St Day

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St Day
Cornish: Sen Day
Cornwall
St Day old church - geograph.org.uk - 764374.jpg
St Day old church
Location
Grid reference: SW730425
Location: 50°14’20"N, 5°11’2"W
Data
Post town: Redruth
Postcode: TR16
Dialling code: 01209
Local Government
Council: Cornwall
Parliamentary
constituency:
Camborne and Redruth

St Day is a village in mid-Cornwall, sitting between the village of Chacewater and the town of Redruth.

The village is in a former mining area (which included Poldice, Tolcarne, Todpool, Creegbrawse and Crofthandy) and accrued considerable wealth from mining. The parish is at the heart of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a World Heritage Site that includes St Agnes, Chapel Porth and Porthtowan.

Industrial history

St Day was a centre for the richest and perhaps most famous copper mining district in the world 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.[1] It is now essentially a residential village.

The Wheal Gorland mine is the type locality for the minerals Chenevixite, Clinoclase, Cornwallite and Liroconite.[2]

A St Day mine site has been used for short-oval stock car racing for many years. Stock car drivers from Cornwall have won 11 World Championships.

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.[3] The saint commemorated here is probably the Breton Saint Dei.[4]

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about St Day)

References