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The present town of Hayle is situated at the south
eastern end of St Ives bay around the Hayle Estuary. The town of Hayle
itself is quite a modern phenomena and dates back only as far as the
18th Century and the industrial revolution. That said there is a long
history of settlement around the Hayle Estuary which goes back at least
as far as the Bronze Age. There is evidence of an Iron Age fort on the
hill above Carnsew Pool where the Plantation now stands and it is
thought that Hayle (or Heyl in Celtic), was important in trading tin
with not only Irish and Breton traders, but also with Phoenicians from
the eastern Mediterranean. Evidence of extensive trading include finds
of imported pottery including Romano/Grecian Amphora - containers for
wine and oil.
It also seems that while the Romans never fully
conquered Cornwall they did it seems gain a foothold in the Hayle
Estuary and it is thought that the rectangular churchyard at St Uny's
church at Lelant on the western shore of the estuary is built within the
outline of a Roman fort.
In those early times the estuary looked a lot
different to what is seen today. The man mode harbour was of course
absent, the estuary it seems was also deeper. It was possible for boats
to go up the River Hayle as far as St Erth Bridge and the tide used to
flow in and out of what is now Foundry Square and at Gwithin reached
inland some considerable distance towards Connor Down.
| The departure of the Romans opened the doors for an
influx of Christian missionaries, most of whom seem to have had Irish
origins and after whom many Cornish towns take their present name. It
seems that Christianity became quickly established in the area, though
not wholly so, as there is evidence of the intermingling of
Christian and Pagan rituals and symbolism.
A Chi-Rho stone at Phillack
dated to the 5th Century combines the Christian cross with the pagan
circle of life and many inscribed burial stones dating from the 4th and
5th Century have also been discovered in Hayle, the most noteworthy
being that uncovered in the plantation behind Foundry.
The stone was discovered in December 1843 by
workmen engaged in building a road in the grounds lying in a
horizontal position at the depth of four feet. When the stone
was moved it broke into three parts. Mr Harvey had it fixed into the wall of his
new road on Carnsew cliff, within a few feet of the spot where it was
discovered'. and added the a more recent replica which lies next
to it. The stone has remained there since. |
A copy of the Cenui Stone embedded in the
wall in the Plantation. The 'real' stone
lies buried in the wall near the replica. |
It bears an inscription in Latin.
There is much debate as to the actual wording as much of it was in a
poor condition and almost unreadable. The version that appears on the
replica reads 'Here Cenui fell asleep who was born in 500 Here in his
tomb he lies, he lived 33 years. '
While there is some physical and documentary evidence that by the
middle ages, a port was well established in the Hayle Estuary it was the
industrial revolution that saw the town and port of Hayle grow to
resemble the town as we know it today.
The Domesday survey in 1086 shows that by the 11th
Century, the town of Hayle was still to establish itself. The manor of
Conardition is recorded as including the Hayle Estuary with the manor
centred on Conerton, close to the present day village of Gwithian at its
centre and it is from Conerton that the name of the present day
settlement of Conner Down is derived. A number of scattered farmsteads
are recorded but no substantial settlement. By the 13th Century Conerton
was owned by the Arundel family until it was old to the Cornish Copper
Company in the early 1800s
| The first documentary evidence of any settlements around the Hayle
Estuary is in 1130 when Phillack Church and surrounding building were
recorded as ‘Egloshayle’ meaning the church (eglos) on the estuary (heyl) with
the church being dedicated originally to St Piala - a contemporary of St
Gwinear.
