic town has been reached. The tree-lined approaches along Each of the sub-areas incorporates other Westheath Avenue and Lostwithiel Road are highly visible features and monuments: the major assets in complementing the sense of medieval wheel-headed cross at the prison quality embodied in the historic complexes. site, the 1924 war memorial fronting the

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DCLI museum and the jaunty clock tower at Road, is of killas and cream brick but is plainer West End, also erected as a World War I and more ‘industrial’ in form. memorial. St Nicholas Street and Harleigh Road also accommodate a cluster of mostly Victorian or Edwardian detached and semi-detached villas, some of which have steep gables to the front elevation, canted bays, granite lintels and brick detailing. Others incorporate some detailing in rock-faced granite and decorative woodwork with finials and elaborate bargeboards. Many of these buildings can only be glimpsed from the main roads because they are set back within mature gardens; trees and greenery are again a strong feature of the area.

Archaeological potential Above: The Foster building (1904) at St Lawrence’s. Each of the institutional complexes is of Below: Edwardian villas adjacent to Bodmin General significant archaeological and architectural station. interest in terms of its own development history; where further changes of use or alterations or demolition are to take place the component buildings and their wider setting merit detailed recording. While the institutions and associated suburban expansion developed over what were nominally greenfield sites, there are indications of additional unassociated archaeological potential in these areas. The site of a prehistoric barrow lies within the barracks and it is possible that others may have existed in the vicinity. St Nicholas House (Pencaran Club) is located on or close to the site of a medieval chapel of St Nicholas; burials with thirteenth-century coins Residential terraces in these areas are generally were reputedly found during construction of of some quality. Quarry Park Terrace, for the railway station nearby in the 1880s, example, facing St Lawrence’s perimeter wall presumably from an attached graveyard. The across Dunmere Road, is of dressed killas with site of a former gibbet is reputed to lie within cream brick detailing (including key blocks), the St Lawrence’s complex, with potential for around openings, with slate roofs and associated burials, and a mine shaft is said to decorated ridge tiles; the terraced houses are have been found when foundations were have small individual front gardens set behind excavated for the Catholic church at West a low wall with granite gateposts. Some End in 1937. terraces on St Nicholas Street are similar, with brick detailed canted bays, and another close Regeneration and management to the station has some surviving tri-partite sash windows, dormers with slate-hung cheeks Issues and at least one elaborate Victorian storm Adaptation of the former institutional porch. Plas Newydd Terrace, on Lostwithiel complexes to residential or business uses

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has the benefit of preserving the historic the south end of Harleigh Road has been fabric but can also have negative impacts particularly unsuccessful. Here the external on the character and historic integrity of finish is of non-local, iron-stained killas these sites. Over-development, and which has been used to create heavily particularly the crowding of historic mortared random walling, producing an components by new additions, erodes almost ‘leopard-skin’ effect on the exterior their sense of significance and quality. An surfaces of the buildings. It is particularly example of this is the incongruous inappropriate for its setting adjacent to the juxtaposition of modern red brick houses good formal architecture of the former with the historic fabric of the gaol in views grammar school. from higher ground on the south side of • There are issues around the quality of the valley. Conversion of sites to prestige public realm provision at key spaces such business or residential use can result in the as that fronting Bodmin General station creation of ‘gated’ complexes, with and West End. The provision of ‘heritage’ consequent loss of public access and pattern streetlights in the relatively little opportunities for appreciation of these frequented around the gaol and along historic groups. Scarlett’s Well Road seems anomalous when there are many other areas within the town which would benefit from the provision of appropriate street furniture. • The gaol and parts of the Bodmin barracks and St Lawrence’s Areas are currently outside the Conservation Area. Recommendations • Recognise that Bodmin’s institutional complexes are not only significant at local level but also for Cornwall as a whole, and should be treated as places of county-wide heritage importance.

