Truro - the town centre

Truro began as a Celtic village, then the Normans built a castle there.   Later on it became a small but busy medieval town and the centre of the tin and coipper mining area.  Wool also became an important industry too.    Truro initially had its own small port, and then later on transported tin, copper, wool and hides on barges to be loaded onto ships in the port of Falmouth.   After the decline in the mining industry, the town still remained its importance as a market town.

But progress has caught up with Truro, and many of its speciality shops have been replaced by national chain stores.    This is the most noticeable difference about the town, in the last twenty years since I visited Truro.   We stopped there, in 1994 with my sister, Margaret, in order to do a little shopping, and I remember a bustling street, full of small shops.   But now the chain stores were definitely there, and the town centre was not a bustling place, although there were not the usual signs of poverty; the thrift shops, the betting shops and the loan shops.   Or maybe they were hidden away in the side streets.   However on the edges of the town, there were four enormous supermarkets, plus the other assorted huge chains, that tend to take the custom away from the town centre. 

Truro is still a lovely town, inside the town centre, and away from the traffic on the busy roads circling the town.       

Truro Cathedral is magnificent, and its spires can be seen as one drives around the edge of the town.   Interestingly the church is fairly new, having been started in 1880 and finished in 1910.  

Although quite plain inside, it was still very impressive.   Excellent light came through the windows, which is why I was able to get such a good photograph.

It was a pleasure to walk around the mostly pedestrianised streets.

Not a long enough visit, but so pleased we made the effort to park our car in the supermarket carpark, and walk through the tunnel into the much more pleasant town centre.