Penryn

Penryn developed as a medieval market town and port. It was a borough from 1236. During the later historic period the town became important for granite quarrying and as an industrial centre.

Penryn is situated at the head of the tidal part of the Penryn River, an offshoot from the larger Carrick Roads or Fal estuary that runs from Falmouth to Truro at the head of its tidal extent. The town sits astride a natural promontory from which it gets its name: pen rynn ‘head or end of a point’. At the nose of this ridge the river splits and creeks run to medieval ecclesiastical complexes: west to Glasney and the Glasney Creek (also known as Antron or College stream) and north-west to St Gluvias and the St Gluvias Creek. Glasney sits in a deep valley running in from the south-west in which there are two modern reservoirs (College and Argal) while the Treluswell Stream coming in from the north-west to St Gluvias has tributaries that deeply dissect the country immediately inland of Penryn. The old main roads into Penryn linked it with Helston (via Helston Road, a ridge way running on to become Lower Market and Broad Streets) and with the towns (Redruth and Truro) to the north. The latter road (Church and Commercial Streets) became part of the A39 trunk road which has recently been diverted to the west of the town as it feeds traffic more speedily into Falmouth. Penryn railway station is to the west of the town. But Penryn’s main historical connections with the world were by water, from its eastern quays. New housing to the west separates the historic town from the small ornamental landscape of Tremough, once the country estate of the Sampsons and Shilsons (now the site of the new Combined Universities in Cornwall). To the north Enys is the former country estate of the Enys family and to the south is Kernick House. The surrounding area has been defined in the Cornwall Historic Landscape Characterisation as predominantly of Anciently Enclosed Land (predominantly farmland of medieval origin), with an area of Recently Enclosed Land to the west around Tremough and an area of AEL altered in the 18th and 19th Centuries to the north of the town, in the river valley of the north river. To the north and north-east, near Pencoose and Bissom, the anciently enclosed land that dominates the countryside beyond Penryn contains some well-defined medieval strip fields.

To the west the area is dominated by the eastern portion of the Carnmenellis granite, a weathered and rusty brown stone. On the edge of the granite at Lower Kergillack the granite has decomposed forming china clay.

Downloads:
The downloads offered below represent the different elements of the CSUS Penryn Report including the core text, seven illustrative figures and four character area summaries. The majority of the downloads are large files (to maintain some quality of image resolution) and therefore may take time to download.