St Ives, Cornwall
Coordinates: 50°12′40″N 5°28′48″W / 50.211°N 5.480°W
| St Ives | |
| Cornish: Porth Ia | |
 St Ives |
|
 St Ives
St Ives shown within Cornwall |
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| Population | 11,165 [1] |
|---|---|
| - Density | High |
| OS grid reference | SW518403 |
| Unitary authority | Cornwall |
| Ceremonial county | Cornwall |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ST. IVES |
| Postcode district | TR26 1/2/3xx |
| Dialling code | 01736 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Cornwall |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | St Ives |
| List of places: UK • England • Cornwall | |
St Ives (Cornish: Porth Ia) is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial emphasis and the town is now primarily a popular holiday resort, notably achieving the award 'Best UK Seaside Town' from the British Travel Awards in both 2010 and 2011. St Ives was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1639. St Ives has become renowned for its number of artists. It was named best seaside town of 2007 by the Guardian newspaper.
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[edit] History
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[edit] Early history
The origin of St Ives is attributed in legend to the arrival of the Irish Saint Ia of Cornwall, in the 5th century. The parish church in St Ives still bears the name of this saint, and the name St Ives itself derives from it.[2]
The Sloop Inn, which lies on the wharf was a fisherman's pub for many centuries and is dated to "circa 1312", making it one of the oldest inns in Cornwall. The town was the site of a particularly notable atrocity during the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549. The English Provost Marshal (Anthony Kingston) came to St Ives and invited the portreeve, John Payne, to lunch at an inn. He asked the portreeve to have the gallows erected during the course of the lunch. Afterwards the portreeve and the Provost Marshal walked down to the gallows; the Provost Marshal then ordered the portreeve to mount the gallows. The portreeve was then hanged for being a "busy rebel".
The seal of St Ives was Arg. an ivy branch overspreading the whole field Vert, with the legend "Sigillum Burgi St. Ives in Com. Cornub. 1690".[3]
[edit] Later history
From medieval times fishing was important at St Ives; it was the most important fishing port on the north coast. The pier was built by John Smeaton in 1767-70 but has been lengthened at a later date. The octagonal lookout with a cupola belongs to Smeaton's design.[4]
In the decade 1747–1756 the total number of pilchards dispatched from the four principal Cornish ports of Falmouth, Fowey, Penzance and St Ives averaged 30,000 hogsheads annually (making a total of 900 million fish). Much greater catches were achieved in 1790 and 1796. In 1847 the exports of pilchards from Cornwall amounted to 40,883 hogsheads or 122 million fish while the greatest number ever taken in one seine was 5,600 hogsheads at St Ives in 1868.[5]
Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin describes how the St Ives fisherman strictly observed Sunday as a day of rest. St Ives was a very busy fishing port and seining the usual method of fishing there. Seining was carried on by a set of three boats of different sizes, the largest two carrying seine nets of different sizes. The total number of crew was 17 or 18. However this came to an end in 1924. The bulk of the catch was exported to Italy: for example in 1830 6,400 hogsheads were sent to Mediterranean ports. From 1829 to 1838 the yearly average for this trade was 9,000 hogsheads.[6]
Modern St Ives came with the railway in 1877, the St Ives Bay branch line from St Erth, part of the Great Western Railway. With it came a new generation of Victorian seaside holidaymakers. Much of the town was built during the latter part of the 19th century. The railway, which winds along the cliffs and bays, survived the Beeching axe and has become a tourist attraction itself.
In 1999, the town was the first landfall of the Solar eclipse of August 11, 1999. A live BBC programme with Patrick Moore was clouded out and the eclipse was missed.
