ABSTRACT
This study is concerned with the elderly population residing within the central rural locality of Caradon in Cornwall known as the Liskeard area. This area surrounds the ancient market town of Liskeard, consisting of eleven rural parishes and constitutes the natural and historic heart of Caradon. Over 30 hamlets and villages are dotted over the sparsely populated farmlands which surround the market town. The terrain stretches from the north-western granite mass of remote Bodmin Moor which rises to over 1,000 feet above sea level, to the deep, low-lying semi-remote valleys of the south. Approximately 28% (OPCS, 1984) of the population in these environs are elderly.
