Callington Cornwall – Historic Market Town in the Tamar Valley & Kit Hill Country Park

CALLINGTON

Callington – Kelliwik in Cornish – is a small market town at the crossing of the A388 and A390, close to the Tamar Valley. In the 19th century it stood at the gateway to one of the most important mining districts in Britain, an area of intense industrial activity including the silver deposits of Silver Valley. It is much quieter today, though mining remains can still be seen and granite is still quarried on Hingston Down.

The parish church of St Mary was consecrated in 1438 as a chapel of ease to South Hill, and contains a fine brass of 1466 to Nicholas Assheton and his wife. Callington is twinned with Guipavas in Brittany and Barsbüttel in Germany.

A railway once ran from Callington (the station was at Kelly Bray) to Bere Alston, opening in 1908; the line beyond Gunnislake closed in 1966. You can still ride the scenic Tamar Valley Line from Gunnislake via Calstock and Bere Alston to Plymouth.

Dupath Holy Well

About a mile from the town, Dupath Well is enclosed in a fine granite well house built in 1510 on the site of an ancient sacred spring; its water was once believed to cure whooping cough. It is in the care of English Heritage.

KIT HILL COUNTRY PARK

Behind the town, and dominating the scene for miles around, rises Kit Hill – 333 metres (about 1,093 ft) high and crowned by an 80 ft chimney stack built in 1858 for the winding and stamping engine of a mine on the summit. As the highest point of Hingston Down, it gives fantastic views over the Tamar Valley to Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.

The hill, some 400 acres of open country scarred with old mine workings and quarries, was given to the people of Cornwall by Prince Charles, then Duke of Cornwall, in 1985 and is now a country park. Local legend has it that every known mineral may be found on, or under, Kit Hill.

CALLINGTON HONEY FAIR

Once a year the streets of Callington are given over to the popular Honey Fair, now held on a Saturday in late September (it used to be the first Wednesday in October). There are craft stalls, a town crier competition, live music, honey competitions in the Town Hall, local charities and churches, cream teas and a funfair – a great day out for the whole family.

Callington Town Council – Honey Fair