Bridges Methodist Chapel, PL30 5ED
Tel: (01726) 813522
Very local history
For such a small place (population 1200), Luxulyan has a powerful claim on the visitor. It lies in the path of the old Saints' Way between Padstow and Fowey. Its church register goes back to 1593, its granite quarries supplied the stone for Wellington's memorial, and all around it is evidence of the earliest impact of the Industrial Revolution - most strikingly, Joseph Treffry's famous viaduct over the Luxulyan Valley nearby.
Small wonder that, 20 years ago, villagers formed a local research group whose work gained national visibility and focus with the conversion of part of the old Bridges Methodist Chapel into a museum and heritage centre.
Here, where a centuries old agrarian economy met the new industrial age head-on, there is a fascinating social record of change - spiced with reminders that, 4,000 years before the mines and trains came, the first Luxulyanites had lived by hunting. A huge stone axe-head, found in the village, goes back at least to 2,000 BC.
Other displays - as of granite quarrying tools, remind the visitor that some traditional local industries have survived through social and industrial upheaval.
This is Cornwall in microcosm: an archive of centuries fostered by local enthusiasts, constantly augmented and brought alive in winter by a programme of lectures, and in summer by tutored walks through some of the most beautiful and historic non-coastal scenery in Cornwall.
In a lane at the top end of the village.
Now Closed |
Lostwithiel Luxulyan Luxulyan Valley Par St. Austell Cornwall's History