The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
A plan so injudicious and adopted without estimate or consideration
must have failed, and would have done so at once, but for the
counteracting power of individual ability, in the person of Mr. John
Edwards; a young man of Ludyan, who had been recommended at a very
early age, to some situation requiring talent, by our celebrated
historian Doctor William Borlase. Mr. Edwards speedily acquired the
entire management and direction of the whole concern, which soon
extended itself to the importation of coal, timber, limestone, iron,
&c. for the supply of the neighbourhood; and by the unwearied exertion
of his superior genius, the business continued with success up to the
period of his decease in Jan. 1807.
Mr. Edwards may be reckoned among the distinguished persons whom
Cornwall has produced, equal in number at the least, as we flatter
ourselves, with those of any similar district. He acquired extensive
general knowledge, and obtained an ascendancy over most persons on all
occasions. Mr. Edwards had a numerous family, but only two have
married: his eldest daughter to Mr. John Tippett; and their son has
succeeded to the large property of Mr. Vivian of Pencalenick, and
taken the name.
His youngest son, Mr. Joseph Edwards, married Miss Devonshire of
Truro, where he practised the Law with great credit and success.
The company directed by Mr. Edwards experienced the rivalship in trade
of a very able and enterprising individual Mr. John Harvey, and after
his decease, still more powerfully of his son. Each party in this
legitimate and beneficial contest endeavoured to improve their
respective portions of the harbour, and by so doing acted favourably
on the whole. Mr. Edwards led the way by extending a mound across the
eastern arm, and keeping back the high water at flood tide, which
being suffered to escape through gates some hours afterwards, swept
the sand before it, and deepened the channel. Mr. Harvey on his part
constructed quays and wharfs, and recently a sluice, so that the
interior of the harbour may be considered as improved to the utmost
extent; but works are still wanting to confine the current of water
beyond the entrance, and thus to force a channel through the bar,
produced here as in all other debouches of rivers, by the deposit of
silt, of sand, or of mud, where the currents meet and occasion
comparatively still water.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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