Name: LUXULYAN
Council: Restormel District Council
Location: South-east Cornwall, 7 miles south of Bodmin, 5 miles north-east of St Austell
Main period of industrial settlement growth: 1840-1900
Study Area: Hensbarrow
NGR: SX 05249 58016 (centre)
Main industry: Granite quarries; transport

Industrial history and significance

In many ways Luxulyan appears to be a traditional rural churchtown, with subsidiary farming and milling settlements at Atwell and Bridges, whose economy was based around agriculture, with artisans’ cottages grouped around the central church. However, typical industrial settlement features such as the Bible Christian Chapel, public house and working men’s’ institute are also prominent, as are the remains in the wider landscape of the tin streaming, quarries and tramways which added a whole separate layer of activity to this ancient farming landscape. Always on the edge of the great industrial areas to the west and to the south, Luxulyan none-the-less was affected by their presence, creating all the range of services and building types normally associated with much larger and more entirely industrial settlements. The main local industry, granite quarrying, did not require a huge workforce or associated housing provision, nor was the scale of the railway or the 20th century china clay dry sufficient to affect the settlement much. Undoubtedly some of the local quarry and railmen lived in the village, but its main importance would have been as a provider of services rather than accommodation. In this it is reminiscent of a class of churchtown found elsewhere on the fringes of the major industrial areas, like others ringing the Hensbarrow china clay area, although less affected even than them by the industry.

Downloads:

The downloads offered below represent the different elements of the CISI Luxulayn Report including the core text and the four illustrative map figures
 

Title	Description	Format	Size
CISI Luxulyan report	Report text.		1074kb
Figure 1	Location map		402kb
Figure 2	Historical development map		286kb
Figure 3	Surviving historical components map		254kb
Figure 4	Gazetteer sites, existing designations and recommendations map		315kb

Last Updated: 16/12/2004. © Cornwall County Council, Historic Environment Service.