Leland speaks of the Market at Liskeard as “the best in Cornwall, savyng Bodmyn.” In his time the market was held on Monday, and there are still three great markets on that day; Shrove-Monday, the Monday after Palm Sunday, and the Monday after St. Nicholas’s Day. Browne Willis tells us that this market much exceeded that of Bodmin: it was then held, as it now is, on Saturday. It is most amply supplied with all sorts of provisions; a great portion of which is purchased for the supply of the market at Plymouth Dock. There are three large cattle-fairs; upon Holy Thursday, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and St. Matthew’s Day. Liskeard is one of the four towns for the coinage of tin; but there has been no coinage held there of late years.
The Town Hall was erected about the year 1707, at the expense of Mr. Dolben, one of the representatives for the borough. It is a curious structure supported by granite columns; and the meat market is held in the space between them.
A new Market House is about to be erected on a very commodious plan.
The trade of the town is not of any particular description; but such as most country towns enjoy, where the neighbouring agriculturists carry on the farming business to a great extent. There is, however, a Paper Mill in the neighbourhood, which perhaps does not so particularly affect the place.
The population of the town, according to the late census, amounts to 1896, being an increase of but 101 persons, since the year 1811. Browne Willis speaks of Liskeard as the largest town in Cornwall, containing as he was informed, 1000 houses. He must have been much misinformed; as the population appears, by the parish-register, to have been considerably increased within the last century, and in 1801 there were but 323 houses, and 1860 inhabitants.
The town consists of several streets very irregularly built; still the houses are in general substantial, and slate-roofed. It has two good Inns, called the Bell, and the King’s Arms.
Here was formerly a Nunnery of Poor Clares, founded and endowed by Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, but of which we have not been able to obtain any further account. A great part of the conventual buildings, known by the name of the Great Place, yet remains, converted into dwelling-houses; and the Chapel is now a bake-house.
A battle was fought near Liskeard on the 19th of January, 1643, between Sir Ralph Hopton, and the Parliamentary forces, in which the latter were defeated; Sir Ralph marching into the town with his army that night. King Charles, on his entrance into Cornwall in 1644, halted at Liskeard on the 2nd of August, and stayed there till the 7th.
A survey of the year 1337, in the Treasurer’s Remembrancer’s Office, speaks of a new Park at this place, in which were then 200 deer: it was disparked by Henry VIII., and the land which it comprised (still called the Park) is now held on lease by Lord Eliot. There was formerly a chapel in this park, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to which there was a great resort of pilgrims.—There are three Meeting-houses in the town, belonging to the Independents, Quakers, and Methodists: the former was originally built by the Johnson family, for the Presbyterians. Defoe, in his Tour through Great Britain in the early part of the last century, speaks of it as a large new-built meeting-house; and observes, that there were only three more in Cornwall. A volume of Poems by the Rev. Henry Moore, some time minister of this Meeting, was published after his death, under the superintendance of Dr. Aikin.—The Grammar-School here is supported by the corporation, with a salary of £30 per annum: Dean Prideaux, and Walter Moyle, were educated at this school. A Charity-School for poor children, in which 10 girls are now taught, was founded by the trustees of the charitable donation of the Rev. St. John Eliot, who died in 1760, and endowed by them with £5 per annum.
The Church of St. Cleer, a village three miles north-west of the town, is an interesting fabric, with a lofty tower, surmounted with pinnacles at the angles, and the buttresses which support it are embellished with purfled fineals. The antient Well of St. Cleer, about a mile from the church, is a pleasing subject for the pencil, the top being richly overgrown with ivy. Near it is a Stone Cross, ornamented at the top with some rude sculpture.