St Ives, Cornwall
Encyclopedia
St Ives 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 holiday resort
. 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.
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.
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".
in 1767-70 but has been lengthened at a later date. The octagonal lookout with a cupola belongs to Smeaton's design.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (160.9 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.
. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Bernard Leach
and Shoji Hamada
set up the Leach Pottery
in St. Ives in 1920. Leach was a studio potter
and art teacher, and is known as the "Father of British studio pottery", 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. The Leach Pottery
is still operational and houses a small museum showcasing work by Leach and his students.
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.
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
." 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.
, 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.
St Ives has a 500 seat theatre which hosts some of the September Festival events.
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:
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.
Sue Limb
's Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture is partly set in St Ives.
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
.
, Penzance
and St Just
.
and Plymouth
. Private jets, charters and helicopters are served by Perranporth airfield
.
Seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...
, civil parish and port in 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...
, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
and west of Camborne
Camborne
Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....
on the coast of the Celtic Sea
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany...
. 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 holiday resort
Seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...
. 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.
Early history
Ia of Cornwall
Saint Ia of Cornwall was a 5th or 6th century Cornish evangelist and martyr.Ia was said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Saint Erc. She was a spiritual student of Saint Baricus and travelled as a missionary to Cornwall where she joined Saints Fingar and Piala...
, 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.
The Sloop Inn
The Sloop Inn
The Sloop Inn is an inn in St Ives, Cornwall, England, UK located on the wharf. It is one of the best known and oldest inns in Cornwall. The 14th century public house is dated to "circa 1312".The Sloop was the favourite haunt of Louis Grier and many of his paintings hung there in earlier years...
, 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
Prayer Book Rebellion
The Prayer Book Rebellion, Prayer Book Revolt, Prayer Book Rising, Western Rising or Western Rebellion was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon, in 1549. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer, presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced...
of 1549. The English Provost Marshal
Provost Marshal
The Provost Marshal is the officer in the armed forces who is in charge of the military police .There may be a Provost Marshal serving at many levels of the hierarchy and he may also be the public safety officer of a military installation, responsible for the provision of fire, gate security, and...
(Anthony Kingston
Anthony Kingston
Sir Anthony Kingston was an English royal official, holder of various positions under several Tudor monarchs.-Life:He was son of Sir William Kingston of Blackfriars, London...
) came to St Ives and invited the portreeve
Portreeve
A portreeve, or 'port warden' is a historical British political appointment with a fluctuating role which evolved over time.The origins of the position are in the reign of Edward the Elder, who, in order to ensure that taxes were correctly exacted, forbade the conducting of trades outside of a...
, John Payne, to lunch at an inn. He asked the portreeve to have the gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
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
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for being a "busy rebel".
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 SmeatonJohn Smeaton
John Smeaton, FRS, was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent physicist...
in 1767-70 but has been lengthened at a later date. The octagonal lookout with a cupola belongs to Smeaton's design.
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.
Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin
Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin
Alfred Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin was best known as a historian with a particular interest in Cornish mining, publishing The Cornish Miner, now a classic, in 1927.-Birth and education:...
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.
Modern St Ives came with the railway in 1877, the St Ives Bay branch line
St Ives Bay Line
The St Ives Bay Line is a railway line from to in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It was opened in 1877, the last new broad gauge passenger railway to be constructed in the country...
from St Erth
St Erth
St Erth is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village is situated four miles southeast of St Ives and six miles northeast of Penzance....
, part of the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
. 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
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
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
Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...
was clouded out and the eclipse was missed.
St Ives Lifeboat
The first lifeboatLifeboat (rescue)
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crewmen and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine...
was stationed in the town in 1840. In 1867 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....
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.
Seven crewmen died in the St Ives lifeboat tragedy of 1939. In the early hours of 23 January 1939 there was a Force 10
Beaufort scale
The Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.-History:...
storm blowing with gusts of wind up to 100 miles per hour (160.9 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
Cape Cornwall
Cape Cornwall is a small headland in Cornwall, UK. It is four miles north of Land's End near the town of St Just. A cape is the point of land where two bodies of water meet and until the first Ordnance Survey, 200 years ago, it was thought that Cape Cornwall was the most westerly point in...
. 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
Godrevy
Godrevy is an area of west Cornwall, United Kingdom, found on the north coast within St. Ives Bay and is popular with both the surfing community and walkers. It is home also to some areas administered by the National Trust, and a lighthouse maintained by Trinity House.- Godrevy Head :The headland ...
Point.
Shark sightings
St Ives hit the national headlines on 28 July 2007, following a suspected sighting of a Great White SharkGreat white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
. 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
Porbeagle
The porbeagle is a species of mackerel shark in the family Lamnidae, distributed widely in the cold and temperate marine waters of the North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere. In the North Pacific, its ecological equivalent is the closely related salmon shark...
. Both are predatory sharks. Coastguards dismissed the claims as "scaremongering" when questioned by reporters.
