A work most beneficial to the whole country was completed at Hayle in the year 1825, under the authority of an Act of Parliament. The passage across the main estuary was frequently dangerous and always interrupted by the tide; several of the branches could not be passed at high water, and lives were not unfrequently lost. A causeway
provided with arches and parapets, now affords a safe line of communication from Penzance and the Western Peninsula, to the eastward; and all the roads are raised above the utmost range of the tide.
Mr. Lysons notices two castles said to have formerly stood in this parish, one still called Castle Cayle; but it seems to be very doubtful whether any castellated house was ever built there, or even a military work, as the word castle appears to have been frequently applied in ridicule, and there are not extant any accounts relating to this place.
The other, situated at the entrance of the river, a much more probable situation, and called Riviere or Theodore’s Castle. The walls, if any ever existed, are taken down, and all traces of a foundation are hidden by the sand.
Mr. Whitaker, who captivates every reader by the brilliancy of his style, and astonishes by the extent of his multifarious reading, draws, however, without reserve on his fertile imagination for whatever facts may be requisite to construct the fabric of a theory. He has made Riviere the palace and residence of Theodore, a sovereign Prince of Cornwall, and conducts St. Breca, St. Iva, with several companions, not only into Hayle and to this palace, after their voyage from Ireland, but fixes the time of their arrival so exactly as to make it take place in the night. In recent times the name of Riviere, which had been lost in the common pronunciation, Rovier, has revived in a very excellent house built by Mr. Edwards on the farm, which he completed in 1791.
The place of most importance in Phillack was Trevassack, for many years the residence of the Yorkes, a considerable family from Somersetshire.
Richard Yorke, of Wellington, married a daughter of Andrew Luttrell, of Dunster Castle; and his grandson, Humphry Yorke, settled at Trevassack; married Barbara, daughter of John Vyvyan, of Trelowarren; and their granddaughter, Sarah Yorke, was the mother of Attorney-general Noye. Some traces of its former splendour may
still be discovered. Erasmus Pascoe, who served the office of Sheriff in 1720, resided at this place; it now belongs to the partnership carrying on copper-smelting and trade at Hoyle.
In much more modern times a good house has been built on Bodrigy, which belonged to a branch of the Pendarveses, then to Williams, and was sold by three sisters, coheiresses of that family, to Mr. John Curnow, who acquired a large fortune by carrying on the trade of Hoyle for more than half a century, before modern energies altered and extended the scale of every mercantile transaction.
Mr. Curnow also purchased Penpoll, and resided there. His property became ultimately divided between three daughters, one of whom married Mr. Robert Oke Millett, who succeeded Mr. Curnow at Penpoll, and has made it a handsome place. It now belongs to his son, the Rev. John Curnow Millett. Another daughter married the Rev. William Hocken, the late Rector of the parish: and the third married Mr. Parmenter from Ilfracombe. Mr. Curnow was of the family mentioned under Lugvan.