Kelly’s Directory of Cornwall 1883

ST. IVES is a municipal and parliamentary borough and parish, on the north coast of Cornwall, bounded by the Irish sea, 9 miles north from Penzance, 15 miles west from Redruth, 22 miles west from Falmouth, 21 miles south-west from Truro, and 325 from London, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Penwith, Penzance union and county court district, Penwith rural deanery, Cornwall archdeaconry and Truro diocese. Formerly it was called Pendennis or Pendunes—the Head or Fortress—and was first incorporated by Charles I. in 1639, which charter, forfeited in 1685, was renewed by James II. in 1686. The corporation now consists of a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors. Sir Francis, Basset of Tehidy, by whose efforts the first charter was obtained and who was afterwards recorder, presented a silver cup to the corporation, bearing the Basset crest, an inscription in verse, and the date 1640. The corporation act as the Urban Sanitary Authority. Previous to the Reform Bill of 1832 St. Ives had returned two members to Parliament from the year 1558, but it now only returns one. The parliamentary borough includes the parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, and Towednack. The borough has a commission of the peace, and the magistrates meet at the Town Hall on the first and third Wednesday in every month. St. Ives is the terminus of the St. Ives branch of the West Cornwall (Great Western) railway from St. Erth, and there is weekly communication with Bristol and the intermediate ports, by steam packet. The town is very irregularly built and has very narrow streets, but there are also terraces of good private houses and many modern villas, and on entering the town from Hayle the general appearance of the place is charmingly picturesque. The church of St. Hya, or Ia, is a fine old building of granite, erected in the early part of the fifteenth century, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, separated from the nave by arcades of seven arches, on Caen stone columns, with foliated capitals, south chapel, called the Trenwith aisle, south porch, and an embattled tower with pinnacles, 119 feet in height, and containing a clock and 2 bells, both cast in 1830, and in 1872 it was restored and pointed, at a cost of about £90, by subscription: the church was repaired and re-seated in 1853–4, at a cost of about £900, raised by subscription: the chancel was restored by the late Nathaniel Pyne esq. as agent of the Earl of Mornington: in 1854, and in 1859 the church was entirely re-paved, at a cost of £150, by the late Robert Hichens esq. of London: some of the stalls and benches are curiously carved: the font, of granite, was also restored at a cost of £30; by J. N. Tremearne esq. in 1854; at the base of it are four figures representing demons, and on the bowl are four other figures to represent angels: the eagle lectern, copied from that in Wantage church, Berkshire, was presented in 1866 by the Rev. J. B. Jones, the present vicar: the east window is a memorial to several members of the family of Stephens of Tregenna, 1804–35, and there are several other stained windows to members of the Hichen family, 1835—64: there is a brass, with efigies, to Oto Treunwyth gent. and Agnes his wife, of the fifteenth century; a monument to the Sise family, 1642, and others of more modern date to the families of Stephens, 1729–1852; Hichens, 1770–1851; Hocking, 1800–49; and many more: the church will seat 600 persons. The churchyard adjoins the church, and is defended from the action of the waves by a strong and high wall: in the Trenwith aisle is a brass to the original members of St. Ives artillery corps. In the churchyard is an octagonal cross with a square panelled head, carved with representations of the Crucifixion and other subjects; it is 10 feet 6 inches in height, and was discovered buried in the churchyard in 1832; and in 1852 was re-erected on a new base by Robert Hichens esq. The register dates from the year 1686. The living is a vicarage, tithe rent-charge £175, gross yearly value £300, with residence built in 1840, in the gift of the vicar of Lelant, and held since 1869 by the Rev. John Balmer Jones M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. In connection with the parish church there is a Mariners’ chapel, which has a mission district assigned to it. The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion have a chapel in Fore street; it was erected in 1800 for 200 persons. The Wesleyan chapel, in Chapel street, is a spacious building, seating 750 persons. The Primitive Methodist chapel, in Fore street, erected in 1831, has 800 sittings, and there are smaller chapels at Balnoon and Trevalgen. The Bible Christians’ chapel, in back road, for 400 persons, was erected in 1858. The Methodist New Connexion have a chapel in Chapel street. A Cemetery, with two mortuary chapels, was formed in 1855, at a cost of £500, and is managed by a burial board of 5 members. There are two subscription reading and news rooms, and a masonic lodge, No. 1272. The Town hall and meat market, erected in 1832, at a cost of £1,000, is a plain but substantial building. The principal trade here is the pilchard and mackerel fishery; the pilchards are cured and packed in hogsheads, and are chiefly exported to Spain and Italy, and the mackerel help to supply the London markets. Boatbuilding is carried on to some extent; there are also extensive sail and netting manufactories. Here is a stone pier, with quay light, built in 1767–70, under an Act of Parliament passed in 1767, after a personal survey and report from the celebrated Mrs. Smeaton, of Newcastle, who was the contractor for its construction, at a cost of £10,000. There is also a pier on wood piles, erected in 1864–6, at a cost of about £15,000, but this is rapidly falling into decay. The construction of a breakwater, begun in 1816, was abandoned after an outlay of £30,000. Adjoining the harbour is Portminster Cove. There is a battery of 3 guns on Pendinas, still called the “Island” (although now connected with the other portion of the promontory): the battery is under the charge of a sergeant of the coast brigade, and one gunner. The remains of the ancient chapel of St. Nicholas have been converted into a stone house. St. Ives bay is a creek under Falmouth, and a life-boat station, and affords excellent shelter, except against north-east gales, which too frequently prove fatal to such vessels as may not be moored within the pier. On a hill south-east of St. Ives is a triangular pyramidical monument, of granite ashlar, the sides of which are each about 25 feet in length; it was erected by John Knill, of St. Ives, and has a receptacle in the basement intended by him for his place of sepulchre; on the south side are the words “Johannes Knill, 1782,” on the east side the inscription “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” and on the third or souh-west side the word “Resurgam,” with the arms of Knill: the monument stands on a square platform of granite, and is enclosed with iron railings and gates. Mr. Knill bequeathed certain property and moneys in trust to the mayor, incumbent, and collector of customs at St. Ives, to be expended yearly in a singular and grotesque celebration, which is still strictly observed. Mr. Knill, who eventually became a bencher of Gray’s Inn, died March 29th, 1811, and was buried, not in this mausoleum, but in St. Andrew’s Holborn. The charities are small. Tregenna Castle, erected about 1773, by Samuel Stephens esq. under the direction of Mr. Wood, architect, of Bath, and for many years the residence and property of the Stephens family, is now an hotel. The principal landowners are the Right Hon. Earl Cowley K.G. the Duchess of Cleveland, the Earl of Sandwich, and the Messrs. Bolitho. The only remaining fair is held on December 1. To the north-east of the parish the soil is composed of compact and slaty felspar rock, traversed by metalliferous veins. The area of the parish is 1,896 acres; rateable value, £13,877: and the population of the municipal parish and borough in 1881 was 6,445; of the municipal borough, 8,809.