St Ives once again hit the national headlines on 14 June 2011, following a suspected sighting of an Oceanic Whitetip Shark
Oceanic whitetip shark
The oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus, is a large pelagic shark inhabiting tropical and warm temperate seas. Its stocky body is most notable for its long, white-tipped, rounded fins....
, 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.
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 principal local authority functions for St Ives were undertaken by PenwithPenwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
District Council and the Cornwall County Council
Cornwall County Council
Cornwall Council is the unitary authority for Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition of large groups of independents, having been controlled by independents in the 1970s and 1980s...
. From 1 April 2009 Penwith and the other five Cornish district councils were replaced by a unified council, Cornwall Council.
Churches
The parish churchSt. Ia's Church, St. Ives
St Ia, St. Ives Parish Church, St Ives is a parish church in the Church of England located in St Ives, Cornwall. It is dedicated to Saint Ia of Cornwall, a 5th- or 6th-century Irish saint.-History and description:...
of St Ives is dedicated to Saint Ia of Cornwall
Ia of Cornwall
Saint Ia of Cornwall was a 5th or 6th century Cornish evangelist and martyr.Ia was said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Saint Erc. She was a spiritual student of Saint Baricus and travelled as a missionary to Cornwall where she joined Saints Fingar and Piala...
, 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
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
. 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
Lelant
Lelant is a village in west Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the west side of the River Hayle estuary about 2½ miles southeast of St Ives and one mile west of Hayle....
.
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.
Art
Bernard Leach
Bernard Howell Leach, CBE, CH , was a British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery"-Biography:...
and Shoji Hamada
Shoji Hamada
was a Japanese potter. He was a significant influence on studio pottery of the twentieth century, and a major figure of the mingei folk-art movement, establishing the town of Mashiko as a world-renowned pottery centre.- Biography :...
set up the Leach Pottery
Leach Pottery
The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.The buildings have grown from an old cow / tin-ore shed in the 19th century to a pottery in the 1920s when Hamada and Leach first attempted to construct a climbing kiln, this was the...
in St. Ives in 1920. Leach was a studio potter
Studio potter
A studio potter is one who is a modern artist, who either works alone or in a small group, producing unique items of pottery in small quantities, typically with all stages of manufacture carried out by themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware or cookware, and...
and art teacher, and is known as the "Father of British studio pottery", 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
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
held a major exhibition of his work in 1977. The Leach Pottery
Leach Pottery
The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.The buildings have grown from an old cow / tin-ore shed in the 19th century to a pottery in the 1920s when Hamada and Leach first attempted to construct a climbing kiln, this was the...
is still operational and houses a small museum showcasing work by Leach and his students.
In 1928, the Cornish
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
artist Alfred Wallis
Alfred Wallis
Alfred Wallis was a Cornish fisherman and artist.Wallis's parents, Charles and Jane Wallis were from Penzance in Cornwall and moved to Devonport, Devon to find work in 1850 where Alfred and his brother Charles were born. Shortly after this the children's mother died and this prompted the family to...
and his friends Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
and Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood (English painter)
John Christopher Wood , often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool.-Biography:-Early life:Christopher Wood was born in Knowsley to Doctor Lucius and Clare Wood...
met at St Ives and laid the foundation for the artists' colony of today. In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...
and Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo KBE, born Naum Neemia Pevsner was a prominent Russian sculptor in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art.-Early life:...
settled in St Ives, attracted by its quiet beauty. In 1993, a branch of the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
, the Tate St Ives
Tate St Ives
Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists, including work of the St Ives School. The three storey building, designed by architects Evans and Shalev, lies on the site of an old gas works, overlooking Porthmeor Beach. It was opened in...
, opened here. The Tate also looks after the Barbara Hepworth Museum
Barbara Hepworth Museum
The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Cornwall preserves the 20th century sculptor Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden much as they were when she lived and worked there.-History:...
and her sculpture garden
Sculpture garden
A sculpture garden is an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings....
. 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
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
, 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
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1968.
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
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
and figurative
Figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
artists within the group. In 1948 the abstract faction broke away from the St Ives Society, forming the Penwith Society of Artists
Penwith Society of artists
The Penwith Society of Arts is an art group formed in St Ives, Cornwall, UK in early 1949 by abstract artists who broke away from the more conservative St Ives Society of Artists. It was originally led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, and included members of the Crypt Group of the St Ives...
led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
.
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
James Fox (art historian)
Dr James Fox is a British art historian and broadcaster. Fox is a Research Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and specializes in 20th century art at the University of Cambridge's History of Art Department....
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
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
." 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.
Traditional festivals
St Ives is home to three celebrations of interest. John KnillJohn Knill
John Knill born at Callington in Cornwall was a slightly eccentric mayor of St Ives, Cornwall, in 1767 and Collector of Customs at St Ives from 1762–1782. He built his own memorial, a high granite obelisk known as Knill's steeple...
