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St Columb Major

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For other places called St Columb, see St Columb.
St. Columb Major Parish
St Columb Major is located in the United Kingdom
St Columb Major

Shown within the UK


Shown within Restormel

OS Grid Reference: SW912633
Population: 2505 (2001 Census)[1]
Settlements
File:STCOLA~1.jpg
Arms of St. Columb with town motto
Major Settlement: St. Columb Major
Settlement Type: Town
Secondary Settlements: Talskiddy, Tregatillian, Gluvian, Tregaswith, Trevithick, Ruthvoes,and Trebudannon

St Columb Major (Cornish: Sen Kolomm Veur) is a town in Cornwall, United Kingdom, to the south west of Wadebridge and east of Newquay. It has a large church dedicated to St. Columba featuring a four-tier tower and a wide through-arch.

Twice a year the town plays host to "Hurling the Silver Ball", a medieval game once common throughout Cornwall but now only played in St. Columb and St. Ives. It is played on Shrove Tuesday and then again on the Saturday eleven days later. The game involves two teams of several hundred people (the 'townsmen' and the 'countrymen') who endeavour to carry a silver ball made of apple wood to goals set two miles apart.

Church history

Exterior

The tower is a fine example of a fifteenth-century building, consisting of four stages with battlements and pinnacles. It is 80 feet high and contains eight bells re-hung in 1950. In 1920 the chiming clock was added as a memorial to the men of St. Columb who died in the Great War.

Interior

Some of the more interesting items include:

Royalty

Jun 9, 1909 The town was visited by the Prince of Wales (George V) and his wife, the Pricess of Wales (Mary of Teck). The visit was to open the Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show. The Prince gave 2 silver cups: one for the best bull and another for the best horse. [2]

In August 1977 The Queen and Prince Philip visited the town the town during their Silver Jubilee tour of Cornwall.

On May 27, 1983: The town was visited by the Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana). The visit was to commemorate the 650th anniversary of the signing of the town charter by Edward III [3]. A plaque commemorates this visit outside the Conservative club in Union Square.

Notable parish residents

Who
Image
lived
Famous for
John Nichols Thom File:John Tom.jpg born 1799 Killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on May 31 1838 in Kent, England.
Henry Jenner (1848-1934) Regarded as the father of the Cornish language revival. Celtic scholar, Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival.
James Polkinghorne Champion Cornish wrestler.


Ralph Allen 1693 - 1764 As a teenager he worked at St Columb Post Office. He moved to Bath in 1710 where he became a clerk in the Bath Post Office, and at the age of 19, in 1712, he became the Post Master of Bath.


Jack Crapp 1912 - 1981 Played in the English cricket team on tour in the winter of 1948-49


Richard Bullock 1847 - 1921 A legendary figure of the Wild West Cowboy era. His quick-shooting deeds working on the Deadwood stage gained him the nickname "Deadwood Dick".


Wilfred Theodore Blake 1894 - 1968 Was a pioneer aviator, author and traveller.The man who led the first attempt to fly round the world in 1922. The pilot for this mission was Norman MacMillan. The aircraft was a de Havilland DH9A bought from the Royal Air Force. His ambitious round-the-world trip was cancelled after the first stage of the flight after it came to grief in Calcutta.


Dick Twinney Renowned British illustrator and wildlife artist.


Neighbouring parishes

Ancient monuments

There are several ancient monuments of note in the parish:

  • Castle an Dinas, an Iron Age hillfort. .[4]
  • The Nine Maidens stone row, the largest row of standing stones in Cornwall. [5]
  • The Devil's Quoit (sometimes recorded as King Arthur's Quoit).[6]
  • St. Columba's Holy Well, (found in the nearby hamlet of Ruthvoes.).[7]
  • King Arthur's Stone, this long lost stone is said to be not far from the Devil's Quoit near St. Columb, on the edge of the Gossmoor. It was a large stone that could be described as a petrosomatoglyph, with four deeply-impressed horseshoe marks. Legend has it that the marks were made by the horse upon which Arthur rode when he resided at Castle An Dinas and hunted on the moors.


Other visitor attractions in the area

See also

Template:Geolinks-cityscale


Cornwall Online Census Project

References

  1. ^ 2001 Uk census
  2. ^ . The Times, Thursday, Jun 10, 1909; pg. 9; Issue 38982
  3. ^ . The Times, Saturday, May 28, 1983; pg. 10; Issue 61544
  4. ^ "A Gazetteer of Arthurian Topographic Folklore". Retrieved 2006-03-07.
  5. ^ "The Modern Antiquarian site#627". Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  6. ^ "The Modern Antiquarian site#644". Retrieved 2006-09-24.
  7. ^ "St Columba Holy Well, Ruthvoes". Retrieved 2006-09-25.


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