Devoran

50.21144°N 5.09270°W / 50.21144; -5.09270

The quay at Devoran, once a busy mining port
Market Street, Devoran
For the drug with trade name Devoran, see Lindane.

Devoran (Cornish: Deveryon)[1] is a village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Truro at grid reference SW 793 392.[2] Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock (where the 2011 census population is included).

The village is on the northeast bank of the Carnon River at its confluence with Restronguet Creek, a tidal creek which flows into Carrick Roads above Falmouth. Devoran is at the Normal Tidal Limit (NTL) of the creek[2] but until the 20th-century the tidal limit stretched much further up the valley than now.[3]

The name Devoran comes from the Cornish language Deveryon, meaning 'waters'.[4]

Mining

Devoran played an important role in the tin and copper mining industry. It developed as a small port engaged in the export of mined minerals and the import of mining materials and coal.[5] The Redruth and Chasewater Railway, an early industrial line which served the many mines a few miles to the north, terminated at the port (although there was an extension to wharves at Point on which trains were hauled by horses rather than locomotives). Today, this long-disused railway forms part of a coast-to-coast footpath and cycle route.

A ruined engine house of Carnon Mine is on the bank of the estuary near Devoran. The tin mine was in operation from 1824 to 1830.[6]

Church
Thomas Lobb's headstone, Devoran church
Thomas and William Lobb's memorial garden planting near his headstone, Devoran church

The church of St John and St Petroc (architect John Loughborough Pearson) was built in 1855–56 and consists of a nave and chancel only.[7] It was renovated in 1879.[8] Thomas Lobb, Victorian botanist and plant hunter is buried in Devoran churchyard. The parish war memorial by H J Martin lists seventeen names "in grateful memory of the men of the parish of Devoran who fell in the Great War 1914–1919". A further section of eight names was added of Second World War casualties.[9]

References
  1. "Cornish Language Partnership : Place names in the SWF". Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  2. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 204 Truro & Falmouth ISBN 978-0-319-23149-4
  3. Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative; Devoran; PDF. Retrieved 8 April 2016
  4. Akademi Kernewek place names - Deveryon
  5. "Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative - Devoran" (PDF). Historic Environment, Cornwall Council. December 2002. p. 13. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  6. "Carnon Mine" Explore Cornwall. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  7. Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall; 2nd ed., revised by E. Radcliffe. Penguin; p. 62
  8. "Devoran". The Cornishman. No. 66. 16 October 1879. p. 5.
  9. "Devoran War Memorial Cornwall". Retrieved 8 April 2016.

Further reading
  • Acton, Viv Life by the Fal: Years of change at Point and Penpol, Penpol, Landmark Publications (1993) ISBN 1-873443-10-2
  • Acton, Bob Exploring Cornwall's tramway trails, Volume 2: The coast-to coast trail: Portreath to Devoran and beyond, Penpol, Landmark Publications (1997) ISBN 1-873443-28-5
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