At some point in the 17th century the church was re-dedicated to St Felicitas
(which according to some is simply a Latinisation of Piala), from where it is
believed the name Phillack was derived. |
Phillack Church |
The first recorded mention of Hayle is in 1265 but it
would seem even then the settlement was little more than a few dwellings
and scattered farms. It took the industrial revolution to kick-start the
growth of Hayle. Hayle was initially a coal importing and ore exporting
port but Hayle was initially dwarfed by nearby Angarrack where a tin
smelter was built in 1704, and mills and stamps
converted/constructed to process the ore. Hayle's role was simply to serve as a convenient point to land coal
from South Wales, which was then taken to Angarrack by mule. In 1710 a
copper and tin smelter was built at Mellanear Farm on the Mellanear stream
which prospered for many years
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Perhaps the first major development at Hayle was the construction of the first
modern quay by John 'Merchant' Curnow in the 1740's to service the
growing mining industry. In 1758 the Cornish Copper Company moved from Camborne and set up a
copper smelter at Ventonleague (Copperhouse Creek) and this proved very
successful, so much so in fact that a canal was built to bring vessels
right up to the works and additional land for industrial use and housing
was purchased on both
sides of the creek.
The smelting process generated large amounts of
waste. The copper slag was cast into large heavy dark bricks or 'Scoria
Blocks' which were to prove a very useful building material which were
used and re-used in the town and can be seen in many buildings. The
blocks were sold at 9d (about 3p) for 20 and given free to
employees of the CCCo to build their own houses.
Sea Lane or Black Road (and Black Bridge) as it is now known was built
using these and waste used to fill in the upper reaches of Copperhouse
Creek creating Wilson's Pool and dividing it from Copperhouse Pool.
Copperhouse Pool was subsequently modified to serve as a tidal reservoir
both to allow ships to travel up as far as the dock, (where the Co-op
supermarket now stands), and to flush or sluice the channel to keep it
clear of sand and silt. |
Black Bridge
Copperhouse Lock |
In 1779 John Harvey, a blacksmith from nearby by Carnhell Green
established a small foundry and engineering works in the area now known
as Foundry to supply the local mining industry. The business flourished
and by 1800 employed more than 50 people and it went from strength to
strength through both professional and family partnerships with a series
of great engineers and entrepreneurs including Richard Trevithick,
William West and Arthur Woolf gave the firm a level of expertise
unmatched in Cornwall. The firm of Harvey & Co is probably best
remembered for producing some of the finest beam engines ever built
which not only served in Cornish Mines but were exported worldwide. but
it also produced a range of products ranging from hand tools to ocean
going ships.
| As Harvey's and the Cornish Copper Company continued
to thrive the rivalry between the two grew into open hostility. Disputes
regularly erupted over access to the sea as The Cornish Copper
Company controlled the dock and the tidal sluice which they had
built at Copperhouse.
Harveys acted to break the Cornish Copper
Company's monopoly by constructing their own harbour by
deepening Penpol Creek and building a dock. They even constructed their own tidal
reservoir and sluice by creating Carnsew Pool. |
Penpol Creek |
Harvey's operated a 'Company Store policy' forcing workers to buy
their provisions from Harvey's Emporium and prohibiting the development
of any independent shops. When this policy was finally brought to an end
an number of shops quickly established. These so called 'Garden Shops'
were literally built in the front gardens of existing buildings and are
still evident in modern Hayle.
Prior to 1825 anyone wanting to go from Hayle to St
Ives or Penzance either had to cross the sand s of Hayle Estuary or had
to make a significant detour crossing the River Hayle at the ancient St
Erth Bridge. Guides took travellers across the sands, but even with
guides it was sometimes a perilous journey and the shifting sand and
racing tide claimed several lives. Recognising this major obstacle to
trade a turnpike trust was formed with Henry Harvey a trustee to build
the causeway which now takes the road below the plantation west to the
Old Quay House. Costing Ł5000 in 1825 the investors charges a toll to
use the causeway to recover their costs.
As Hayle’s prosperity grew the foundry and smelter
owners invested in the nearby mining industry. There was relativity
little mining in and around Hayle itself with Wheal Alfred and Wheal
Prosper (near Gwithian), being the
only mine of any note, the nearest significant mines being around Helston. As Hayle's involvement in the mining industry around Helston
grew it eventually reached the point in 1833 that it replaced Helston as the local coinage
(stannary) town although this was short lived as the Stannary system was
abolished in 1838.
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1837 saw the opening of the Hayle-Redruth Railway.
