My mother’s family are from St Ives, and though I
don’t specifically know, from their occupation I would hazard a guess they had
been there for a few centuries … they were fishing, shipping and town
administration folk …
 |
Carbis Bay Hotel, where the
G47 Summit will be held |
… all of St Ives would be linked to the early trades fishermen
and shipwrights, before the advent of steam and the change of direction as
necessitated by events of time in the 1800s and onwards …
We so easily forget how far our history goes back …
and today where we came from can be traced … whether I go back as far as being
a Phoenician is rather a matter of unnecessary conjecture …
 |
Fish, Tin and Copper - the
three main industries of Cornwall
|
… the Phoenicians (eastern Mediterranean) were serious
maritime traders … coming to prominence in the Late Bronze Age (c 1150 – 600
BCE) – we know they traded for tin – Cornwall’s surface seams could be ‘easily’
mined …
There was settlement from pre-Roman times … Stone Age,
Bronze Age and Iron Age … then the Romans visited this western peninsula – both
on land, and via the sea routes …
 |
Men-an-Tol standing stones near
Madron, Penzance
(from the late Neolithic or
early Bronze Age era) |
So we know Cornwall was occupied with early peoples,
traded and barbarically enslaved, some stayed and settled … our early history
is spread along the coasts, the stories that have sprung up through the
centuries ...
 |
Society of Genealogists
(established 1911) |
Fortunately recorded history has already reminded us about
significant events … with the leading characters … in 1538 Henry VIII issued an
injunction requiring each parish to maintain a Parish Register to hold details
of all baptisms, marriages and burials.
 |
| Domesday Book - completed 1088 |
The Domesday Book of William the Conqueror’s time (1066
and all that) had recorded in detail the land surveyed, as well as how it was
occupied, but without the general population’s names. (Part 7)
Fortunately the Parish Registers in part overcame that …
 |
West Penwith: St Ives to the north,
Falmouth harbour to the south-west |
St Ives harbour has always been a shelter from the
storms … during the Spanish Armada in 1597, Sir Walter Raleigh captured two
Spanish ships, who had hoped to shelter in the Bay from the same storm. Apparently vital information was learnt from
the prisoners.
St Ives was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1639 …
copies of King Charles I’s Letter of
Thanks to the Cornish People are to be seen in a number of Cornish churches
– St Uny’s on the Lelant towans being one – Part 5.
"We are so highly sensible of the extraordinary merit of Our
County of Cornwall, of their zeale for the Defence of Our Person, and the just
Rights of Our Crown, of their great and eminent Courage and Patience." (part of King Charles I's Letter of Thanks to the Cornish People).
 |
From the Knavocks to
Godrevy Point |
Part 7 describes the loss of Charles’ goods andchattels, on the ship wrecked by the Stones Reef, out of which Virginia Woolf’s
famous lighthouse, Godrevy, arises … and the coincidence of the ship’s loss on
the same day he was executed.
 |
| Knill's Steeple |
We have John Knill (1733 – 1811), mayor of St Ives,
with his extraordinary quintennial disbursements … still being administered to
this day … see part 3 …
 |
| Barnoon Cemetery |
Our family records go back to the late 1700s and onwards
… but there’s no-one I know who’s taken an interest … Barnoon Cemetery was
opened in 1857 – by then the graveyards would have been full …
 |
| St Ives from a distance |
Now to my time in St Ives … we would go fairly often when on holiday …
my great uncle and his wife lived high on the hill with these views …
 |
Family photo on beach c mid
1920s (as a young man my great
uncle must be here somewhere) |
... the
highlights being turned upside down by my uncle, giggling furiously, but unable
to get away … playing tennis … walking down and then up?! to the beach …
… coming back to wonderful thunder and lightning teas
… here shown on bread … we would always have home-made scones … Cornish cream
and treacle …
 |
| Wheal Trenwith |
120 years ago or so, whether you elected to come in to
St Ives by road, the fields or the high moors, you couldn’t fail to notice the
vast Trenwith Mine above Stennack, where (surprisingly) they (were) searching
for radium. Bearing in mind that it had
only been discovered by the Curies in 1898 …
 |
Bernard Leach by
Ryusei Kishida (1913) |
The mine is now a car-park and part of the settlement
high above the town … interestingly Bernard Leach (regarded as the “Father of
British studio pottery”) established his Leach Pottery in 1920, next to the
Stennack river … where it is to this day.
 |
| View from high up above St Ives |
From these high points we see a wonderful combination
of blue sea, towering rocks, purple and yellow moors, nor come so near to the
heart of prehistoric man … hovering above a tiny fishing harbour … holding sway
to the memories of many early artists bewitched by the light, views, and ever
changing beauty …
 |
Fore Street, St Ives (2005)
tiny streets are the norm |
On to the 1950s – my time … we’d visit from Carbis Bay
when we were in Cornwall … times had changed … a Woolworths store had arrived
in Fore Street, with a back entry onto the Wharf … where the Sloop Inn …
originally from 1312 … is situated …
 |
| Sloop Inn, St Ives - on the Wharf |
… Fish and chip shops, early ice-cream stalls, lots of
seagulls’ eyes wide open for any inadvertent treat by tourist or fisherman …
Now this little part of Britain is being host to the 47th
G7 Summit – an intergovernmental organisation – that is creating havoc for the
locals …
 |
| Tregenna Castle Hotel |
The main meetings I gather are being held at the
Carbis Bay Hotel Carbis Bay – where we used to visit as kids … but other venues
are the Tregenna Castle Hotel, where there’s a heliport, just below my great uncle
and aunt’s house when they still lived in St Ives …
 |
St Ives fishing fleet
by H I Babbage (1875 - 1916) |
… while the media is being housed over in Falmouth (at
the National Maritime Museum) … it is 28 miles away and might take 40 minutes
to drive … but who knows what will happen when the Summit is on … there is the
local train – but that involves probably two changes and takes considerably
longer …
 |
Steam train coming into Carbis Bay
with sailing boat in harbour |
I wonder if posh boats will be used – there’s no pier
off Carbis Bay …
 |
| West Penwith logo |
I’ve been ‘prevaricating’ or just brain wandering more
likely and not getting on with things … but as always a co-incidence arises …
A company, 'Identity', in Eastbourne (where I now live) has been
chosen as the Events Agency for the Summit … strange but true … goodness knows
what it will all entail …
 |
| Cornwall c/o World-Guides |
I feel for them all … it’s a tiny area … there are no
alternative routes – unless you want to surf the Atlantic and find a way round
… I can’t think Boris, Biden, Merkel, Macron et al would want to get their
suits wet …
Life goes on doesn’t it … stay safe and enjoy some
joys of Summer … I'm taking it slowly ...
 |
Bathing Beauty on
on Carbis Bay beach |
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
