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Truro b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Truro and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Truro, Cornwall. The county's cathedral city and in all but name its capital. On one of the many arms of the Fal estuary, it was in the Middle Ages an important port for the export of mineral ore, long before Falmouth was of any importance, and, from the early 13^th century until 1752, a stannary town. It is still a port but minor, mainly a market town and administrative centre with some light industry. In the 18^th century it became fashionable with rich merchants who found Falmouth, though their place of business, a less wholesome residence, and, at about the same time, it was a hub of county society. As a result, it has some of the best Georgian terraces West of Bath. From c. 1859 it became an important rail junction. In 1890 its cathedral was begun and in 1912 came the County Council. During the Civil War it stood strongly for the King; otherwise its history seems to have contained little public drama.

The main things to see are the cathedral, the museum, Lemon Street and Walsingham Place. The cathedral, incorporating the old Church of St Mary, was finished in 1910. Its architect was J. L. Pearson; the style he chose Early English. Though without the spacious precinct given to most provincial English cathedrals, it dominates the city, its spire 250 ft high. It is best entered via the south rather than the west door, because from the west the yellow stonework of its nave may seem dull; it is much more impressive looking back from the chancel entrance, and from there, too, the carved Bath stone reredos makes a splendid first impact. The attractive baptistry should not be missed. On the wall of the north choir aisle a terracotta relief of Christ, Romans and crowd on the way to Calvary, presented as a thanksgiving for two sons returned safe from the Boer War, is conventional yet fascinating. Close to it is a hefty restored Jacobean monument. The chapter house extending into the small lawn to the North was completed in 1967 and won a Civic Trust award.

Near the cathedral's west door, the old theatre and assembly rooms, which was a favoured rendezvous for 18^th- and 19^th-century Truro society, has a most excellent Georgian façade (1772). The museum, in River Street, is Cornwall's best. It contains a number of old masters, paintings and drawings and is notable particularly for its examples of Cornish minerals, but good on Cornish history, too, and all excellently laid out, diagrammed and captioned. Lemon Street, laid out c. 1795 and still mainly of that period, curves southwards from the city centre. Walsingham Place, about 20 years later, is an exquisite crescent, tucked away off Victoria Place, South West of the cathedral. Strangeways Terrace, off Lemon Street, is fairly good Regency and from it you get one of the best views of the cathedral. The Victorian City Hall in Boscawen Street is worth a look: grand, dark-grey granite. About 50 yards North in St Nicholas Street over a shoe-filled window is a remarkable florid Victorian facade. One of the city's most famed buildings, the former Red Lion Inn, which stood almost opposite the City Hall, had to be demolished after being lashed beyond repair by a lorry in 1967. In the 18^th century it was the home of the parents of Samuel Foote, the actor. Near the top of Lemon Street is a monument to two other men of the city, Richard and John Lander, explorers of the River Niger 1825—30.

The launch-trip down the river to Falmouth is highly recommended, though the double journey takes the best part of a day.

The National-Trust-owned gardens of Trelissick, 4 miles South, contain many shrubs that cannot be grown in England outside South Cornwall. The house has an elegant, porticoed façade of the 1820s.

At Come-to-Good, a little East of Devoran, 4½ miles South West of Truro, is one of the oldest Quaker meeting houses in England, c. 1710.

One mile South West of Devoran, just off the A39, Tullimaar House, home of Princess Marthe Bibesco, contains a remarkable collection of Napoleonic relics, including a plaster head of him by David D'Angers. and the cockade he wore at the Battle of Austerlitz.

Nearby towns: Falmouth, Newquay, Penryn, St Austell, Redruth

Nearby villages: Budock Water, Carnbrea, Chacewater, Crantock, Creed, Cubert, Feock, Flushing, Gerrans, Grampound, Gwennap, Illogan, Kea, Kenwyn, Ladock, Mitchell, Mylor, Nancekuke, Newlyn East, Perranporth, Perranwell, Perranzabuloe, Philleigh, Pool, Porkellis, Porthscatho, Probus, Roche, Ruan Lanihorne, Scorrier, St. Agnes, St. Allen, St. Clement, St. Day, St. Dennis, St. Enoder, St. Erme, St. Ewe, St. Mawes, St. Stephen, Stithians, Tregoney, Troon, Veryan, Wendron, White Cross, Zelah

Have you decided to visit Truro or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Truro bed and breakfast (a Truro B&B or Truro b and b)
• a Truro guesthouse
• a Truro hotel (or motel)
• a Truro self-catering establishment, or
• other Truro accommodation