Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Truro

TRURO, a city, municipal borough, and port of Cornwall, England, is situated on a kind of peninsula formed by the rivers Allen and Kenwyn, which below the town unite with a branch of Falmouth harbour called Truro creek or river. Truro is 300 miles south-west of London by the Great Western Railway, and 11 north of Falmouth, to which there is a branch line. The town is regularly built, chiefly of granite, with spacious streets, through the principal of which there flows a stream of water. The new cathedral of St Mary by Mr Pearson, R.A., one of the most important modern ecclesiastical buildings in England, is a fine example of Early English at its best period. The old south aisle of the church previously existing is ingeniously incorporated in the new edifice. The secular buildings include the town-hall and market-house in the Italian style (1846), the corn exchange, the theatre, the public rooms, the music-hall, and the county library (1792). There is also a theological library, presented by Bishop Phillpotts in 1856 and largely augmented by a bequest of books in 1883. Among the educational and benevolent institutions are the grammar-school (founded by a member of the Borlase family, and having two exhibitions at Exeter College, Oxford), the cathedral divinity schools, the Wesleyan middle schools, the literary institution, the royal Cornwall infirmary, the dispensary, and a hospital for ten widows. There is sufficient depth of water in the channel of Truro creek to permit vessels of 70 tons burden to come up to the town quay. The principal imports are coal from Wales and timber from Norway, and the exports consist of tin, iron ores, lead, and zinc, from the mines in the neighbour hood. The population of the municipal borough (area 1171 acres) in 1871 was 11,049, and 10,619 in 1881.

Truro is one of the oldest towns in England. It is the seat of the stannary and other courts connected with the duchy of Corn wall (see CORNWALL, vol. vi. p. 427). It was one of the ancient privileged tin coinage towns. Anciently it was called Tueura, Treura, and Truruburgh. It was a borough by prescription, but was incorporated by Reginald, earl of Cornwall. In the 12th century it belonged to Richard de Lucy. In a charter of Henry VII. it is called the "ville de Teuro." The government was vested in a mayor and burgesses by Elizabeth, who gave the corporation juris diction over the port of Falmouth, the port dues of that town being collected by them until its incorporation by Charles II. Norden, writing of Truro in 1574, says, "there is not a towne in the west part of the shire more commendable for neatness of buyldinges, nor more discommendable for the pride of the people." "in 1642 Sir Ralph Hopton levied here a large body of men for the king. By the Municipal Act Truro was divided into two wards, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. The corporation act as the urban sanitary authority. Truro sent two representatives to parliament from the 23d year of Edward I., but ceased to be separately represented in 1885. By Act 39 and 40 Viet, c. 54 it was constituted the head of a new diocese comprising the archdeaconry of Cornwall.