[edit] St Ives Lifeboat
The first lifeboat was stationed in the town in 1840. In 1867 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a new boathouse at Porthgwidden beach. It proved to be a difficult site to launch from and so in 1867 it was replaced by a new building in Fore Street. In 1911 a new boathouse was built on The Quay, and then in 1993 a larger station was built at the landward end of the West Pier.[7]
Seven crewmen died in the St Ives lifeboat tragedy of 1939. In the early hours of 23 January 1939 there was a Force 10 storm blowing with gusts of wind up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). The lifeboat John and Sara Eliza Stych was launched at 3 o'clock to search for a ship reported in trouble off Cape Cornwall. It rounded The Island where it met the full force of the storm as it headed westwards. It capsized three times and drifted across St Ives Bay when its propeller was fouled. The first time it turned over four men were lost; the second time one more; the third time left only one man alive. He scrambled ashore when the boat was wrecked on rocks near Godrevy Point.[8]
[edit] Shark sightings
St Ives hit the national headlines on 28 July 2007, following a suspected sighting of a Great White Shark. The Chairman of the Shark Trust, Mr Pierce, could not rule out the possibility that this was a genuine sighting after watching video footage of the shark. However, he added that it could also have been either a Mako or a Porbeagle shark. Both are predatory sharks. Coastguards dismissed the claims as "scaremongering" when questioned by reporters.[9]
St Ives once again hit the national headlines on 14 June 2011, following a suspected sighting of an Oceanic Whitetip Shark, after a fisherman's boat was reportedly attacked by the shark. This is thought to be the first ever sighting and knowledge of the Oceanic Whitetip Shark in the UK shores.[10][11]
[edit] Politics and administration
Prior to 1974, the St Ives Borough Council was the principal local authority for what now forms the civil parish of St Ives. Since the reform of English local government in 1974, St Ives has elected a town council. The parish area overseen by St Ives Town Council includes Lelant, Carbis Bay, Halsetown and St Ives. The principal local authority functions for St Ives were undertaken by Penwith District Council and the Cornwall County Council. From 1 April 2009 Penwith and the other five Cornish district councils were replaced by a unified council, Cornwall Council.
[edit] Churches
The parish church of St Ives is dedicated to Saint Ia of Cornwall, also known as Ives, supposedly an Irish holy woman of the 5th or 6th century. The current building dates to the reign of King Henry V of England. It became a parish church in 1826. It was built between 1410 and 1434 as a chapel of ease: St Ives being within the parish of Lelant.
The Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Ia was built in 1909 to a design by A. J. C. Scoles. The former chapel of St Nicholas was rebuilt in 1909, possibly by E. H. Sedding, from the old materials. It is plain and rectangular and has since been converted into the New Gallery. There are also two Methodist chapels, one in Fore Street of 1831, and another of 1845 higher up the valley, and a Congregational chapel of 1800.[12]
[edit] Culture
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[edit] Art
Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada set up the Leach Pottery in St. Ives in 1920. Leach was a studio potter and art teacher,[13] and is known as the "Father of British studio pottery",[14] learned pottery under the direction of Shigekichi Urano (Kenzan VI) in Japan where he also met Shoji Hamada. The two promoted pottery as a combination of Western and Eastern arts and philosophies. Leach continued to produce work until 1972, and the Victoria and Albert Museum held a major exhibition of his work in 1977.[15] The Leach Pottery is still operational and houses a small museum showcasing work by Leach and his students.[16]
In 1928, the Cornish artist Alfred Wallis and his friends Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood met at St Ives and laid the foundation for the artists' colony of today. In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo settled in St Ives, attracted by its quiet beauty. In 1993, a branch of the Tate Gallery, the Tate St Ives, opened here. The Tate also looks after the Barbara Hepworth Museum and her sculpture garden. It was the wish of the late sculptor to leave her work on public display in perpetuity. The town also attracted artists from overseas, such as Piet Mondrian, who let the landscape influence their work, and Maurice Sumray, who became a successful and respected contributor to the St Ives art scene when he moved to the town from London in 1968.[17]
Prior to the 1940s the majority of artists in St Ives and elsewhere in West Cornwall belonged to the St Ives Society of Artists; however events in the late 1940s led to a growing dispute between the abstract and figurative artists within the group. In 1948 the abstract faction broke away from the St Ives Society, forming the Penwith Society of Artists led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.
