St Agnes (
CornishThe Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
Breanek) is a
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in...
and a
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
on the north coast of
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is in the
Cornwall and West Devon Mining LandscapeThe Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage Site which includes select mining landscapes across Cornwall and West Devon in the south west of the United Kingdom...
World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term.A World Heritage Site is a...
, and lies halfway between the artists' colony of
St IvesSt 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...
and the surfers' paradise at
NewquayNewquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port on the north Atlantic coast of Cornwall, Great Britain. It is bounded to the west by the River Gannel and its associated salt marsh, and in the east by the Porth Valley. The town has been expanding inland since it was founded...
. It is one of the twelve sections of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
St Agnes grew up as a
fishingFishing is the activity of catching fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and farming community which, from Roman times (perhaps earlier) until the early part of the 20th century, relied heavily on
tinTin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead, like the two possible oxidation states +2 and +4...
mining as a source of income.
With the demise of
mining in CornwallMining in Cornwall first began in the early Bronze Age approximately 2,150 BC and ended with the South Crofty tin mine closing in 1998.-History:...
, St Agnes has become a popular tourist destination, offering excellent beaches at Trevaunance Cove, Chapel Porth
National TrustThe National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
beach, and nearby
PerranporthPerranporth is a village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, south-west of the surfing resort of Newquay and 6 miles north-east of that at Porthtowan. The village has a fine links golf course and a civil airfield suitable for visitors arriving by private plane...
and
PorthtowanPorthtowan is a small village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, and is a popular summer tourist destination which lies within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site. Porthtowan lies on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of...
; walking (St Agnes Beacon and many cliff, coastal and country walks); painting (beautiful scenery), industrial archeology,
stone-ageThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
remains and
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
.
Tywarnhaile was one of the 17
Antiqua maneriaThe Antiqua maneria were the original 17 manors belonging to the Earldom of Cornwall.After March 1337 these manors passed to the new Duchy of Cornwall which was created by King Edward III to give financial support to his son Edward, the Black Prince .The table below shows the 17 Antiqua maneria...
of the Duchy of Cornwall.
According to
cornwall-online, "From ancient times the
TonkinTonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
family monopolised the mining wealth of the area and when they saw that greater wealth could be achieved by opening up trade from Ireland and Wales they set about trying to construct a harbour at Trevaunance Cove.
St Agnes (
CornishThe Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
Breanek) is a
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in...
and a
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
on the north coast of
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is in the
Cornwall and West Devon Mining LandscapeThe Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage Site which includes select mining landscapes across Cornwall and West Devon in the south west of the United Kingdom...
World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term.A World Heritage Site is a...
, and lies halfway between the artists' colony of
St IvesSt 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...
and the surfers' paradise at
NewquayNewquay is a town, civil parish, seaside resort and fishing port on the north Atlantic coast of Cornwall, Great Britain. It is bounded to the west by the River Gannel and its associated salt marsh, and in the east by the Porth Valley. The town has been expanding inland since it was founded...
. It is one of the twelve sections of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
St Agnes grew up as a
fishingFishing is the activity of catching fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and farming community which, from Roman times (perhaps earlier) until the early part of the 20th century, relied heavily on
tinTin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead, like the two possible oxidation states +2 and +4...
mining as a source of income.
With the demise of
mining in CornwallMining in Cornwall first began in the early Bronze Age approximately 2,150 BC and ended with the South Crofty tin mine closing in 1998.-History:...
, St Agnes has become a popular tourist destination, offering excellent beaches at Trevaunance Cove, Chapel Porth
National TrustThe National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
beach, and nearby
PerranporthPerranporth is a village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, south-west of the surfing resort of Newquay and 6 miles north-east of that at Porthtowan. The village has a fine links golf course and a civil airfield suitable for visitors arriving by private plane...
and
PorthtowanPorthtowan is a small village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, and is a popular summer tourist destination which lies within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site. Porthtowan lies on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of...
; walking (St Agnes Beacon and many cliff, coastal and country walks); painting (beautiful scenery), industrial archeology,
stone-ageThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
remains and
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
.
Manor of Tywarnhaile
Tywarnhaile was one of the 17
Antiqua maneriaThe Antiqua maneria were the original 17 manors belonging to the Earldom of Cornwall.After March 1337 these manors passed to the new Duchy of Cornwall which was created by King Edward III to give financial support to his son Edward, the Black Prince .The table below shows the 17 Antiqua maneria...
of the Duchy of Cornwall.
Harbour
According to
cornwall-online, "From ancient times the
TonkinTonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
family monopolised the mining wealth of the area and when they saw that greater wealth could be achieved by opening up trade from Ireland and Wales they set about trying to construct a harbour at Trevaunance Cove. After three attempts a harbour was built in 1710 but the process had been costly: over £6,000 had been spent on the harbour 'experiments' and the family were in debt. The estate was relinquished in 1719 and the unmaintained harbour was swept away into the sea in 1730. Sixty years later, a copper mining boom added new impetus to the quest for a harbour. The newly formed St. Agnes Harbour Co. constructed the last of the St. Agnes harbours in 1798. The harbour enabled the development of pilchard fishery and general sea-borne trade. The harbour stood for 118 years but again due to the lack of maintenance it was washed away in the storms of 1915/16".
Statistics
St Agnes Parish had a population of 7,257
http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=7639 in April 2006; this includes nearby
PorthtowanPorthtowan is a small village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom, and is a popular summer tourist destination which lies within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site. Porthtowan lies on Cornwall's north Atlantic coast about west of St Agnes, north of...
