London Apprentice

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Coordinates: 50°19′04″N 4°48′00″W / 50.3178°N 4.8001°W / 50.3178; -4.8001

London Apprentice
Cornish: Oberden Loundres
London Apprentice is located in Cornwall
London Apprentice

 London Apprentice shown within Cornwall
Parish Pentewan Valley
Unitary authority Cornwall
Ceremonial county Cornwall
Region South West
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town ST AUSTELL
Postcode district PL26
Dialling code 01726
Police Devon and Cornwall
Fire Cornwall
Ambulance South Western
EU Parliament South West England
UK Parliament Truro & St Austell
List of places: UK • England • Cornwall

London Apprentice (Cornish: Oberden Loundres) is a small village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It lies along the St Austell River in the civil parish of Pentewan Valley and the ecclesiastical parish of St Austell. The nearest town is St Austell, approximately two miles to the north.

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[edit] Named after an inn

The village takes its name from the London Apprentice Inn, which formerly stood on the St Austell to Pentewan road. The inn was extant from 1815[1] to 1871[2], and probably longer.

[edit] Tin-mining

In 1833 a coalyard was constructed on the Pentewan Railway near the inn to supply coal to the tin mines at nearby Polgooth and the settlement may have arisen around this point. According to nineteenth-century census returns[2], most of the villagers were engaged in tin-mining, either in the stream-works of Wheal Virgin, close to London Apprentice, or in Polgooth. The former closed in 1874,[3] the latter by 1900. The New Mills Primitive Methodist Church was built in the village in 1870, but closed in 1988, though the building still stands.[4] [5] [6]

[edit] The village today

Today, the village (which retains a shop and a restaurant) caters mainly for tourists. The old railway line to Pentewan is now a footpath and cycle path.[7] Kings Wood, a remnant of ancient woodland owned by the Woodland Trust, lies to the south of the village.[8]

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[edit] External links