Today the Pedn Olva in St Ives is a place with a fine view up to Trevose Head where you might enjoy a scotch on the rocks but on 10 December 1846 it was a ship on the rocks, the Thomas  of St Ives.

Slave trading in illegal but slavers still sail the seas...

The loss of the Trevessa, a Hain Line ship, happened in a remote area of the Indian Ocean and was followed by 1700 mile voyage to safety in open boats. The final meeting of the investigation into the ship's loss took place 7th December 1923.

Unpredictable, that's fishing! On 19th November 1821 the St Ives boats went out after herring and they landed the biggest catch of pilchard known up to that time.

Herring! Great numbers of herring, the like of which was scarce known before....

Vessel on fire reported off St Ives. Boats manned for rescue attempt…….

The 11th October 1837 marked the first appearance of shoals of herring off St Ives for 14 years. It was the first day of a plentiful season....

On 5th October 1900 Edward Hain, fourth of the name of head of  the family shipping business, was elected as M.P. for St Ives.

It's the "first annual demonstration" of the St Ives, Lelant and Towednack United Conservative Association and Mr Charles Ross M.P. is just arriving at the Malakoff, in a carriage and pair I hasten to add........

8th September 1838: Rover burnt in effigy in St Ives, Penrose to blame.

On 29th August 1828 the Dutch ship Enterprize arrived in St Ives with over 350 refugees on board. Where were they from........

Cholera reached Britain in October 1831 and took its first victim in St Ives on 28 August 1832.....

27 August 1808: The greatest abundance of pilchards ever know have been taken this week in the Mount's Bay. At St Ives there are more than 10000 hogsheads landed...........

Beauty of St Ives: Will it be Spoiled by Slum Clearance? The Cornishman's succinct summary of the controversial proposals for the future of St Ives in 1834…..

The vessels of the Welsh Fleet were small boats, worked hard, often under-manned and working to tight schedules and like the colliers of the North Sea they could be deadly on the unforgiving north coast of Cornwall.

Cornwall has had many links with Brittany over the centuries, one of the lesser known ones is the St Ives salt trade......

When the secret select are abolished, 
As all of us wish them to be, -
In short, when James Halse is demolished
There’ll be room in the Market for me.

Sunday 19^th July 1908. You might like to picture a lazy and peaceful day in a fine Edwardian summer. Boaters. Croquet.  Cucumber sandwiches. That sort of thing.

But for some it’s a working day. Take James Curnow, for example. He’s 20 years old, and has a steady job at Penbeagle Farm – been there working for John Pearce since he was 16. James is a conscientious young man.  Pearce – who is currently serving as Mayor of St Ives - will later, to applause, “testify to his good behaviour, thoughtfulness and good work.” 

Blasting in mines was a dangerous business, especially if Bickford's safety fuse was not being used.........

St Ives Coastguards had a busy time in July 1831 seizing nearly 450 tubs of brandy and gin and assorted other contraband......

The electors of St Ives in the 1820s would have been perplexed by the lack of enthusiasm of today's electorate……………

The St Erth to St Ives branchline was the last new broad gauge line to be built in Britain and celebrates its 140th anniversary this year (2017).

On 19 May 1835 John Tregerthen Short (JTS) wrote in his diary, “The foundation of the Gas Works was laid by Camborne masons, the St Ives masons having demanded one-third more money to carry out the work.”

At 9.30am the Ono, of St Ives, captain Thomas Brooking Williams, with eighty-two emigrants, sailed for Quebec. - John Tregerthen Short in his diary for 14 May 1849

The water was brought into the town this day. The expense was defrayed by public subscription – Mr Stephens, of Tregenna, giving £100 and Mr Praed £100. There are eight public fountains. To celebrate the event a band of music went round the town, followed by a great concourse of people. John Tregerthen Short, 8 May 1843 in his diary.

On April 2 1832 the St Ives Chronicler, aka John Tregerthen Short (JTS), wrote in his diary that the demolition of the old market house had begun. He noted that the old building had been constructed in 1490......

All is not well at St Ives. The fishermen have been bringing good money into the town – their official returns for the year up £5,000 last year to £52,000. Money like this should – surely – bring a substantial voice...........

April 11 1823 saw the opening of “Sir Christopher's School” in St Ives. Sir Christopher was Sir Christopher Hawkins of Trewithen, the local M.P., and the school was described by John Tregerthen Short (JTS), in his diary entry for 11 April 1823) as a free school for the education of poor children.

The winter of 1836/37 is not generally cited as a particularly bad one but in St Ives the weather was severe enough to prompt John Tregerthen Short to comment several times in his diary:

The Channel swarmed with French privateers that seized English merchant vessels on an almost daily basis. This was the fate of the brig, Friendship – a vessel of 15 tons burthen, built at Swansea in 1801 and partly owned by Josias Sincock of St Ives.

It’s the last weekend before the election. In the St Ives and Western Divisions, the contest is becoming heated. The contestants have already published lengthy election addresses in the newspapers...................

The St Ives built schooner Eldred left for Swansea with her first cargo on 26 March 1829. Eldred had been launched on 20 January and Lloyd's Register for 1830 shows her to have been a single deck schooner of 93 tons skippered and owned by J. Matthews. Her crew on that first trip was probably something in order of five men and a ship's boy.

Not Nelson's famous flagship but a smack from Bristol bound for Exeter laden with freestone and castings. Victory hit The Ridge and became a complete wreck......or did she.........

This spring has been the most severe and most backward known for a number of years. No grass; cattle dying for want of fodder….”

“Arrived the Welsh fleet; some having been nearly twelve weeks on the voyage. Coals advanced 2s. Per way; price now 46s.”

Conflict between the 'tradition­alists' and the 'modernists' at the St Ives Society of Artists in 1948 led to the resignation of 24 modernists and the following year they formed the Penwith Society

The Nile was a four year old, iron-hulled, sail assisted steamer, a cargo ship with passenger accommodation. She hit the Stones at night in bad weather with the loss of all hands......

The bottom of a vessel was observed about four miles from the land. The gigs went to the wreck, which proved to be the Riga Packet, of London, from the West Indies. Nothing has been heard of the crew.

James Halse was MP for St Ives between 1826 and 1838, a period which saw six general elections and the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832. He lost the seat briefly at the August 1830 election but regained it the next year in July 1831. He was elected for the 4th time on January 7th 1835.

January 4th 1828. Launched at St Ives, the Levant Packet – a “fine-built brig of 190 tons burden”, built and registered at St Ives. “Finally” launched at St Ives, one might say. For this is not the first attempt