Helston | Towns and Cities of Cornwall

HELSTON, or Helleston (St. Michael), a borough and market-town, and the head of a union, in the parish of Wendron, possessing separate jurisdiction, but locally in the hundred of Kerrier, W. division of Cornwall, 17 miles from Truro, and 279 WSW from London.    There are places of worship for Baptists, and Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. ^[1]

Helston, or Helleston (St. Michael)

HELSTON, or Helleston (St. Michael), a borough and market-town, and the head of a union, in the parish of Wendron, possessing separate jurisdiction, but locally in the hundred of Kerrier, W. division of Cornwall, 17 miles from Truro, and 279 (W. S. W.) from London; containing 3584 inhabitants.   This place is of considerable antiquity, and in the Domesday survey formed part of the royal demesnes, under the appellation of Henliston. King John, among other privileges bestowed on the town, made it a free borough, and gave the inhabitants power to have a mercatorial guild; Edward I. made it one of the stannary towns, and Edward III. granted a confirmation of the charter of John, and the right of a weekly market and annual fairs.   The town is situated on the great road from Exeter and Plymouth, through Falmouth, to the Land's End, upon the declivity of a hill to the east of the little river Cober; and comprises four principal streets, diverging at right angles from the market-place, in the centre of which is the guildhall, lately erected on the site of the ancient market-house.   It is paved, and lighted with gas; and the inhabitants are supplied with water by a stream which, flowing through the green that skirts the town, gives a neat and agreeable aspect to the place.   Assemblies are held during the winter, in a spacious ball-room at the Angel inn; and a handsome structure called the Subscription Rooms, comprising a reading-room, library, savings' bank, and accommodation for other societies, has been erected at a cost of £1600.   At the eastern extremity of the street which takes its name from the building, is the Coinage Hall, a well-constructed edifice, but since the recent act abolishing the duty, no longer used for that purpose; and at the western extremity, is a monumental arch, erected to the memory of Mr. Humphrey Grylls, who died in 1834.

[A Topographical Dictionary of England. Originally published by S Lewis, London, 1848.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp470-474#…]