Liskeard is a market town on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor, and it has been a place of trade and tin for most of its written history. In Kernewek it is Lyskerrys, from lys, a court, and the personal name Kerrys. It was recorded as Liscarret at the Domesday Survey, and it grew prosperous as a stannary and coinage town through the mining boom.
Charters and members
A market charter was granted by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1240. The town was a parliamentary borough from 1295, returning two members; the Reform Act of 1832 cut that to one, and the seat was abolished in 1885. For a small market town, that is a long political memory.
The town
The Guildhall was built in 1859 and its clock tower still keeps the town's time. Stuart House was used by Charles I as a lodging in 1644, in the middle of the Civil War. The livestock market finally ended in 2017, and the A38 now bypasses the centre rather than running through it, which is the modern lot of towns like this one.
Sources
Last checked: 2026-10-11