![St Just Cornwall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/St_Just_Cornwall.jpg)
St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the
Penwith
Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after ...
district of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the
B3306 road
The B3306, also known as the West Cornwall Coast Road, is a major road of southwestern Cornwall. It connects St Ives in the east to St Just in the west, and eventually joins the A30 road to the northeast of Sennen in the southwest of the Penwi ...
which connects
St Ives to the
A30 road
The A30 is a major road in England, running WSW from London to Land's End.
The road has been a principal axis in Britain from the 17th century to early 19th century, as a major coaching route. It used to provide the fastest route from Lond ...
. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of
Trewellard
Trewellard (from kw, Trewylard, meaning "Gwylard's settlement"; ) is a small village on the north coast road between St Just and St Ives in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 roa ...
,
Pendeen
Pendeen (from kw, Penn Din meaning "headland fort", previously known as kw, Boskaswal Wartha, meaning "Caswal's high dwelling") is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is north-northe ...
and
Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of
Morvah
Morvah is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Geography
The village is centred approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives and north-west of Penzance.Ordnance S ...
to the north-east,
Sancreed
Sancreed (''Cornish: Eglossankres'') is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance.
Sancreed civil parish encompasses the settlements of Bejouans, Bosvennen, ...
and
Madron
Madron ( kw, Eglos Madern) is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, Great Britain. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was started on 27 Oct ...
to the east,
St Buryan
St Buryan ( kw, Pluwveryan) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of Penzance along the B3283 to ...
and
Sennen
Sennen (''Cornish: Sen Senan'' or ''Sen Senana'') is a coastal civil parish and a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Sennen village is situated approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of Penzance.Ordnance Survey: Landra ...
to the south and by the sea in the west. The parish consists of of land, of water and of foreshore. The town of St Just is the most westerly town in mainland Britain and is situated approximately west of
Penzance along the
A3071. St Just parish, which includes
Pendeen
Pendeen (from kw, Penn Din meaning "headland fort", previously known as kw, Boskaswal Wartha, meaning "Caswal's high dwelling") is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is north-northe ...
and the surrounding area, has a population of 4,637 (2011 census).
An electoral ward of the same name also exists: the population of this ward at the same census was 4,812.
St Just lies within the
Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers in Cornwall, England, UK; that is, about 27% of the total area of the county. It comprises 12 separate areas, designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 for ...
(AONB). St Just is one of only two towns included within the
Cornwall AONB
The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers in Cornwall, England, UK; that is, about 27% of the total area of the county. It comprises 12 separate areas, designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 for ...
.
History
The identity of Saint Just is not known. Cornwall's long resistance to the edicts of Canterbury and Rome makes it most unlikely that the saint was
Archbishop Justus of Canterbury, as some sources claim. Another possibility is the 6th- or 7th-century
Saint Iestyn, who is said to have been the son of
Geraint ab Erbin, a ruler of Dumnonia. In 1478
William of Worcester
William Worcester, also called William of Worcester, William Worcestre or William Botoner (1415) was an English topographer, antiquary and chronicler.
Life
He was a son of another William of Worcester, a Bristol whittawer (worker in white lea ...
found that the church was believed to contain the bones of
Justus of Trieste
Saint Justus of Trieste (also Justus the Martyr, Just of Trieste; it, San Giusto di Trieste, San Giusto martire; died on 2 November 293) is a Roman Catholic saint.
According to his ''passio'' (account of his trial and death), he was a citizen o ...
.
[''The Cornish Church Guide'' (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 114]
Among the prehistoric antiquities nearby is
Ballowall Barrow
Ballowall Barrow ( kw, Krug Karrekloos) is a prehistoric funerary cairn (chambered tomb) which Ashbee (1982) and Hencken (1902–81) state contains several phases of use from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. It is situated on the cliff top at B ...
, a chambered tomb. St Just is one of the most ancient mining districts in Cornwall, and remains of ancient pre-industrial and more modern mining activity have had a considerable impact on the nearby landscape.
Bosworlas, in St Just parish, was said by
Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival.
Jenner was born at St Columb Major on 8 August 1848. He was th ...
to have been named as after
Gorlois
In Arthurian legend, Gorlois ( cy, Gwrlais) of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, is the first husband of Igraine, whose second husband is Uther Pendragon. Gorlois's name first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' (). A v ...
