Gulworthy Parish
Gulworthy is a rural parish in the west of Devon, straddling a ridge between the Tamar river to the west and river Tavy and Lumburn stream to the east. Now predominantly agriculture and forestry, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the area was heavily industrialised. Blanchdown Wood, in the northwest of the parish, was the site of the Devon Great Consuls copper mine, one of the world’s largest copper mining enterprises. Arsenic and other metal ores were also mined extensively around Gulworthy. As part of these operations the port at Morwellham, in the southwest of the parish, was developed. To facilitate transport of the minerals, roads, railway and the Tavistock canal, which passes under the parish in a tunnel bored through Morwell Down, connected Morwellham to the mines and Tavistock.
Gulworthy today is a small hamlet which sits in a world heritage site and an AONB at the junction of the east-west A390 Tavistock – Gunnislake road and B3257/B3362 running north-south from Chip Shop towards Bere Alston. There is a church, primary school and the parish hall, all serving the local community and the surrounding hamlets and farmsteads.
