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Bodmin is a significant town in Cornwall. Located in the centre of the county, it is found to the southwest of the Bodmin Moor. With a population of just around 13,000, Bodmin offers an intriguing history and set of interesting sites and attractions for visitors.
History
The first settlement known at Bodmin is the monastery of St. Petroc built in the 500's. The town is also called Petrockstow because of this. Even though the monastery had lands seized during the Norman Invasion, when the Domesday Book was written it still counted eighteen manors in its holdings, including Bodmin. This town is among the most ancient in Cornwall, since it is the only large settlement in Cornwall that is detailed in the Domesday Book survey of 1086.
The Norman Church of St. Petroc was mostly rebuilt in the 1400's. Today it remains among the biggest Cornish churches, second only to Truro's cathedral. There was also an abbey built at the time, though it has fallen into ruin.
The mainstay of Bodmin's economy throughout most of its history proved to be the tin industry found here. The Black Death set Bodmin severely back, as it killed fully half of the town's entire population in the middle of the 1300's. Fifteen hundred people died here from the plague.
Bodmin is also remembered as the centre for three different uprisings in Cornwall. The first of these was the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. In this rebellion, a Cornish army actually made it all the way to London before it was defeated by the King's army. In August of the same year, Perkin Warbeck attempted to take Henry VII's throne by being crowned King Richard IV in Bodmin. This rebellion was easily crushed as well. The year 1549 saw the last uprising here. A Catholic army protesting a new Protestant prayer book mustered in Bodmin and lay siege to Exeter in neighboring Devon in the Prayer Book Rebellion.
Architecture
There are several old churches that are interesting to travelers who come to Bodmin. The Parish Church of St. Petroc goes back to the years 1469 to 1472. The tower is still from the earliest Norman church. There is also the Chapel of St. Thomas Becket ruin from the 1300's in the Bodmin church yard. From the former Franciscan Friary of 1240, there is a gateway and two pillars left. The Berry Tower is what remains of the Church of the Holy Rood.
There are semi-ruins of the Bodmin Gaol in Bodmin. This proved to be the first prison in Britain to keep prisoners in separate cells. In World War I, the prison served as the repository for among the most valuable treasures in all of Great Britain. The Crown Jewels and the Domesday Book both found shelter here. Shire Hall is also here in Bodmin.
Attractions
There is a regimental museum in Bodmin. It is housed in the Regimental Barracks of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. The regiment's history from 1702 is covered here, and a good collection of small arms, uniforms, and paintings are showcased.
Those travelers who are interested in Freemasonry will want to see the significant Masonic Hall in town. Seven Masonic bodies are found buried here.
There is also the Bodmin Beacon Local Nature Reserve on a hill that looks out over the town. Eighty-three acres of land are contained in the reserve. There is a forty-four metre tall monument to Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert here that honors the soldier's work in India and his life.
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