The studio pottery Troika was set up in St Ives in 1963.
A 2010, ninety-minute BBC4 film, "The Art of Cornwall," presented by James Fox says of the St Ives' artists, "they went on to produce some of the most exhilarating art of the twentieth century...for a few dazzling years this place was as famous as Paris, as exciting as New York and infinitely more progressive than London."[18][19] The programme explored in some detail the lives and works of all the key figures and the contributions they made in establishing St. Ives as a major centre of British art from the 1920s onwards. Helen Hoyle's review of this programme is also very informative.[20]
[edit] Festivals
[edit] Traditional festivals
St Ives is home to three celebrations of interest. John Knill, a former Mayor of St Ives, constructed the Knill Steeple, a granite monument overlooking the town. In 1797, Knill laid down instructions for the celebration of the Knill Ceremony, which was to take place every five years on 25 July (St James's Day). The ceremony itself involves the Mayor of St Ives, a customs officer, and a vicar; they should be accompanied by two widows and 10 girls who should be the "daughters of fishermen, tinners, or seamen".
A second celebration, of perhaps greater antiquity, is St Ives Feast, a celebration of the founding of St Ives by St Ia, which takes place on the Sunday and Monday nearest to 3 February each year. It includes a civic procession to Venton Ia, the well of St Ia, and other associated activities. It is most notable as one of the two surviving examples of Cornish Hurling (in a gentler format than its other manifestation at St Columb Major).
A third festival is the St Ives May Day, which is a modern revival of May Day customs that were at one time common throughout the west of Cornwall.
[edit] The St Ives September Festival
There is also the St Ives September Festival. In 2008, it celebrated its 30th anniversary on 6–20 September. The St Ives September Festival is one of the longest running and widest ranging Festivals of the Arts in the UK. It lasts 15 days and includes a range of arts from Music (including Folk, Jazz, Rock, Classical & World) to Poetry, Film, Talks and Books. It was founded in 1978 as a joint venture by a group of local entrepreneurs and the nearby International Musicians Seminar. The first Festival featured Folk and Jazz music Poetry, Film, Talks and Chamber Music. Many of the local artists in the town open up their private studios to allow visitors to see exactly how their art is produced. There is free music in many pubs in the town almost every night, as well as well-attended concerts. The Festival attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world.[21]
St Ives has a 500 seat theatre which hosts some of the September Festival events.[22]
[edit] In literature and popular culture
St Ives is well known from the nursery rhyme and riddle "As I was going to St Ives", although it is not clear whether the rhyme refers to the Cornish town or one of several other places called St Ives.
St Ives also figures in Virginia Woolf's reflections contained in "Sketch of the Past", from Moments of Being:[23]
...I could fill pages remembering one thing after another. All together made the summer at St. Ives the best beginning to life imaginable.
The Cornish language poet Mick Paynter is resident in St Ives.
The Discovery Travel and Living programme Beach Café is filmed in St Ives, featuring Australian chef Michael Smith.[24]
Sue Limb's Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture is partly set in St Ives.[25]
[edit] Transport
[edit] Rail
St Ives railway station is linked to the Paddington to Penzance main rail route via the St Ives branch line which runs frequent services from St Erth station. The line was opened in 1877 by the St Ives branch railway, but became part of the Great Western Railway in 1878. A Park-and-Ride facility for visitors to St Ives runs from Lelant Saltings railway station, which was opened on 27 May 1978 specifically for this purpose. The line also links the town to nearby Carbis Bay and Lelant.
[edit] Coach
The town also has regular services by National Express Coach from London Victoria, Heathrow and other places in Britain. Buses also connect St Ives to nearby towns and villages, such as Zennor, Penzance and St Just.
