Truro

Introducing Truro

Cornwall’s capital city has been at the centre of the county’s fortunes for over eight centuries. Truro grew up around a hilltop castle (no longer standing) built by Richard Lucy, a minister of Henry II’s, but it was the town’s position at the confluence of the Rivers Allen, Kenwyn and Truro that sealed its fortunes (the town’s name is thought to derive from the Cornish word tri-veru, meaning three rivers). Throughout the Middle Ages, Truro was one of five Stannary towns in Cornwall, where the county’s tin and copper was assayed and stamped. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it became one of the southwest’s most important industrial towns, attracting an influx of wealthy merchants and the construction of a swathe of elegant townhouses, best seen along Lemon St and Falmouth Rd. Truro was granted its own bishop in 1877, and the city’s three-spired cathedral followed soon after – finally completed in 1910, it was the first new cathedral in England since St Paul’s. Today, little evidence remains of Truro’s industrial heyday, but the city still makes a good base, with a selection of shops, galleries and restaurants and Cornwall’s main museum.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009