Topic:	old ship
Virgil Posts: 2 Posted: 13.Mar 2007 - 18:14	Hi There. Does anyone know why the little hamlet between Ludgvan lower quarter and Gulval is called Old ship Virgil
Shaz Posts: 1299 Posted: 14.Mar 2007 - 13:09	Hello Virgil, I forwarded your question on to a friend this was his reply.... QuoteI lived in the area as a boy but knew it as Varfel - the way to Chestnut grove and Penzance. About half way the lane overlooks Long Rock a village whose name is derived from the long rock that runs parallel to the coast about a mile offshore. I have seen old photos of ships wrecked on long rock so I would guess that an “old ship” was visible as people walked from Ludgvan to Penzance along Varfel lane through Gulval to PZ.. There are two or three derelict houses where the footpath comes up from Long Rock (a pedestrian bridge now in situ over the bypass) so the hamlet was probably abandoned in the 1860’s exodus to USA and Australia (when tin prices began to collapse) as I know to be the case in respect of the once sizeable community in and around Long Rock as revealed in old rating records which I found in a Penwith Council’s Office rubbish pile, rescued and delivered to the Cornwall Record Office in Truro in about 1970, when I lived in Long Rock and worked in the Council Rates office.
Virgil Posts: 2 Posted: 14.Mar 2007 - 17:19	Thanks for that shaz.Your freind is very knowlegeable about that area. Please thank him from me. Virgil