Designed from the outset to carry both goods and passengers the Hayle
Railway's terminus was in Foundry Square under the present viaduct.
Steam was introduced onto the Hayle
Section in 1843 but the construction of the railway meant that only
light engines could be used and of course the incline at Angarrack
remained a problem.
In 1852 a new railway was opened spanning the Valley
at Angarrack with an impressive viaduct and passing through Hayle on a
new wooden supports over Foundry Square which were later replaced with
the current stone pillars.
The
Harbour Branch line was closed in 1982 and the station buildings and
signal box were demolished at the same time.
The original station in Foundry Square
remained until after the second world war when it was
demolished. The area was later converted into the RNLI 'Isis'
garden to commemorate the first Hayle Lifeboat of which the town was
very proud. |
Hayle Railway station is little more
than a
platform today
Hayle Viaduct
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Harvey's of Hayle reached their peek in the early/mid 1800's
producing not only but along with the other
foundries and engineering works in Hayle began a long and slow decline.
Harvey's acquired the Cornish Copper Company in 1875 but the writing was
on the wall. The engineering works and
Foundry were closed in 1903 though
the company continued to trade as general and builders merchant,
eventually merging with UBM to become Harvey-UBM in 1969.
| In 1888 the National Explosive works were established
on Upton Towans giving it the alternative name 'Dynamite Towans',
originally built to supply the local mining industry it soon grew to
supply the military and during the first work war employed over 1500
people. The remote location on the Towans proved a wise move as
their were a number of accidents resulting in explosions.
Explosive manufacture ceased in 1920, parts of the site
were used as an explosives store until the 1960's. The area is now a
nature reserve over which people are encouraged to roam. |
The remains of a building on Dynamite Towans |
1910 saw the opening of Hayle Power Station on
Harvey's Towans. It was coal fired power station which was supplied by
ship from South Wales until it was closed in 1977 at which time Hayle
Harbour was also closed to commercial shipping though a locally
important fishing fleet specialising mainly in shellfish remains.
| Until the early 1900s Hayle had two very marked areas
of settlement around the competing foundries but slowly buildings began
to appear between the two joining the two communities.
St Elwyn’s
Church, the Passmore Edwards Institute and a new drill Hall all appeared
within a few years of each other and housing followed. The Passmore
Edwards Institute was just one of a series of institutes and
libraries built throughout Cornwall by its eponymous benefactor
who made a fortune in the publishing business. Today the
building serves as Hayle Town Council debating chamber and as a
community rooms.
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Passmore Edwards Institute |
In the years between the Wars a number of small works
were established on North Quay including a glass works, a small oil
depot and a plant for producing bromide - apparently for use in aviation
fuel. All are now closed and most of the buildings demolished.
The metalworking business of J & F Pool, founded in
1862, still survives in Copperhouse producing perforated and fabricated metal
though is continued existence is in the balance.
The engineering tradition continues with the more recent small
specialist firms of Bassett Engineering and Ridgibore which specialise
in castings and precision engineering products from sites on the
Guildford Road industrial Estate.
| Hayle's position by the sea and its beautiful
3 miles of golden sandy beaches
allowed it to develop as a holiday destination, indeed Hayle still has
more holiday accommodation than the rest of West Cornwall put together.
The sand dunes or Towans are the favoured location for a number of
holiday villages and caravan and camping sites.
The Gwithian beach near Godrevy is not only
picturesque but it is also a favoured area for
water-related sports including surfing, windsurfing and
body-boarding.
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Windsurfing at Godrevy |
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Unfortunately general dereliction and the
controversial practice of the commercial digging of sand from
the beach has tarnished Hayle's reputation as a
holiday destination in recent years. A number of schemes have been proposed for the
regeneration of the town and its harbour but none has yet come to
fruition.
In the 1980's entrepreneur Peter de Savery's, grandiose plans
were scuppered by a downturn in the economy and since that time Hayle
Harbour has changed hands numerous times. Many plans have been drawn and
re-drawn but to date they have come to naught. |
Hayle Harbour |
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