St Columb Minor is a village on the north coast of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, UK. St. Columb alone by default refers to the nearby St. Columb Major.

At one time St Columb Minor used to be the main settlement in the area, but it has now been encroached upon by its larger neighbour Newquay

Newquay

Newquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port in Cornwall, England. It is situated on the North Atlantic coast of Cornwall approximately west of Bodmin and north of Truro....

. The National School in the Square was built in 1842. It is on the site of the Parsonage and is now used as a Men's Institute. While still an ecclesiastical parish St Columb Minor is no longer a civil parish, forming part of Newquay CP.

Parish Church

The position is in full view of the twin tumuli

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

. It is sheltered from the strong winds of the Atlantic and looks down the Rialton Valley and across at Castle-an-Dinas. Local legend has it that the Celtic missionaries, centuries before the Columba

Columba

Saint Columba —also known as Colum Cille , Colm Cille , Calum Cille and Kolban or Kolbjørn —was a Gaelic Irish missionary monk who propagated Christianity among the Picts during the Early Medieval Period...

 legend arose, drove away the evil spirits and replaced pagan magic by Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 worship, and erected the first wooden sanctuary. The church-town lay to the west and south while the shelving ground to the north and east prevented building. Hence, as in the case of so many villages, the houses extended more and more from the parish church.

History

In Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times Rialton was the head manor of the Hundred of Pydar and belonged to the monks of St Petroc at Bodmin. The monastery remained in possession after the Norman Conquest and a manor house was built here by Prior Vivian (Thomas Vivian, titular Bishop of Megara) ca. 1510. The manor passed to the Duchy of Cornwall in 1538 but some of the manor house remains.

Notable people

• Ralph Allen
  Ralph Allen
  Ralph Allen was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was notable for his reforms to the British postal system. He was baptised at St Columb Major, Cornwall on 24 July 1693. As a teenager he worked at the Post Office. He moved in 1710 to Bath, where he became a post office clerk, and at the age...
  
  , postmaster
• James Carne (d. 1909), parish clerk for 64 years
• William Golding
  William Golding
  Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
  
  the novelist ( "Lord of the Flies" ) was born in the parish (which at the time included Newquay, his actual birthplace).

External links

• St Columb Minor website with details of the Church and Parish
• Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for St Columb Minor