,
Mount HawkeMount Hawke is an old copper mining village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, approximately 2.5 miles from the Atlantic coast at Porthtowan, 7 miles from Truro. Mount Hawke is known locally as the "Golden Triangle", which consists of Mount Hawke, St...
,
BlackwaterBlackwater is a small rural village situated in the Parish of St Agnes between Truro and Redruth and close to the north coast and its sandy beaches . The Victorian philanphropist and journalist John Passmore Edwards was born here....
and Mithian as well as St Agnes village itself. The 2001 census figure for St Agnes village was 2,230
http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/NeighbourhoodProfileSearch.do?profileSearch=tr50uw in 1,013 households. Unemployment at 3.8% (2001 census) compares to a national average of 3.4%. The retired population represented 20.8% (national average 13.6%), those in full time employment were 28.6% (40.6%), and those self-employed were 14.9% (8.3%). These and other factors put St Agnes in 15,862nd position in the most deprived scale out of 32,482, thus approximately in the middle (in 2001).
Community organisations and social life
The people of St Agnes are predominantly Christian or of no religion and there are three churches:
AnglicanThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
,
MethodistMethodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to Reverend John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement in the Anglican Church. His younger brother...
and Catholic. These also act as centres of social gathering as do the Miners and Mechanics Institute, the many pubs, bistros and restaurants and several sports clubs (including
rugby unionRugby union is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, 100 m...
,
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
and
surfingSurfing is most commonly known, the term is used for a surface water sport in which the person surfing moves along the face of a breaking ocean wave . However, surfing is not restricted to saltwater, but can sometimes take place on rivers, using a standing wave...
).
In medieval and early modern times St Agnes was part of the parish of
PerranzabuloePerranzabuloe is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It contains the villages of Perranporth, Mellingy, Penhallow, Callestock, Bolingey and Perrancoombe...
and the church of St Agnes was a chapel-of-ease only (St Agnes was made into a parish in 1846). The parish church is 15th century in date but has been much restored in recent times.
Commercial
St Agnes is unusual, for a village of its size, in being relatively self-sufficient with local shops and business enterprises being promoted actively by the chamber of commerce
http://www.st-agnes.com/about.php and The Bolster, a local free newspaper named after the legendary
BolsterBolster day is annual festival held at Chapel Porth cove near St Agnes, Cornwall, UK. The festival is held on May 1 every year and reinacts the events of the Cornish legend of Bolster the giant and St Agnes with use of giant imagery and local performers...
giant.
It is also the home of
Atlantic FMAtlantic FM, is a radio station based in and serving Cornwall, United Kingdom. The station, owned by Atlantic Broadcasting Ltd, began broadcasting on July 6, 2006 at 0730 BST, and is broadcast from St Agnes...
, which broadcasts across the whole of Cornwall from their studios at the "Wheal Kitty Workshops".
St Agnes Beacon
"The Beacon", a local landmark now owned by the National Trust, rises 629 feet in isolation from the surrounding landscape with the sea at its feet. St Agnes derives its old Cornish name, Bryanick (pointed or prominent hill) from this dominant landmark. The top of the Beacon offers a panoramic view of the cliffs from St Ives in the south to Padstow in the North, as well as splendid inland views over much of Carrick and the eastern part of
PenrynPenryn is a town in Cornwall, England, UK on the Penryn river. Although now the area is largely dominated by Falmouth, in the medieval period it was an important harbour in its own right, exporting granite and tin. There are 7,166 people living in Penryn. Penryn is twinned with Audierne in...
. On a clear day, 23 miles of coast and 32 church towers can be seen from the top.
Bolster & Chapel Porth
Bolster & Chapel Porth is a large earthen bulwark believed to date from the Dark Ages. It originally ran from Chapel Porth to Trevaunance Cove. According to legend, Bolster was a giant who fell in love with a young maiden called Agnes. As proof of his love, Agnes demanded that the giant fill a small hole at the edge of the cliff with his blood. Being such a small hole the giant willingly did so. However, he was unaware that the hole was bottomless and opened into a sea cave. Bolster continued to fill the cave until he was so weak that he fell into the sea to his death; the blood-stained cave can be found at Chapel Porth.
St Agnes Parish Museum
The St Agnes Parish Museum offers an opportunity to study in more detail the landscape and the history of St Agnes. The Museum is run by volunteers and is a registered charity established to promote the heritage of St Agnes. The mining and seafaring history of St Agnes is explained in displays and on film. The natural history display includes a 700-pound leatherback turtle. http://www.stagnesmuseum.org.uk
Wheal Coates; and Stippy Stappy
Wheal Coates is one of the best known and most picturesque groups of cliff-top mine buildings in Cornwall, offering superb coastal views. The buildings are owned by the National Trust.
Stippy Stappy is a row of 18th century sea captain's cottages on a very steep incline.
Blue Hills Tin Streams
These traditional workings are situated in Jericho Valley. The process by which tin is extracted is demonstrated and explained. The Blue Hills area is also host to the Motor Cycling Club's Lands End Classic Trial, for both cars and bikes. 2008 marked the events centenary - the first run being held in 1908
http://www.themotorcyclingclub.org.uk/.
Heritage Coast
The World Heritage landscape around St Agnes is promoted and cared for by the St Agnes to Newquay Countryside Management Service. The service strives to balance the differing needs of the many users of the countryside and focuses on building an understanding between all those who live, work and visit the area so that all are working towards a common goal of protection and appreciation of the environment.
General resources
History and antiquities
Tourism, leisure and folklore
Views of the district