DEVORAN is a village and ecclesiastical parish formed January 17, 1873, out of the civil parish of St Feock, and is on Restronguet Creek, an inlet of Falmouth Harbour, 1 mile east from Perranwell station on the Falmouth branch of the Great Western railway, 7 north from Falmouth and 4 ½ south from Truro, in the Truro division of the county, hundred of West Powder, petty sessional division of Powder West, Truro union and county court district, rural deanery of Powder, archdeaconry of Cornwall and diocese of Truro. From about 1820 until 1839 this place was the site of an extensive tin mine; but the proprietors then shut up the works, and the mouth or opening to the mine has been almost completely filled up by sand and earth washed up by the tide; on the site of the mine called “Carnon Stream Works” is now the harbour or creek of Devoran, the conservators of which are the Redruth and Chacewater Railway Company, first constituted by Act of Parliament in 1823 and reorganized by an amended Act in 1858: the prosperity of this place is chiefly owing to the railway, the terminus of which is close to the harbour; there are also wharves for the shipping of copper ores from "the great mining district of Gwennap, and for the importation of coal for the supply of the works; but this being a mineral line only, passengers are not conveyed on it. The church of St. John is a building of stone, in the Early English style, erected in 1855—6, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a tower with spire, containing one bell: there is a brass in the chancel to John Phillpotts esq. of Porthgwidden, in this parish, for many years M.P. for the city of Gloucester, and Sarah, his wife, both of whom died in 1849; and to Ulysses Theophilus Hughes esq. of Gravesend, in the county of Glamorgan, d. 1809, and Rachel Penelope, his wife, d. 1826, whose only surviving children, the Rev. Thomas Phillpotts M.A. formerly vicar of Feock, and Mary Anna Penelope, his wife, erected this chancel to their memory A.D. 1856: five windows in the chancel are stained and the remainder are partly stained: in 1886 a brass lectern was presented in memory of Richard Michell Sampson by his children: there are sittings for 200 persons. The register dates from the year 1873. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value about £170, with residence, in the gift of Lord Robartes, and held since 1888 by the Rev. Arthur Williams. There is a small mission room at Point, in which divine service is held twice weekly by the vicar. There is a Wesleyan chapel in the village, erected in 1861, and another at Carnon down, built in 1825. The library and reading-rooms, over the Market hall, are supplied with the local papers and magazines, and there is a small attached library. At Point, about 1 mile below Devoran, are extensive tin smelting works belonging to the Penpoll Tin Smelting Company, whose chief offices are in London and near the harbour are the solder works of the Metal Refining Company, belonging to Mr. Richard Clark. An extensive trade is also done here in the cultivation of oysters by Messrs. T. Kemp and Co. who supply the London and other markets from their beds in the river Fal. A market for meat and vegetables is held on Friday in the Market hall, a small stone building erected by Lord Robartes, but it is very sparsely attended. Lord Robartes, who is lord of the manor, Col. Arthur Tremayne, of Carclew, Perranarworthal, Viscount Falmouth, and the Hon. John Richard de Clare Boscawen, of Tregye, are the principal landowners. The soil consists of the debris of decomposed slate; the subsoil is entirely slate. The population of St. John’s in 1891 was 1,075.

National School, for 180 children; average attendance, 60 boys, 44 girls, 36 infants.