St Columb Major

"ST. COLUMB MAJOR, a parish and market town in the hundred of Pyder, middle division of the county of Cornwall, 29 miles SW. of Launceston. The parish is of large extent, and the surface rests on igneous rocks containing tin, copper, cobalt, bismuth, and various minerals. The town contains about 1,400 inhabitants, and is situated on a hill. There area market-house, bank, five chapels, and Union poorhouse. It is the head of new County Court and registration districts, which coincide with the limits of the Poor-law Union, comprising 17 parishes. Petty sessions are held in the town, which is one of the polling places for the county elections. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture and the mines. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Exeter, value £1,515, in the patronage of the Rev. Dr. Walker. The church, dedicated to St. Columba, is a fine old structure, with pinnacled tower, and was formerly collegiate. It contains a brass and other monuments to the Arundells of Llanherne, who formerly held the manor, and of which family was Bishop Arundell, who died in 1504. The charities produce £50 per annum. In the vicinity are many interesting antiquities of the early Britons--as, Retalloek barrow, Castle-an-Dinas camp, the Coyt, King Arthur's stone, with the imprint of four horses' hoofs upon it, the stones called the Nine Maidens, and other Druidical remains. Thursday is the market day, and fairs are held on the Thursday after Mid-Lent Sunday, and the third Thursday in November.