, the
legendary duke of Cornwall, who he believed was a real fifth or sixth century figure, either a petty chief and vassal of
the Royal House of Dumnonia, or of the line of the original chiefs of the Dumnonii if the kings of Dumnonia were the leaders of the
Britons
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
displaced by the Saxons. He notes its closeness to
Bosigran
Cornish promontory forts, commonly known in Cornwall as cliff castles, are coastal equivalents of the hill forts and Cornish "rounds" found on Cornish hilltops and slopes. Similar coastal forts are found on the north–west European seaboard, in ...
, Gorlois's wife in
Arthurian legend
The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...
.
Churches and schools
![Roadside stone near Leswidden Farm - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Roadside_stone_near_Leswidden_Farm_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1470196.jpg)
The
parish church of St Just is a fine 15th-century building. In 1336 the church was rebuilt and dedicated by
John Grandisson
The '' John Grandisson Triptych'', displaying on two small escutcheons the arms of Bishop Grandisson. British Museum
John de Grandisson (1292 – 16 July 1369), also spelt Grandison, was Bishop of Exeter, in Devon, England, from 1327 to his deat ...
, Bishop of Exeter; however only the chancel of this church survives and the nave and aisles are 15th-century in date.
There are two Methodist chapels.
St Just is the home of
Cape Cornwall School
Cape Cornwall School is a coeducational secondary school located in St Just in Penwith, Cornwall, England. , the school had 270 pupils aged 11 to 16 years. The Executive Head is Jan Woodhouse and the Head of School is Jon Hall with Leanne Stodd ...
which also serves Sennen, Sancreed, Pendeen, St Buryan and other places in the district.
There are seven Cornish crosses in the parish; there are two in the vicarage garden and one built into the church wall. Other crosses are at Leswidden, Nanquidno and Kenidjack (two). Boslow Cross is 550 yds (500 m) NW of Boslow Farm (ref. no. 1003110).
Mining
The ancient settlement has a strong
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
history and was during the 19th century one of the most important mining districts in Cornwall both for copper and for tin. Mines within the area included Boscaswell Downs, Balleswidden, Parknoweth, Boscean,
Wheal Owles
Wheal Owles was a tin mine in the parish of St Just in Cornwall, UK and the site of a disaster in 1893 when twenty miners lost their lives. Since 2006 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site – Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landsca ...
, Wheal Boys,
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
,
Botallack
Botallack ( kw, Bostalek, meaning "Talek's dwelling") is a village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives in the east to the A30 road, near Land's End. The village is included in the St ...
and
Geevor
Geevor Tin Mine (from kw, Whel an Gever, meaning "mine of the goats"), formerly North Levant Mine is a tin Mining, mine in the far west of Cornwall, United Kingdom, between the villages of Pendeen and Trewellard. It was operational between 1911 ...
(which closed in 1990). Geevor mine is now a tourist attraction which allows visitors to explore
Cornish Mining heritage. The boom in 19th-century mining saw a dramatic increase in the population of St Just, the 1861 census records the population figure as being 9,290; however, like other areas in Cornwall the population declined with the collapse in the tin trade in the 19th century. The town also suffered from the decision of the
Great Western Railway to abandon its plans to make St Just the terminus of the London mainline to Cornwall. It was announced in July 2006 that the St Just mining district and the rest of the historic mining areas of Cornwall had become the
Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage Site which includes select mining landscapes in Cornwall and West Devon in the south west of England. The site was added to the World Heritage List during the 30th Session of the U ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
Geography
The nearby
Cot Valley has a stream which runs to the
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
. The area has been heavily mined, as was the area around St Just. The round boulders in the Cot Valley Cove here are of specific scientific interest. Also nearby is
Cape Cornwall.
Local government
For the purposes of local government classification St Just is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
and elects a Mayor every 12 months from among the St Just Town Councillors. The St Just Town Council was created following the
re-structuring of English Local Government in 1974, St Just having been an
urban district council
In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...
until then. Principal local government functions are now undertaken by
Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition ...
.
St Just was originally part of the Penzance Poor Law Union until 1894 when it was incorporated into the West Penwith Rural District. In 1897 St Just in Penwith parish formed the sole basis of St Just Urban District. In 1974 the urban district was included in Penwith District, until that was abolished in 2009.
Culture and local traditions
St Just is home to the popular
Lafrowda festival a seven-day community and arts celebration usually held in mid July.