, 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
Cornish Hurling
Cornish Hurling or Hurling the Silver Ball , is an outdoor team game of Celtic origin played only in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is played with a small silver ball...
(in a gentler format than its other manifestation at St Columb Major
St Columb Major
St Columb Major is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is situated approximately seven miles southwest of Wadebridge and six miles east of Newquay...
).
A third festival is the St Ives May Day, which is a modern revival of May Day customs
West Cornwall May Day Celebrations
The West Cornwall May Day celebrations are an example of folk practices found in the western part of Cornwall, United Kingdom, associated with the coming of spring. The celebration of May Day is a common motif throughout Europe and beyond. In Cornwall there are a number of notable examples of this...
that were at one time common throughout the west of Cornwall.
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.St Ives has a 500 seat theatre which hosts some of the September Festival events.
In literature and popular culture
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
and riddle
Riddle
A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...
"As I was going to St Ives
As I Was Going to St Ives
"As I was going to St Ives" is a traditional English language nursery rhyme which is generally thought to be a riddle. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19772.-Lyrics:The most common modern version is:-Answers:...
", 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:
...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
Mick Paynter
Michael Kenneth Paynter is a Cornish civil servant, trade union activist, and poet.Apart from a period of study at the University of Newcastle, his home has always been in Saint Ives ....
is resident in St Ives.
The Discovery Travel and Living programme Beach Café is filmed in St Ives, featuring Australian chef Michael Smith.
Sue Limb
Sue Limb
Sue Limb is a British writer and broadcaster. She studied Elizabethan lyric poetry at Cambridge and then trained in education. She lives on an organic farm near Nailsworth, Gloucestershire....
's Girl, (Nearly) 16: Absolute Torture is partly set in St Ives.
Rail
St Ives railway station is linked to the Paddington to Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
main rail route via the St Ives branch line
St Ives Bay Line
The St Ives Bay Line is a railway line from to in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It was opened in 1877, the last new broad gauge passenger railway to be constructed in the country...
which runs frequent services from St Erth station
St Erth railway station
St Erth railway station is situated at Rose-an-Grouse in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It serves the nearby village of St Erth, which is about away, and is the junction for the St Ives Bay Line to St Ives.-History:...
. 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
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...
facility for visitors to St Ives runs from Lelant Saltings railway station
Lelant Saltings railway station
Lelant Saltings railway station was opened on 27 May 1978 to provide a park and ride facility for visitors to St Ives. It is situated on the A3074 road close to the junction with the A30 near the foot of the hill up to Lelant village.-History:...
, which was opened on 27 May 1978 specifically for this purpose. The line also links the town to nearby Carbis Bay
Carbis Bay
Carbis Bay is a village and seaside resort in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It lies one mile SE of St Ives on the west side of St Ives Bay on the Atlantic coast....
and Lelant
Lelant
Lelant is a village in west Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the west side of the River Hayle estuary about 2½ miles southeast of St Ives and one mile west of Hayle....
.
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 ZennorZennor
Zennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall in England. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about north of Penzance. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain—its name comes from the Cornish...
, Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
and St Just
St Just in Penwith
St Just is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of Trewellard, Pendeen and Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of Morvah to the north-east, Sancreed and Madron to the east, St Buryan and Sennen to...
.
Air
The nearest airports to St Ives are NewquayNewquay Cornwall International Airport
-See also:*Newquay Cornwall Airport Fire and Rescue Service-External links:*...
and Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
. Private jets, charters and helicopters are served by Perranporth airfield
Perranporth Airfield
Perranporth Airfield airfield is located southwest of Perranporth and southwest of Newquay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is a former World War II Royal Air Force fighter station....
.
Twinning
- Camaret-sur-MerCamaret-sur-MerCamaret-sur-Mer is a commune in the Finistère department in northwestern France, located at the end of Crozon peninsula.-Sights:Camaret-sur-Mer is home to the Tour Vauban or Tour dorée , a historic fortification guarding the harbor and built in 1669-94...
, BrittanyBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, France
Notable people
- Edward Hain MP, (1851 – 1917) founder of the Hain Steamship Company Ltd
- Thomas TregosseThomas TregosseRev. Thomas Tregosse of Cornwall was a Puritan minister and vicar of the Rebellion period who was silenced for being a Nonconformist.-Early years:He was born in St Ives, the son of William Tregosse...
, Puritan minister
Further reading
- Paynter, William Old St Ives: the reminiscences of William Paynter; [edited] by S. Winifred Paynter. St. Ives: James Lanham
External links
- St. Ives Town Council
- Online Catalogue for St Ives at the Cornwall Record OfficeCornwall Record OfficeCornwall Record Office , part of Cornwall Council, is situated at Old County Hall in Truro and is the main repository for the historical archives of Cornwall....
- Manor of St Ives and Treloyhan Archive
- Seventeenth Century Records of the Borough of St. Ives