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St Ives Theatre aka Kidz R Us: Early 2021 this project began with a query about roof repairs, and fast grew into a whole...
28/05/2025

St Ives Theatre aka Kidz R Us: Early 2021 this project began with a query about roof repairs, and fast grew into a whole theatre regeneration project, led by a community of dedicated people, with Town Deal funding, creating a lasting legacy, from 30 years of Kidz R Us, performance art in St Ives for future generations to experience, learn, and enjoy. My own family were privileged to have been a part of Kidz R Us, taking part in numerous shows, and I too feel fortunate to have played a very small role helping kickstart this fabulous new chapter in the building’s history. Well worth popping in for a great coffee, pastry, or to take in a show

The impressive looking Tregenna Castle Hotel sits high on a defensive hill overlooking St Ives like it was once a castle...
07/10/2023

The impressive looking Tregenna Castle Hotel sits high on a defensive hill overlooking St Ives like it was once a castle, but it wasn't! Designed by John Wood the Younger (think Bath's Royal Crescent) it was built 250 years ago as a 14 bedroomed home, then converted to a hotel by Great Western Railways when their branch-line began escorting tourists into town from the 1870s and has offered hospitality ever since.




Trees Are Green 🌳This picture came up in my feed earlier. I took it this summer in central Oxford. Upset by the lost ‘Sy...
05/10/2023

Trees Are Green 🌳

This picture came up in my feed earlier. I took it this summer in central Oxford. Upset by the lost ‘Sycamore Gap Tree’, I felt a need to share. It’s a beautiful scene and shows the capacity to live closely and care for trees even in densely populated environments. I looked for words to help convey sentiment, and found these from Auden which seem to fit.

‘The trees encountered on a country stroll reveal a lot about that country's soul... A culture is no better than its woods.’ - W.H. Auden, Bucolics, 1953

A gun battery still exists on the east of The Island overlooking St Ives Bay. The map is St Ives from around 1830 and sh...
03/10/2023

A gun battery still exists on the east of The Island overlooking St Ives Bay.

The map is St Ives from around 1830 and shows the location of the historic emplacement. From 1860, the fortifications here are known to have included three guns and a barracks for soldiers to defend the town against a possible foreign invasion from the sea. The original guns were removed in 1909. Then, during World War II, the site was re-equipped with anti-aircraft guns pointing upwards to defend the town against bombing raids from the sky.

Today the gun emplacements are still in use providing lookout accommodation for the local Coastwatch station, with the barracks now housing a local surf school.


I went on an archaeological tour of West Cornwall last week and discovered a portal between our physical world and the h...
27/09/2023

I went on an archaeological tour of West Cornwall last week and discovered a portal between our physical world and the heavens. A lychgate! The name comes from old-English for ‘co**se’ and offers a traditional entrance to a churchyard, designed as a sacred space for a deceased person to be placed, for family and friends to gather for initial service and in saying farewell. Often with a roofed porch and decorated with wood carvings, these spiritual entranceways helped increase a sense of transition, giving a physical threshold into holy ground. This lychgate is at Paul in West Cornwall. It has no decorated porch, but offers a rare example showing an original plinth where the co**se was seated before passage.

…Paul church was also famously burned by invading Spanish soldiers in 1595, and the soot stained stonework can still be seen inside.

A forgotten castle used to guard over St Ives town at The Island. This low promontory used to be called Pendinas, meanin...
23/09/2023

A forgotten castle used to guard over St Ives town at The Island. This low promontory used to be called Pendinas, meaning ‘headland-castle’ from the pre-Roman times. Smatterings of evidence include a 16th Century ‘travel blog’ by poet John Leland referring to a castle here, and borough records in 1595 for the upkeep of fortifications and a platform to hold ‘great guns’. There’s also a faint castle ruin, just outline traces, piled stones facing west across Porthmeor Beach, and a belief that St Nicholas Chapel stands on old castle foundations. The outline of piled stone is similar to ‘Harrys Walls’ built as defences on the Isles of Scilly around 1550.




I never knew St Ives was so defensive! Today, surrounded by holiday makers, it’s hard to imagine St Ives as a fortified ...
20/09/2023

I never knew St Ives was so defensive!

Today, surrounded by holiday makers, it’s hard to imagine St Ives as a fortified town.

This child-like drawing is part of huge map that was presented to King Henry VIII to show where foreign invaders might attack. The image shows St Ives including its medieval harbour and a fort which defended the town somewhere near the current harbour pier (Smeaton’s Pier) in an area still locally named ‘The Castle’.























Today, 130 years after Virginia Woolf’s first recorded visit to Godrevy Lighthouse, we gathered to celebrate the writer’...
11/09/2022

Today, 130 years after Virginia Woolf’s first recorded visit to Godrevy Lighthouse, we gathered to celebrate the writer’s connection with St Ives and to unveil a heritage plaque on the family home where they spent their youthful summers.

The unveiling was performed with a polite ceremony and acknowledgement of those who contributed to the installation, including the work undertaken by the Town Council, and the magnificent success of the fund raising which drew in money from around the world.

The current owners and tenants of Talland House generously hosted the event which was garnished with well appreciated wine and food.

Prof. Maggie Humm, who along with the Virginia Woolf Society petitioned the installation, gave a delightful presentation and reading from her novel ‘Talland House’.

The skies cleared giving us perfect views to the lighthouse.

We have listed building consent. One step closer to a heritage plaque at Talland House celebrating Virginia Woolf. Next ...
02/04/2022

We have listed building consent. One step closer to a heritage plaque at Talland House celebrating Virginia Woolf. Next stage, fund raising- please follow the link in the bio to Spacehive.com for the fundraising page. Very generous donations already received!

Photos include a view across St Ives Bay to the lighthouse and the front elevation of Talland House ready to receive its commemorative plaque.

“For the great plateful of blue water was before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst ...” Virginia...
10/02/2022

“For the great plateful of blue water was before her; the hoary Lighthouse, distant, austere, in the midst ...” Virginia Woolf ‘To the Lighthouse’ (1927)

We’ve been working with St Ives Town Council and The Virginia Woolf Society to install a plaque at Talland House to commentate its literary association. This week our planning and listed building application received positive recognition from the local Conservation Officer. Our application can be viewed online, search ‘Cornwall planning register’ and use the reference no: PA22/00895

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