![The green at st just in penwith cornwall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/The_green_at_st_just_in_penwith_cornwall.jpg)
A more ancient celebration associated with the town is St Just Feast which is held every year to celebrate the dedication of the parish church on 13 July 1336. Feast celebrations were moved to the Sunday nearest to All Saints' Day in 1536 following an Act of Henry VIII which means it usually take place at the end of October / beginning of November. Feast itself is a two-day event with a church service and civic procession being held on Feast Sunday and a larger scale popular celebration being held on Feast Monday (which includes a meeting of the Western Hunt). A description of St Just Feast, from 1882, follows:
"Rich and poor still at this season keep open house, and all the young people from St. Just who are in service for many miles around, if they can possibly be spared, go home on the Saturday and stay until the Tuesday morning. A small fair is held in the streets on Monday evening, when the young men are expected to treat their sweethearts liberally, and a great deal of "foolish money" that can be ill afforded is often spent"
![The Star Inn, St Just (1995) - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/The_Star_Inn%2C_St_Just_%281995%29_-_geograph.org.uk_-_724270.jpg)
St Just also has a '
Plen an Gwarry' (
Cornish for "playing place"), locally pronounced 'Plain an Gwarry'. These sites were used historically for open-air performance, entertainment and instruction. St Just's Plen an Gwarry occasionally hosts productions of the Cornish
Ordinalia
The are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are (The Origin of the World, also known as , 2,846 lines), (The Passion of Christ, ...
mystery plays.
St Just has a healthy artistic scene, including the painter
Kurt Jackson who has made several television appearances. Contemporary singer and comedian
Jethro from nearby
St Buryan
St Buryan ( kw, Pluwveryan) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of Penzance along the B3283 to ...
played for St Just Rugby Club and has recorded a song entitled "St Just".
The folk singer
Martha Tilston
Martha Tilston is an English folk singer-songwriter based in Cornwall.
Biography
Martha Tilston is the daughter of singer-songwriter Steve Tilston and stepdaughter of Irish folk performer Maggie Boyle
Maggie Boyle (24 December 1956 – 6 N ...
released an album in 2010 called ''Lucy and the Wolves''. This features a range of songs inspired by Cornwall. The first song on the album is called ''The Cape'' and is based upon Cape Cornwall in St Just. She has performed in Penzance a number of times and now lives in Penwith.
The children's animated television series ''
Jungle Junction'' is produced by Spider Eye Productions of St. Just.
The local
community radio
Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popula ...
station is
Coast FM (formerly Penwith Radio), which broadcasts on 96.5 and 97.2
FM.
The Star Inn is sometimes called the last proper pub in Cornwall. Its clientele includes bird watchers who are attracted by the local wildlife.
Bus services
St Just bus station is served by routes 7, 8, A3 and A17. Services 7 and 8 are provided by Transport for Cornwall. A3 is provided by First Kernow and the two providers jointly run the A17 service.
7: Penzance to Lands End via St Just
8: Long Rock(Morrison’s) to St Just via Sancreed
A3: St Ives to Lands End via St Just (Atlantic Coaster)
A17: St Ives to Pendeen via Penzance and St Just
Twinning
St Just is
twinned with
Huelgoat, Bro-Gernev, Brittany. The town is also twinned, in partnership with Penzance, with Bendigo in the State of Victoria, Australia and with Nevada City in California, USA as a result of the historical links through the many people from the area who emigrated to the two destinations, mostly in the late 19th century, to find a better life in the mines there. There is still an area of Bendigo known as St. Just Point.
Notable residents
*
Edward Charles Grenfell was raised to the peerage in 1935 as
Baron St Just
Baron St Just, of St Just in Penwith, County of Cornwall, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1935 for the banker Edward Grenfell. He was the son of Henry Grenfell, the grandson of Charles Grenfell, the great-gr ...
, of St Just in Penwith in the County of Cornwall.
*
Francis Oats (1848–1918), Cornish miner who became chairman of De Beers diamond company
* Lt Col
J. H. Williams (Elephant Bill), soldier and elephant trainer
Gallery
File:The Brisons in storm St Just Cornwall.jpg, The Brisons in storm, St Just
File:Bollowal Barrow St Just Cornwall.jpg, Bollowal Barrow, St Just
File:Bollowal Barrow St Just Cornwall 2.jpg, Rocks Bollowal Barrow, St Just
File:Bollowal Barrow St Just Cornwall 3.jpg, Beautiful Formation Bollowal Barrow, St Just
References
External links
St Just Town Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Just in Penwith
Towns in Cornwall
Civil parishes in Cornwall
Penwith