Bodmin Gaol, fronted by its late nineteenth century • Retain as far as possible the visual integrity gatehouse on Berrycoombe Road. The Gaol is a major of the institutional complexes in terms of, heritage asset for Bodmin but offers a significant for example, avoiding new breaks in challenge in terms of identifying beneficial uses which boundary walls, maintaining historic could support full refurbishment of the historic fenestration patterns and detail, and structure and its long-term survival. locating new buildings so that they do not impinge on the visual character of the sites • Little if any of the new development when viewed from outside. which has taken place on the institutional • Prioritise a programme for the whole of sites or more generally in the Character the historic prison complex aimed at Areas has attempted to reflect the conserving the fabric and bringing the character, quality or significance of the buildings into full use and contribution. historic components. Examples include the ‘anywhere’ designs of new housing on • Ensure that the prison complex is the St Lawrence’s site and the recent incorporated in regeneration planning for apartment block at St Mary’s, and the the adjacent Dennison Road – insertion of undistinguished industrial Berrycoombe Road area (Character structures into the former barracks Area 4). complex. A residential development off

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• Ensure that the park-like character of the • Extend the Conservation Area to grounds to St Lawrence’s is retained. incorporate all the surviving historic Explore potential for new public access structures and associated plots within green-space on the site. these Character Areas. • Enable access to the institutional • Apply robust planning and conservation complexes for public appreciation of the management to ensure retention of historic structures and settings wherever elements such as historic boundary possible. features and landscapes, and of detail on • Undertake public realm enhancements at historic buildings, and avoiding division of West End and around Bodmin General historic plots. station. • Maintain and develop levels of tree cover within the sub-areas, including roadside trees.

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Appendix 1: archaeological interventions

The following archaeological interventions are known for Bodmin and its immediate vicinity. All were undertaken by Cornwall Archaeological Unit, now part of Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Service, or its predecessor, the Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology, unless otherwise stated.

1886 excavation on part of priory site (W Iago) 1956 tile floor observed on part of priory site (Douch 1965) 1965 archaeological remains observed (excavated?) on part of priory site (Douch 1965) 1980 watching brief at 27-31 Fore Street 1985 archaeological evaluation on part of priory site (CAU) 1985 recording at 4 Fore Street (friary gatehouse) 1992 archaeological assessment of land to the south of Fore Street (burgage plots) 1993 archaeological survey and analysis of the chapel of Thomas à Becket 1995 archaeological evaluation of proposed library site, rear of Barclays Bank 1998 geophysical survey at Bodmin Priory church 1998 archaeological assessment of Town Leat (Exeter Archaeology) 1998 archaeological evaluation at Priory House for Bodmin Town Leat Flood Alleviation Scheme 1998 historic building condition survey (Brian Pilkington, for NCDC) 1999 watching brief at Mount Folly Square 1999 archaeological assessment and evaluation, Cornish Arms, Crockwell Street (Exeter Archaeology) 1999 watching brief on installation of floodlighting cables at St Petroc’s church 2000 archaeological recording of Town Leat (Exeter Archaeology) 2000 archaeological recording on land to the south of Fore Street (burgage plots) 2000 archaeological survey of St Guron’s Well 2001 archaeological recording at 26 Fore Street (Exeter Archaeology) 2001 archaeological survey and analysis at 20 Lower Bore Street 2002 historic building recording at 38-40 Fore Street (Exeter Archaeology) 2005 archaeological watching brief at Turf Street (rear of 10 Honey Street)

