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St Day
Human settlement in England

St Day is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is positioned between the village of Chacewater and the town of Redruth. The electoral ward St Day and Lanner had a population of 4,473 according to the 2011 census.

St Day is in an area that was historically known for mining, encompassing places such as Poldice, Tolcarne, Todpool, Creegbrawse and Crofthandy. The village gained significant wealth from mining activities. It holds a central position within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, which is a designated World Heritage Site. This site includes other notable locations such as St Agnes, Chacewater, Chapel Porth and Porthtowan.

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Industrial history

St Day served as a hub for the wealthiest and arguably the most renowned copper mining district globally from the 16th century to the 1830s. The population, wealth and activity in St Day declined steadily from about 1870 onwards, today the population is smaller than in 1841.3 It is now essentially a residential village.

The Wheal Gorland mine is the type locality for the minerals: chenevixite, clinoclase, cornwallite, kernowite, and liroconite.4

The population of St Day was 1,821 at the census 20115

Social

St Day Feast takes place during the summer in the village and includes, among other things, two formal street dances reminiscent of those in Helston. One of the dances is specifically for children and involves the participation of students from St Day and Carharrack Primary School.

A St Day mine site has been used for short-oval stock car racing for many years. Stock car drivers from Cornwall have won eleven World Championships.

Cornish wrestling

There were many Cornish wrestling tournaments for prizes during the 1800s and 1900s, including feast day.678 Tournaments were held at various venues including the:

  • King's Arms Inn at Fair Meadow9
  • Market House Inn10
  • Lion Inn11
  • Field opposite the hotel12
  • Park Field13

See also Wrestling in Vogue.

Parish church

The parish was originally a chapelry of Gwennap but became independent in 1835. In the 13th century there was a chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity and even earlier there had been a chapel dedicated to St Day which was a great centre of pilgrimage.14 The saint commemorated here is probably the Breton Saint Dei.15

The Sans Day Carol or St. Day Carol is one of the many Cornish Christmas carols written in the 19th century. This carol and its melody were first transcribed from the singing of Thomas Beard who lived in this parish.

  • Cornwall portal

References

  1. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7 /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  2. "Ward population 2011". Ukcensusdata.com. Retrieved 12 February 2015. http://www.ukcensusdata.com/st-day-and-lanner-e05008289#sthash.kOuLe2ru.dpbs ↩

  3. "Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative : ST DAY : (Gwennap Area)" (PDF). Historic-cornwall.org.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2015. http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/cisi/st_day/CISI_St%20Day_report.pdf ↩

  4. "Wheal Gorland, St Day United Mines (Poldice Mines), Gwennap, Camborne – Redruth – St Day District, Cornwall, England, UK". Mindat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2020. http://www.mindat.org/loc-939.html ↩

  5. "Parish population 2011". Genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2015. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/StDay/index.html#Population ↩

  6. Thomas, W Herbert (25 July 1889). "St Day Wakes Up. Sketch of the famous mining centre - past and present,". The Cornishman. No. 577. p. 3. ↩

  7. West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 30 June 1938. ↩

  8. The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 16 June 1837, p2. ↩

  9. The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 16 June 1837, p2. ↩

  10. Royal Cornwall Gazette - Friday 16 August 1839. ↩

  11. The Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet, and General Advertiser, 5 July 1878, p4. ↩

  12. Cornish Post and Mining News, 22 October 1892. ↩

  13. Royal Cornwall Gazette, 28 June 1906. ↩

  14. Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 54 ↩

  15. Doble, G. H. (1964) The Saints of Cornwall: part 3. Truro: Dean and Chapter; ISBN 978-0902867017, pp. 133-139 /wiki/Gilbert_Hunter_Doble ↩