This parish contains 2387 statute acres. Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._ returned to Parliament in 1815 4142 0 0 The Poor Rate in 1831 950 17 0 Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831, { 819 | 938 | 1321 | 1388; giving an increase of 70 per cent. in 30 years.
The north-eastern part of this parish extends to the east of Kitt Hill, the most elevated point of Hingston Downs, which is composed of granite. The slate adjoining thereto resembles that which occurs in similar situations in the parishes of St. Austell and St. Blazey; and this district has been the scene of considerable mining speculations. In former ages it abounded in stream tin to such an amount that the Cornishmen of those days expressed their opinion of its value by the distich
Hengsten Down, well yrought Is worth London town, dear ybought. _Carew, Lord Dunstanville’s Edition, p. 272._
As the town of Callington is approached, the slate becomes of a darker blue, and passes into hornblend rock, which prevails in the other parts of the parish, and in several places so much abounds in quartz as to form barren downs. This rock, however, has not any marked character, and it is not often exposed to view; near St. Ive it appears to graduate into the calcareous series.
Calstock is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Stoke Clemsland, west Kellaton, south St. Dominick, east the Tamar river.
The rectory of Calstock church seems to be extant before Domesday Tax, since it passed then by that name, and hath never admitted of any change of name or alteration since, and was undoubtedly founded and endowed by the Earls of Cornwall, out of their manor of Calstock, wherein it is situate; and the Duke of Cornwall, or the King, in that right, are still patrons thereof. Ecclesia de Calstock, in Decanatu de Estwellshire, was valued to the Pope’s annats, 1294, c_s._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor Beneficionum, 26_l._ 4_s._ 4_d._ The patronage as aforesaid, the Incumbent Blackburn, and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. 302_l._ 0_s._ 2_d._
It appears from the ancient survey of the Duchy of Cornwall in the Exchequer, and Blount’s Tenures from thence, p. 122, that the tenants of this manor had granted them, by the Earls or Dukes thereof, its lords, the liberty of free fishing on the Tamar river, in his verbis: “Nativi tenentes de Calstock, in comitatu Cornubiæ, reddunt per annum de certo redditu, vocato Berbiagium, sine barbague, ad le Hoke-day, 19_s._ 6_d._” Now barbague, barbagyu, is, in Cornish, a bearded or barbed spear, such as is commonly used for killing salmons in the Tamar and other rivers. [See Stoke-Clemsland.] The salmon wear, here built over the Tamar, is, by lease from the Duke of Cornwall, in possession of Sir John Carew, baronet, and hath formerly been set for 120_l._ per annum. [See Helston in Trigg for Barbiague. Tenants on the Alan river there.]