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Sources

Published sources Angerstein, R R, 2001. R R Angerstein’s illustrated travel diary, 1753-1755: industry in England and Wales from a Swedish perspective, London Anon, 1859. A handbook for travellers in Devon and Cornwall, London (John Murray); 4th edition Austin, F, ed, 1991. The Clift family correspondence, 1792-1846, Sheffield Bailey’s Western and Midland Directory, 1783, Birmingham Barton, R M, 1970. Life in Cornwall in the early nineteenth century, Truro; 1997 reprint Barton, R M, 1971. Life in Cornwall in the mid nineteenth century, Truro Barton, R M, 1972. Life in Cornwall in the late nineteenth century, Truro Barton, R M, 1974. Life in Cornwall at the end of the nineteenth century, Truro Botanista, T, 1757. Rural beauties, or the natural history of the four following western counties, viz Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, London Brunton, A, 1992. Bodmin Gaol, Cornwall, Newton Abbot Carew, R, 1602. The survey of Cornwall; reprinted Redruth, 2000 Chandler, J, 1996. John Leland in the West Country, in Topographical writers in south-west England (M Brayshay, ed), Exeter Chope P, 1967. Early tours in Devon and Cornwall, Newton Abbot Daniell, J J, 1854. A compendium of the geography and , Truro (revised 4th edn, T Peter 1906) Duffin, A, 1996. Faction and faith: politics and religion of the Cornish gentry before the Civil War, Exeter Elliott-Binns, L E, 1955. Medieval Cornwall, London Fox, H S A, and Padel, O J, 2000. The Cornish lands of the Arundells of Lanherne, fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, Exeter Gerrard, S, 2000. The early British tin industry, Stroud Goldsmith, R F K, 1970. The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, London Gray, T, 2000. Cornwall: The travellers’ tales, I, Exeter Hamilton Jenkin, A K, 1945. Cornwall and its people, London (reprinted Newton Abbot, 1970) Harris, J, ed, 1964. The Prideaux collection of topographical drawings, Architectural History, 7 Haslam, J, 1984. The towns of Wiltshire, in Anglo-Saxon towns in southern England (J Haslam, ed), Chichester, 87-148 Henderson, C, 1963, Essays in Cornish history, ed A L Rowse and M I Henderson, Truro (first printed Oxford, 1935) Hull, P L, 1971, The caption of seizin of the , Exeter Jankulak, K, 2000. The medieval cult of St Petroc, Woodbridge

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Lewis, H, nd. Bodmin’s well trail: an historic trail of discovery through the ancient town of Bodmin, Bodmin Maclean, J, 1870. The parochial and family history of the parish and borough of Bodmin, London Morrison, K, 1999. The workhouse: a study of Poor-Law buildings in England, Swindon Munn, P, 1973. Introducing Bodmin, the Cornish capital, Bodmin O’ Hara, P, 1985. Excavation news, 1985: Bodmin Priory, Conish Archaeology, 24, 212 Padel, O J, 1985. Cornish place-name elements, Nottingham Padel O J, 1988. A popular dictionary of Cornish place-names, Newmill [Penzance] Perry, R, 2001. Cornwall’s mining collapse revisited: an empirical survey of economic re-adjustment in late-Victorian and Edwardian Cornwall, in Cornish History [online journal: www.marjon.ac.uk/cornish-history] Pevsner N, 1951. The buildings of England: Cornwall, Harmondsworth Pocock, S J, 1998. Behind bars: a chronicle of Bodmin Gaol, Truro Pool, P A S, 1974. The history of the town and borough of Penzance, Penzance Pool, P A S, 1986. William Borlase, Truro Richardson, H, ed, 1998. English hospitals 1660-1948: a survey of their architecture and design, Swindon St John Thomas, D, 1988. A regional history of the railways of Great Britain. Vol. 1: The West Country, Newton Abbot Sedding, E H, 1909. Norman architecture in Cornwall, London Sheppard, P, 1980. The historic towns of Cornwall: an archaeological survey, Truro, Cornwall Committee for Rescue Archaeology Stanier,P, 1999. South west granite: a history of the granite industry in Cornwall and Devon, St Austell Stockdale F W L, 1824. Excursions in the county of Cornwall, London Thorn, C, and Thorn, F, 1979. : Cornwall, Chichester Whetter, J, 2000. in the 18th century, Gorran Willmott, J, 1977. The book of Bodmin: a portrait of the town, Chesham

