ROYAL INSTITUTION OP CORNWALL. 



51 



before this date. On this chart the church of St. James, 

 Tregony, is shown, " standing in a more," as Leland describes 

 it, with a spire at the western end ; as many churches which 

 have been rebuilt in the Perpendicular period, and now have 

 towers, are represented with spires, it was suggested that this 

 map shows the churches before the general re-building, which 

 took place in the loth and 16th century. Another chart, drawn 

 about the year 1620, was then referred to, which shows the 

 tide flowing up to Tregony bridge, and the bridge itself, 

 indicating it was built between the dates of the two charts. 



From these facts the deduction was drawn that there is 

 clear evidence that the tide in historic times reached Tregony, 



To ascertain when the recession of the tide and consequent 

 decay of the town took place, reference was made to a section 

 of the valley of the Fal from actual levelling. From this it 

 appears the present heights above high-water mark are as 

 follows : 



The river Fal at Tregony-bridge .... 1 7 feet 

 ,, Hayle Boat Eock ..35 ,, 

 ,, Grrampound-bridge . . 60 ,, 

 „ Trenoweth Mill 96 „ 



The annual increase of silt in the valley of the Fal is found 

 from this section to be about one foot in 30 years. This would 

 give a date of about the close of the 15th century as the period 

 at which the tide ceased to flow to Tregony, and about the 

 middle of the 1 3th century when there* was a depth of one 

 fathom, and this agreed with Whitaker's statement that the 

 decay of Tregony began in the 13th century. 



With regard to Hayle Boat Eock, Norden's statement, in 

 1584, is as follows : — *' Below Probus Church, on the opposite 

 bank of the Fal, is a rock caJled Hayle Boat Eock, wherein to 

 this day, are many and great iron rings, to which boats have been 

 moored." Tonkin, writing about 1713, says — "There are no 

 signs of rings or the places of any." Whitaker asserts, about 

 50 years after, that the holes for two or three still exist in the 

 lower rock, two being close together for a fanged ring. A 

 careful examination of the rock, however, fails to discover the 

 slightest trace of any holes for rings. 



