Camelford

North Cornwall Museum and Gallery

Camelford is the home of the North Cornwall Museum and Gallery which contains paintings and objects of local historical interest. To the northwest at Slaughterbridge is an Arthurian Centre and at nearby Camelford Station is the Cycling Museum (temporarily closed since 2010). To the east are the hills of Roughtor and Brown Willy and to the south the old parish churches at Lanteglos and Advent.

The main road through Camelford is the A39 (Atlantic Highway) and there is a thrice-daily bus service from Newquay to Exeter via Launceston that serves the town. A tentatively-planned bypass is on hold; traffic problems continue to crowd the town especially during summer weekends. From 1893 to 1966 the town had a station on the North Cornwall Railway. The nearest national railway station is Bodmin Parkway, 14 miles distant.

Camelford has been linked to the legendary Camelot, and the battle of Camlann, but historians have refuted these suggestions. The name comes from the original, Brythonic name of the river (Allen) in combination with cam- = crooked and the English 'ford',[8] though this is not accepted by all.

Camelford has sometimes been linked to Gafulford the site of a battle against the West Saxons which is more likely to have been at Galford in Devon) Nearby Slaughterbridge has been supposed to be the site of a battle; an error arising because the derivation of "slaughter" in this case from an Anglo-Saxon word for "marsh" was not understood.

Helstone (or Helston in Trigg) was in the Middle Ages one of the chief manors of the Hundred of Trigg and perhaps in Celtic times the seat of a chieftain. In the Domesday Book this manor was held by Earl Robert of Mortain: there were 2 hides, land for 15 ploughs; the lord had 4 ploughs & 18 serfs; 20 villagers & 18 smallholders had 8 ploughs; 10 acres (40,000 m²) of woodland; 6 square leagues of pasture; five kinds of livestock, in total 195 beasts. The manor of Penmayne was a dependency of this manor.[9] It was one of the 17 Antiqua maneria of the Duchy of Cornwall.

The war memorial in St Julitta's churchyard

The town elected two members to the Unreformed House of Commons: the first MPs sat in the Parliament of 1552. It was later considered a rotten borough, and in 1832 the Camelford parliamentary constituency was abolished and the town became part of the East Cornwall constituency.

The seal of the borough shows: Arg. a camel passing through a ford of water all proper with legend "Sigillum Vill: de Camelford".[10]

Reskammel / Camelford was the venue for Gorsedh Kernow in 2012.

In July 1988, the water supply to the town and the surrounding area was contaminated when 20 tons of aluminium sulphate was poured into the wrong tank at the Lowermoor Water Treatment Works on Bodmin Moor. An independent inquiry into the incident, the worst of its kind in British history, started in 2002, and a draft report was issued in January 2005, but questions remain as to the long-term effects on the health of residents. Michael Meacher, who visited Camelford as environment minister, called the incident and its aftermath, "A most unbelievable scandal."[11]