London Apprentice ( kw, Oberden Loundres) is a village in south

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, UK, on the banks of St Austell River in the

Pentewan Valley Pentewan Valley is one of four new civil parishes created on 1 April 2009 for the St Austell district of mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population including Gracca, Lavalsa Meor, London Apprentice and Lower Porthpean Lower Po ...

(where the population of the 2011 census was included) approximately two miles (3 km) south of

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

. The village is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Pentewan Valley and the

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

of St Austell. It was named after the London Apprentice Inn, which formerly stood on the St Austell to

Pentewan Pentewan ( kw, Bentewyn, meaning ''foot of the radiant stream'') is a coastal village and former port in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at south of St Austell at the mouth of the St Austell River. Pentewan is in ...

road. The inn traded from 1815 to 1871 and probably longer.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kayhin/72264.html 1871 census

Tin-mining

In 1833, a coalyard was constructed on the

Pentewan Railway The Pentewan Railway was a Narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge railway in Cornwall, England. It was built as a horse-drawn tramway carrying Kaolinite, china clay from St Austell to a new harbour at Pentewan, and was opened in 1829. In 1874 the ...

situated near the inn to supply coal to the

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

mines at nearby

Polgooth Polgooth ( kw, Pollgoodh) is a former mining village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies mainly in the parish of St Mewan and partly in the parish of St Ewe. The nearest town is St Austell two miles (3.5 km) to the north-eas ...

and the settlement may have arisen around this point. According to nineteenth-century census returns, 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 Wheal Virgin works closed in 1874, and the Polgooth mine by 1900. The New Mills

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

church was built in 1870 and closed in 1988, though the building still stands.

The village today

Today, the village (which retains a shop and a restaurant) caters mainly for tourists. The route of the

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

from St Austell to Pentewan is now a footpath and cycle path, known as the Pentewan Trail. Kings Wood, a remnant of ancient woodland, owned by the

Woodland Trust The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland Natural heritage, heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972 ...

, lies to the south of the village. Woodland Trust

References

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall