Liskeard

A picturesque and lively market town, situated on undulating ground between the valleys of the East Looe and Seaton rivers, Liskeard was one of Cornwall’s five medieval stannary towns - the others being Bodmin, Lostwithiel, Truro and Helston. 

The name stannary comes from the Latin word for tin, ‘stannum’, and these five towns were the only places licensed to weigh and stamp the metal. However, the town is an ancient one, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086. In 1240 it was granted its first Royal Charter by Robert, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, giving it the right to hold a market. In 1294 the town sent two members to parliament and continued to do so until the Reform Act of 1832. Notable among the MPs were Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Isaac Foot, father of the famous Foot family.

The town has a long history as a centre for mineral extraction and, for centuries, the medieval Cornish tinners brought their smelted tin down from Bodmin Moor for weighing, stamping and taxing. The construction of the Liskeard and Looe Union Canal, linking the town with Looe, saw, by the 19th century, great quantities of both copper ore and granite also passing through Liskeard bound for the coast and beyond. In the 1850s, the canal was replaced by the Looe Valley branch of the Great Western Railway and a scenic stretch of the line is still open today, though the industrial cargoes have long since been replaced by passenger carriages. There are still remnants of the canal to be seen, which was finally drained and abandoned in 1910. An annual walking festival using the railway takes place each September. The Looe Valley Line starts from its own station in Liskeard and drops under the main line to the quiet junction at Coombe. Here the driver and guard change ends and the train reverses along the East Looe Valley for the 7-mile trip to Looe.

Though a small town, Liskeard boasts two sets of public buildings which are a reminder of its past importance and prosperity. The Guildhall was constructed in 1859 while the Public Hall opened in 1890 and is still used as the office of the town council. Adjacent to the Passmore-Edwards Public Library stands Stuart House, a handsome Jacobean residence where Charles I stayed in 1644 while engaged in a campaign against the Parliamentarian forces at nearby Lostwithiel. St Martin’s Parish Church is also worthy of a mention as, not only is it the second largest parish church in Cornwall, but this mainly 15th century building stands on Norman foundations, and has an early 20th century tower that blends in perfectly with the medieval architecture. In June 2002 HRH Prince Charles formally opened the Liskeard and District Museum, housed in the former Foresters Hall. It has a lively display of artefacts connected with the town. Finally, one of Liskeard’s most curious features can be found in Well Lane, where an arched grotto marks the site of Pipe Well, also known as the Well of St Martin’s and the Well of Lyskerit, a medieval spring that is reputed to have curative powers, especially afflictions of the eyes. The well has never been known to run dry.