The lost city of Langarrow or Langona

Even though the weather today in Cornwall is a bit breezy, the hail showers stinging the shoppers battling their way through the largely deserted town centres, it’s nothing compared to a storm that occurred many, many centuries ago. Davies Gilbert, in his History of Cornwall, relates a belief in the district of Perranporth that there was once a large city called Langarrow or Langona, stretching from Perranporth to the Gannel at Crantock. This city had seven churches and was exceedingly wealthy, indeed one of the wealthiest in Britain. Robert Hunt’s Popular Romances picks up the story …

‘To this remote city criminals were transported from other parts of Britain. They were made to work in the mines on the coast and in constructing a new harbour in the Gannel … This portion of the population of Langarrow were not allowed to dwell within the city … but use breeds familiarity and gradually the more designing of the convicts persuaded their masters to employ them within the city. The result of this was, after a few years an amalgamation of the two classes of the population. The daughters of Langarrow were married to the criminals and crime became the familiar spirit of the place … eventually, vice was dominant and the whole population sunk in sensual pleasures. The anger of the Lord fell upon them. A storm of unusual violence arose and continued blowing without intermitting its violence for one moment, for three days and nights. In that period, the hills of blown sand extending from Crantock to Perran were formed, burying the city, its churches and its inhabitants in a common grave.’