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England Photo Index - Main UK Photo Index
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St. Ives has the most fascinating harbor.
Narrow alleyways and interesting street names such as teetotal street, Salubrious terrace and others.
With beautiful but crammed homes, Art galleries, Craft markets, St. Ives has also fine restaurants and great pubs with first class beaches this town became an artist haven during the 19th century.
For art lovers St. Ives Tate gallery above Porthmeor beach is the place for school of painters. St. Ives welcomes tourists with warmth and friendliness.
St Ives is a seaside town and civil
parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town
lies north of Penzance, and west of Camborne. In former times it was
commercially dependent on fishing as an industry. The decline in fishing,
however, has caused a shift in commercial emphasis and the town is now primarily
a holiday resort. St Ives was incorporated by Royal charter in 1639.
The legendary origins of St Ives are attributed to the arrival of the Irish
Saint Ia, in the 5th Century AD. The parish church in St Ives still bears the
name of this saint, and the name St Ives itself is believed to be a later
anglicized corruption of that name.
The town was the site of a particularly notable atrocity during the Prayer Book
rebellion of 1549. The English Provost Marshal came to St Ives and invited the
mayor, John Payne, to lunch at an inn. He asked the mayor to have the gallows
erected during the course of the lunch. Afterwards the mayor and the Provost
Marshall walked down to the gallows; the Provost Marshall then ordered the mayor
to mount the gallows. The mayor was then hanged for being a Roman Catholic.
Modern St Ives came with the railway in 1877, the St Ives Bay branch line from
St Erth. With it came the 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.
The St Ives artists
In 1928, the artists Alfred Wallis, 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. 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. See also list
of St. Ives artists. The town also attracted artists from overseas like Piet
Mondrian who let the landscape influence their work.
St Ives Society of Artists and The Penwith Society
Prior to the 1940's the majority of artists in St Ives and further afield in
West Cornwall belonged to the St Ives Society of artists however events in the
late 1940's led to a growing dispute between the 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.
Festivals
St Ives is home to 3 celebrations of interest. John Knill a former Mayor of St
Ives constructed the Knill Steeple a granite monument overlooking the town of St
Ives. In 1797 John Knill laid down instructions for the celebration of the Knill
Ceremony which was to take place every 5 years on the 25th of July. The ceremony
itself involves The Mayor of St Ives, a customs officer, and a vicar -
accompanied by 2 widows and 10 girls who should be the 'daughters of fishermen,
tinners, or seaman'. For more details see Article about John Knill
A second celebration of perhaps greater antiquity is St Ives feast which is a
celebration of the founding of St Ives by St Ia and takes place on the Sunday
and Monday nearest February 3rd every year. The day itself includes a civic
procession to Venton Ia or the well of St Ia and other associated activities
however, it is most notable for being one of the 2 surviving examples of Cornish
Hurling (however in a more gentle format than its other manifestation in 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.
Transport
St Ives railway station is linked to the Paddington to Penzance main rail route
via the St Ives branch line which runs regular services to St Erth station. 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 town also has regular services via National Express Coach to London
Victoria, Heathrow and numerous other destinations throughout the UK. The
nearest airports to St Ives are Newquay and Plymouth.
Visitor information: telephone 01736796297
514 km (319 miles) SW of London
34 km (21 miles) NE of Land’s End
16 km (10 miles) NE of Penzance
Transportation Schedules information: telephone 0845/748-4950 or 0870580/8080
England Photo Index - Main UK Photo Index
Text in part
provided by our friends at wikipedia