Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for JUST (ST.)

JUST (ST.), -popularly St. JOOST-a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Penzance district, Cornwall. The village stands on high ground, between two wild valleys, under Carn-Bosavern, near the coast, 4¼ miles NNE of Lands End, and 7 W of Penzance r. station; is called, in distinguishment from other villages in the parish, St. Just Church-town; and has a post office, ‡ of the name of St. Just, under Penzance, two hotels, and a weekly Saturday market. The parish comprises 7, 391 acres of land, and 30 of water; and is called distinctively. St. Just-in-Penwith. Real property, £26, 515; of which £14, 394 are in mines, and £92 in iron works. Pop. in 1851, 8, 759; in 1861, 9, 290. Houses, 1, 661. The property is much subdivided. Botallack and Bosvargus are chief seats; and the former belonged to the Usticks, and passed to Admiral Boscawen. The land is bleak, and to a great extent barren. The rocks are chiefly granite and slate; but they include rieh lodes of tin and copper, - contain iron, bismuth, hornblende, tale, garnet, opal, and many other minerals, -and exhibit features of great interest to geologists. The mines worked are chiefly tin; they include one of the largest in Cornwall, and another which goes under the sea; and they appear to have been worked at a very remote period. Rock basins are in several parts of the parish; stone circles are at Botallaek and Tregaseal; and masses of granite, called Giants' Quoits, are between Carn-Bosavern and Balleswidden. Roman pataræ, urns, coins, and other Roman relics have been found; a Roman Christian monument is in the church; and traces of an ancient amphitheatre, 1 26 feet in diameter, and retaining till last century six tiers of stone benches, adjoin the village. Tradition says that, in the 7th century, after the conquest of Cornwall, Ethelbert and six other Saxon kings dined in the parish at a stone called Mayne, or at Mean in Sannen. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £484. * Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The vicarage of Pendeen is a separate benefice. There are chapels for Wesleyans, United Free Methodists, and Bryanites, a national school, alms-houses, and ruins or traces of three ancient chapels. The constrnction of a harbour, with piers, on Portnenven beach, was contemplated in 1869. Dr. Borlase, the historian of Cornwall, was a native.—The sub-district contains also two other parishes-Acres, 13, 118. Pop., 10, 903. Houses, 1, 970.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 3rd order divisions")
Administrative units: St Just in Penwith CP/AP       St Just SubD       Penzance RegD/PLU       Cornwall AncC
Place names: JUST ST     |     ST JUST
Place: St Just

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