{"id":1705,"date":"2019-12-23T15:20:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2022-10-04T11:34:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T10:34:38","slug":"st-ives-in-five-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/st-ives-in-five-minutes\/","title":{"rendered":"St Ives – The Five Minute Spare Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Ives is a seaside town and port in Cornwall, in the southwest of England. The town lies 8 miles north of Penzance<\/a> and 13 miles west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. Historically, dependent on fishing, the town is now primarily reliant on tourism, notably achieving the title of \u2018Best UK Seaside Town\u2019 from The Guardian newspaper, in 2007, and the British Travel Awards in both 2010 and 2011. St Ives is renowned for being at the forefront of the 20th-century British Arts movement. The population of St Ives at the 2011 UK Census was recorded as 11,226.<\/p>\n

A Fleeting History<\/h2>\n

The area around St Ives is believed to have been settled as early as the Bronze Age. The surrounding moors with their ancient field systems and numerous megalithic sites, bear testament to the premise. However, the origin of the settlement of St Ives is attributed to the mid-5th century arrival of the Irish Saint la of Cornwall. The parish church bears her name, from which the name of St Ives is derived.<\/p>\n

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The Sloop Inn, St Ives – one of Cornwall’s oldest pubs<\/p><\/div>\n

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. During medieval times, fishing was important to St Ives with eventually becoming one of the most important fishing ports on the Cornish coast. The date of the town’s original pier construction is unknown but the first written reference to it was made in 1478 by\u00a0 William Worcester is his ‘Itinerary’. Between 1766 and 1770, the town\u2019s pier was re-built to a design by John Smeaton.<\/p>\n

In 1597, two ships of the invading Spanish Armada, which had separated from the main fleet, took shelter from an impending storm at St Ives. The ships were seized by the English warship Warspite, whereby information extracted from the captured crew was instrumental in the eventual defeat of the Spanish by the English Navy.<\/p>\n

The 1800s<\/h3>\n

By the mid-18th century, St Ives had become one of the four principal fishing ports of Cornwall, along with Falmouth<\/a>, Fowey and Penzance<\/a>. The main catch was pilchards, the majority of which were export to Italy and Meditteranean Europe.<\/p>\n

In 1840, a lifeboat was stationed in the town for the first time.\u00a0 And in 1877, the branch line between St Ives Bay and St Erth, part of the Great Western Railway, was completed. This brought in a horde of Victorian holidaymakers, experiencing the seaside for the first time. The town’s newfound wealth saw it expand relatively quickly during the latter part of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

In 1920, Bernard Leach and Sh\u014dji Hamada set up the Leach Pottery<\/a> in St Ives. Leach continued working in the town up until 1972, and his pottery remains in operation to date. In 1939, world-renowned artists Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo had all settled in the town, paving the way for the town\u2019s robust bohemian community that was to follow. In 1980, \u2018the Tate\u2019 bought up the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. And in 1993, the world-famous gallery opened \u2018Tate St Ives\u2019. The town continues to attract a wealth of contemporary artists who choose to take up residence there.<\/p>\n

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Knill’s Steeple – St Ives<\/p><\/div>\n

The Knill Ceremony<\/h3>\n

The \u2018Knill Ceremony\u2019 is a local custom that takes place every five years on July 25th (St James\u2019 Day) in St Ives. The offbeat ceremony honour’s the wishes of a local dignitary and former eccentric town mayor, John Knill. He built a mausoleum for himself in the town, which is now known as \u2018Knill\u2019s Steeple\u2019. He requested in his will that a procession be made in the town every 5 years.\u00a0 He stated that a fiddler, ten girls all aged under 10, dressed in white, who were daughters of either tinners, fishermen or seamen, and two widows of the same professions, all of whom must from St. Ives, should lead a gathering up to the site of the Steeple. Once there, the girls should dance around the steeple for 15 minutes, while all those assembled should sing the hundredth psalm \u201cAll people that on earth do dwell\u201d. The first ceremony was held in 1801, which John Krill himself bizarrely attended. The citizens of the town still honour Krill’s wish to this day. Ironically, Knill died in 1811 at his chambers in Gray’s Inn Square, London and ended up being buried in the nearby St Andrew’s Church, Holborn.<\/p>\n

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St Ives In The Modern Era<\/h3>\n
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Porthmeor Beach, St Ives – has Blue Flag status!<\/p><\/div>\n

St Ives greatest natural assets, which is no doubt instrumental in drawing tourists to the town, are its array of stunning white sandy beaches. Set at the eastern end of the Island is Porthgwidden Beach. Overlooked by the Tate Gallery is the large Porthmeor beach, which is locally famed as a surfer\u2019s beach. Directly in front of the town is Harbour Beach, with Porthminster Beach being nearby. A short way along the coast is the long, sandy Carbis Bay beach.<\/p>\n

St Ives also holds a fair number of events throughout the year, which is also a big draw for tourists. Held on the first Monday of February, is the local custom of \u2018Hurling the silver ball\u2019. It kicks off in the mid-morning by the Mayor throwing the ball from the grounds of the Parish Church of St Eia. It is then thrown from person to person, through the streets of the town towards the beach. At noon, the game ends and culminates in person left holding the ball receiving a small prize.<\/p>\n

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Literature Festival<\/h3>\n

The St Ives Literature Festival is an annual week-long event, held in May, which sees open-air performances held in Norway Square, and talks, workshops and live music at the St Ives Arts Club. In September, the two weeks September Festival is held in the town, with over 200 events featuring music, dance, poetry, crafts and theatre, taking place. In recent times, the town has become a bit of a \u2018Mecca\u2019 for New Year’s Eve celebrations which sees thousands of revellers in fancy dress packing the streets.<\/p>\n

In the relatively recent past, St Ives has become somewhat notorious for its exotic \u2018shark\u2019 sightings. In 2007, there was a reported sighting of a great white shark, just off the town\u2019s shores, although experts said it was much more likely to have been a mako or a porbeagle. On 14 June 2011, a boat was reportedly attacked by an oceanic whitetip shark. However, the Shark Trust said that the chances of that shark species being in British waters were “very small”. On 18 July 2017, it was reported that a blue shark was seen in the waters close to the harbour. On 16 July 2018, another blue shark was spotted, this time, in the harbour.<\/p>\n

St Ives is twinned with Camaret-sur-Mer in Brittany, France and has friendship agreements with Laguna Beach, California and Mashiko, Tochigi, Japan.<\/p>\n

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Getting To St Ives<\/h2>\n

By Road<\/p>\n

Despite its relatively remote location, getting to St Ives by road is relatively easy. Just follow the M5 motorway towards Exeter<\/a> until you reach the A30. Stay on the A30 all the way to the Hayle By-pass. Turn right at the St Erth Roundabout and head for Lelant. At Lelant keep on the A3074 St Ives Road for 3.5 miles before arriving at St Ives.<\/p>\n

By train
\nSt Ives railway station is linked to the Paddington, London<\/a> to Penzance mainline service to Cornwall, via the branch line from St Erth. The branch line operates a service every 30 mins throughout the day, with a 10 minutes journey time. The branch line also links St Ives to nearby Carbis Bay and Lelant.<\/p>\n

By Bus
\nThe town has a regular bus service operated by National Express to\/from London Victoria, Heathrow, and many other places in Britain. First Kernow operates a local bus service buses connecting St Ives to nearby towns and villages, such as Zennor, Penzance and Truro.<\/p>\n

By Air
\nThe nearest airports to St Ives are Newquay<\/a> and Land’s End, near St Just.<\/p>\n

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St Ives has one of only four Tate Galleries in the UK<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you know?<\/h3>\n