St Erth facts for kids

The River Hayle near St Erth, with the church tower in the distance.

St Erth (which is Lannudhno in Cornish) is a village and a civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. A civil parish is like a small local area with its own council.

The village gets its name from Saint Erc, who was one of many Irish saints. These saints helped bring Christianity to Cornwall during the Dark Ages, a time after the Roman Empire fell. St Erth is also located at an old crossing point of the River Hayle. The Cornish name for the place comes from St Uthinoch, but not much is known about this saint. The church of St Erth was built in the 15th century. People say an even older church used to stand on St Erth Hill, looking over the village.

St Erth railway station is about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) from the village, in a place called Rose-an-Grouse. It's on the main train line that goes from London Paddington all the way to Penzance. It's also where you can catch the beautiful St Ives Bay Line train.

Exploring St Erth's Location and History

St Erth is located about 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) southeast of St Ives and 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of Penzance. The areas next to St Erth are Ludgvan to the west, Hayle to the north, and St Hilary to the south.

How People Used to Travel

In the past, an old road for horse-drawn carriages went right through the village. Before 1825, if you wanted to go from Hayle to St Ives or Penzance, you had to cross the sandy areas of the Hayle Estuary (where the river meets the sea). Or, you had to take a very long detour to cross the River Hayle at the old St Erth Bridge.

The Star Inn, which is in the middle of St Erth village, is a very old building. It's a Grade II listed building, meaning it's important and protected. This old coaching inn (like a hotel for travelers and their horses) dates back to the 14th or 15th century. Tin from the mining areas of Penwith used to be carried along this road. Guides would help travelers cross the sands, but it was often dangerous. The moving sand and fast tides sometimes caused people to lose their lives.

Because this crossing was so difficult for trade, a group called a turnpike trust was formed. They decided to build a raised road, called a causeway, in 1825. This causeway now carries the road and made travel much safer. It cost £5000 back then, and the people who invested in it charged a small fee (a toll) to use the causeway to get their money back.

Old Industries and Important Sites

St Erth was once home to a large creamery run by United Dairies. This factory processed a lot of milk from the Penwith area.

Manor Houses in the Area

• Trewinnard Manor is a house from the early 1700s. It was built by the Hawkins family in a different spot from their older medieval house.
• Trelissick Manor is a medieval house that was changed in 1688 for a person called James Paynter. It was changed again in the 1700s and made bigger in the 1800s.
• Tredrea Manor is a 17th-century house, but it was mostly rebuilt around 1856. The front of the house has five sections and is made of smooth, cut stone.

St Erth Sand Pits: A Place for Fossils and Clay

The St Erth Sand Pits were places where special sands and clays from the Pliocene period (a very long time ago) were dug up. The clay was used for different things. Miners used it to stick candles to their helmets. It was also used to make the dry dock at Penzance watertight. Later, a famous potter named Bernard Leach used this clay for his pottery in St Ives.

These clay pits were also important because many fossils were found there. In 1886, the Royal Society even got money from the government to search for shells in these beds. In 1962, the pits were named a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which means they are protected because of their special natural features.

The sand from these pits was mainly used by metal foundries (factories that make metal objects) all over Cornwall, especially by Harvey's in nearby Hayle. The sand grains have a thin layer of clay on them. With a little pressure and the right amount of water, the sand grains stick together. This makes them perfect for creating sand moulds into which hot, melted metal can be poured to make parts for machines. One of the old pits is now a nature reserve owned by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

St Erth's Parish Church

An ancient cross in the churchyard of St Erth.

The parish church is named after St Erc. It was probably built in the 14th century. It's not a huge church and has a tower with three levels on its west side. There are also side sections called north and south aisles. The church was repaired and updated in 1874. During this time, two windows were added to the roof.

The wooden roof of the south porch is very old. The font, which is a basin used for baptisms, is from the Norman period and has an unusual square shape. The beautiful wooden roofs of the main part of the church and the aisles, along with a fine oak screen decorated with the Four Evangelists (important figures in Christianity), were added during the 1874 repairs.

The church is in a peaceful, wooded area. The churchyard, according to historian Charles Henderson, "greatly enhances the building," meaning it makes the church look even better. Old records show that eight other places in the parish once had chapels or shrines, including Bosworgey and Gurlyn.

There are six old Cornish crosses in the parish. Two are in the churchyard, and the others are in the village center and at Battery Mill, Tregenhorne, and Trevean.

Cornish Wrestling in St Erth

Cornish wrestling competitions, where people competed for prizes, have been held in St Erth for at least the last hundred years. These tournaments have taken place in fields at Treloweth, near St Erth station, and at Tredrea Manor.

St Erth's Twin Town

Since 1998, St Erth has been twinned with Ploulec'h, a town in Brittany, France. This means the two towns have a special friendship and often exchange visits.

Famous People from St Erth

Many notable people have connections to St Erth:

• The Reverend William Paynter (1637–1716) was an Anglican clergyman and a Vice-Chancellor (a high-ranking leader) of Oxford University. He was born at Trelissick Walbert, in the St Erth parish.
• Davies Gilbert (1767–1839) was a Cornish engineer, writer, and politician. He was born Davies Giddy and lived in the family home of Tredrea in St Erth. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), a very respected scientific group.
• David Charleston (1848 in St Erth – 1934) was an Australian politician born in Cornwall. He moved to Australia in 1884 and was elected to the Australian Senate in 1901.
• Major Herbert Augustine Carter VC (1874–1916) was the son of the vicar of St Erth. He fought in two military campaigns in East Africa. He is buried in St Erth in a special plot with tropical plants. His Victoria Cross (the highest military award for bravery) is on display at the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Museum in Bodmin.
• Admiral Sir Henry Bernard Hughes Rawlings (1889 in St Erth – 1962) was a Royal Navy officer. He became the Flag Officer for the Eastern Mediterranean during World War II, meaning he was a top naval commander in that area.
• Sir John William Frederic Nott (born 1932) was a British politician from the Conservative Party. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for St Ives from 1966 to 1983. He served as the Secretary of State for Defence during the Falkland war. He now lives on his farm in St Erth.

See also

In Spanish: St Erth para niños