In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Illogan like this:
ILLOGAN, a village, a parish, and a sub-district in Redruth district, Cornwall. The village stands 2½ miles NW by W of Redruth r. station; bears the name of Illogan-Church-Town; and has a post office, of that name, under Redruth. The parish contains also the villages of Pool and Portreath, and part of that of Brea; includes parts of the chapelries of Tuckingmill and Mount-Hawke; and extends along the coast. ...
Acres, 8, 31 7; of which 45 are water. Real property, £108, 993; of which £102, 570 are in mines and £539 in railways. Pop. in 1851, 9, 256; in 1861, 9, 683. Houses, 1,819. The property is subdivided. The manor belongs to John F. Basset, Esq. Carnbrea hill, 740 feet high, noticed in our article CAMBORNE, is all within the parish. A small castle, at the E end of that hill, occupies the site of a very ancient fortalice, supposed to have been built by the Britons; is itself an ancient structure, recently enlarged and altered; and is thought to have originated the name Illogan, the last two syllables of which signify, in Cornish, "the white tower" or "the tower on the downs." Remains of a circular fortification, called the Old Castle, are a little to the W; and a column, to the memory of the late Lord Dunstanville, is on the hill's summit. Druidical remains are numerous. Mines of tin and copper are extensively worked; building stone is quarried; and the West Cornwall railway, with a branch to Portreath, facilitates the traffic. The Redruth workhouse is here; and, at the census of 1861, had 254 inmates. The plague, in 1591, was so fatal in Illogan as to cut down tenfold the average of other places. The living is a rectory, united with the chapelries of Portreath and Trevenson, in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £587.* Patron, J. F. Basset, Esq. The church is a modern edifice, with the tower of a previous church; and contains brasses and monuments of the Bassets. There are two chapels of the Established church, eight chapels of Wesleyans and United Free Methodists, one chapel of Bryanites, and five national schools.—The sub-district is conterminate with the parish.
Illogan through time
Illogan is now part of Kerrier district. Click here for graphs and data of how Kerrier has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Illogan itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Illogan, in Kerrier and Cornwall | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/3857
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
Not where you were looking for?
Click here for more detailed advice on finding places within A Vision of Britain through Time, and maybe some references to other places called "Illogan".