Strategic, policy and programme documents Bodmin Town Health Check, Colliers Erdman Lewis Research and Consultancy, January 2000 Bodmin Town Conservation Area Character Appraisal, North Cornwall District Council 2000 English Heritage 2005, Streets for All: South West, London North Cornwall Local Plan 1999-2006 North Cornwall Local Development Framework - Report on the Consultation on the Issues and Options Report November 2004 Cornwall Structure Plan, 2004 Bodmin Parish Profile North Cornwall District Council North Cornwall Tourism Strategy 2001-2005 Indices of Deprivation 2004 - North Cornwall

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Bodmin Townscape Heritage Initiative Final Report, Cornwall Enterprise, 2002 Bodmin Futures 2020 Vision Objective 1 Partnership for Cornwall and Scilly. Single Programming Document

Archaeological reports Barker, P P, 1998. A report for Cornwall Archaeological Unit on a geophysical survey carried out at Bodmin Priory, Bodmin, Cornwall, June 1998, Upton-on-Severn, Stratascan Berry, E, Mattingly, J, and Thomas, N, 2001. 20 Lower Bore Street, Bodmin, Cornwall: archaeological survey and historical analysis, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Brookes, C F, 1999. A reappraisal of the ground probing radar survey carried out for Cornwall Archaeological Unit at Bodmin Priory, Bodmin, Cornwall, in June 1998, Upton-on-Severn, Stratascan Cole, R, 1998. Bodmin town leat flood alleviation scheme: Priory House archaeological evaluation, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Exeter Archaeology 1998. Archaeological assessment of Bodmin town leat improvement scheme, Exeter Archaeology Report 98.10 Exeter Archaeology 2000. Interim summary report of archaeological recording: Bodmin town leat improvement scheme, Exeter Archaeology Report (draft) Johns, C, 1992. Burgage plots at Bodmin: an archaeological assessment of land to the south of Fore Street, Bodmin, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Johns, C, 2000. Land to the south of Fore Street, Bodmin, Cornwall: archaeological recording, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Johns, C, and Thomas, N, 1995. An archaeological evaluation of the proposed new library site, Bodmin, Cornwall, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Pilkington, B, 1998. Bodmin: buildings at risk survey, Bodmin, NCDC Preston-Jones, A, and Mattingly, J, 2000. St Guron’s Well, Bodmin parish churchyard, Cornwall, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Stead, P M, 1999. Archaeological assessment and evaluation at the Cornish Arms, Crockwell Street, Bodmin, Exeter Archaeology Report 99.41 Thomas, N, 1993. The chapel of Thomas à Becket, Bodmin, Cornwall, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Thomas, N, 1999. St Petroc’s Church, Bodmin: installation of floodlight cables, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Thorpe, C, 2000. Mount Folly Square, Bodmin, Cornwall: archaeological watching brief, Truro, Cornwall Archaeological Unit Whitton, C J M, 2001. Archaeological recording at no 26 Fore Street, Bodmin, Cornwall, Exeter Archaeology Report Report 01.45

Historic maps Joel Gascoyne’s map of Cornwall, 1699 (facsimile reprint, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, Exeter, 1991) Thomas Martyn’s map of Cornwall, 1748 (photocopy at HES)

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Ordnance Surveyors’ Drawings (c 1809) Ordnance Survey 1st edn (c 1814) Tithe maps and apportionment (c 1840) Ordnance Survey 1st edn 1:2500 (c 1880) Ordnance Survey 2nd edn 1:2500 (c 1907) Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map (c 1963) (reproduced in Bodmin Town Conservation Area Character Appraisal, NCDC 2000) Ordnance Survey Landline digital mapping (current)

Websites Cornwall County Council Cornish History [online journal]: English Heritage, Images of England English Heritage, Streets for All North Cornwall District Council Objective One Partnership for Cornwall and Scilly Samantha Letters, Online Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England Wales to 1516 . South West RDA Victoria County History Cornwall; draft texts: West Country cinema gazetteer:

Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Record Sites, Monuments and Buildings Record Aerial photographs

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