[edit] Air
The nearest airports to St Ives are Newquay and Plymouth. Private jets, charters and helicopters are served by Perranporth airfield.
[edit] Twinning
St Ives is twinned with Camaret-sur-Mer Breton: Kameled, in Brittany, France.[26]
[edit] Notable people
- Edward Hain MP, (1851–1917) founder of the Hain Steamship Company Ltd
- Thomas Tregosse, Puritan minister
- Mick Paynter, Grand Bard of Cornwall, Poet
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ 2001 UK census
- ^ Mills, A. D. (1996). The Popular Dictionary of English Place-Names. Parragon Book Service Ltd and Magpie Books. pp. 282.
- ^ Pascoe, W. H. (1979). A Cornish Armory. Padstow, Cornwall: Lodenek Press. p. 134. ISBN 0902899767.
- ^ Pevsner, N.(1970) Cornwall; 2nd ed. Penguin; p. 181
- ^ Victoria History of Cornwall, vol. I, p. 584
- ^ Jenkin (1932) Cornish Seafarers; chapter on fishing
- ^ Leach, Nicholas (2006) [2000]. Cornwall's Lifeboat Heritage. Chacewater: Twelveheads Press. p. 45. ISBN 0-906294-43-6.
- ^ Bray, Lena; Bray, Donald (1992) [1981]. St Ives Heritage (2nd ed.). Devoran: Landfall Publications. pp. 24–27. ISBN 1-873443-06-4.
- ^ "Great White sighting 'possible'". BBC News Online. 2007-07-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6920345.stm. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ "St Ives harbourmaster told of two 'shark sightings'". BBC News. 2011-06-14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-13759504.
- ^ Wilkes, David (2011-06-14). "St Ives maneater! Fisherman stares into the jaws of killer shark". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002960/St-Ives-fisherman-stares-jaws-7ft-killer-shark-Cornwall-coast.html.
- ^ Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall; 2nd ed. Penguin; p. 181
- ^ Cortazzi, Hugh. "Review of Emmanuel Cooper's Bernard Leach Life & Work. Japan Society (UK).
- ^ British Council: Artist biography
- ^ Studio Pottery website, http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/mp.cgi?item=3 last examined Aug 2011
- ^ Leach Pottery website, http://www.leachpottery.com/, last examined Aug 2011
- ^ Davies, Peter (2004-07-23). "Obituary: Maurice Sumray - Offbeat St Ives painter". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/maurice-sumray-550144.html. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ The Art of Cornwall
- ^ The Art of Cornwall-00 introduction on Youtube
- ^ Helen Hoyle, review of The Art of Cornwall at artcornwall.org
- ^ "St Ives September Festival". St Ives September Festival Committee. http://www.stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ "Kidz R Us St Ives Theatre". Kidz R Us. http://www.kidzrus.net. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ "A Sketch of the Past," from Moments of Being. New York: Harcourt, 1985, pp. 128 ff.
- ^ McOwan, Gavin (2006-04-08). "Beach on a plate". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/apr/08/travelfoodanddrink.foodanddrink.unitedkingdom. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ "Sue Limb's "Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture"". Goodreads. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/920432.Girl_Nearly_16. Retrieved 6 Oct 2011.
- ^ "County Wide Information, Cornwall - Twinning". Cornwall Council. http://cwic.cornwall.gov.uk/cwic-sql/cwic-new/details.asp?pl=ST.+GENNYS&i=O16814&a=O08. Retrieved 2009-08-30.[dead link]
[edit] Further reading
- Paynter, William Old St Ives: the reminiscences of William Paynter; [edited] by S. Winifred Paynter. St. Ives: James Lanham
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: St Ives |
- St Ives at the Open Directory Project
- St. Ives Town Council
- Online Catalogue for St Ives at the Cornwall Record Office
- Manor of St Ives and Treloyhan Archive
- Seventeenth Century Records of the Borough of St. Ives
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