Cornwall's St Ives Bay Railway
A Scenic, Coastal Branch Line in Southwestern England
From the mainline station of St Erth the track follows the western side of the River Hayle estuary past the village of Lelant and down to the coast opposite Hayle Towan Sands.
As the route turns westwards and passes below rocky cliffs, the seaward side presents a magnificent panorama of the beaches and dunes of St Ives Bay, from Godrevy Point in the far northeast round to the inlet of Carbis Bay and on to the railway terminus above Porthminster Beach.
Best Route to St Ives
This picturesque, 4.5 mile line is surely the best way of arriving in St Ives. The route opened in 1877 to serve the local fishing industry, though even then the investors were drawn mainly by the potential of tourism. Threatened with closure in the 1960s, the line had a moment of fame as part of a gently satirical song by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann:
No one departs, no one arrives / From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives / They've all passed out of our lives / On the Slow Train
But the St Erth to St Ives line was spared, and in 1978 the introduction of a park-and-ride service from Lelant Saltings, one of three intermediate stations, led to a steady rise in passenger numbers that still continues.
St Ives itself is a delight. Whitewashed houses with yellow lichen-covered roofs line the harbour, where the falling tide leaves a few dozen small boats stranded on a broad expanse of white sand. Perhaps it is the particular combination of sand and sea that creates the special quality of light that has attracted artists since the 1920s.
St Ives Artists
The Cornish artist Alfred Wallis started what became the artists’ colony, later joined by Ben Nicholson, Christopher Wood and Barbara Hepworth. Their work eventually attracted both naturalistic and abstract artists from Britain and overseas, including Maurice Sumray in the 1960s and many more since.
St Ives’ reputation as an arts centre was enhanced in 1993 when the Tate Gallery opened in a strikingly modernistic building overlooking Porthmeor Beach, home of the town’s surfing community across the peninsula from the harbour. Tate St Ives displays work by artists who have lived and worked locally, and maintains the nearby Barbara Hepworth Museum and her beautifully peaceful sculpture garden.
West Cornwall Walks
St Ives’ narrow streets, shops, numerous galleries, pubs and restaurants are worth exploring at any time of the year, and the area around the town offers good and relatively undemanding walking opportunities along the coastal footpath or the Tinners Way, to nearby points of interest like the Ding Dong mine, Knill’s Monument and the probably Neolithic holed-stone of Men-an-Tol.
But St Ives also maintains an unusually full calendar of events and festivals.
St Ives Events and Festivals
Local people and visitors in fancy dress costumes welcome the New Year beside the harbour. Early in February the St Ia festival celebrates the founding of the town, with a civic procession and a game of traditional Cornish hurling between teams from St Ives and Lelant.
A brass band leads the May Day procession, with traditional dancing along the harbour front and around a May Pole. A Midsummer Eve Bonfire is lit on a nearby hilltop, with prayers in the Cornish language, maintaining an old Celtic tradition.
On 25th July in every fifth year the town conducts the John Knill ceremony, following precise instructions from a former mayor. It takes place at a stone mausoleum on a hill overlooking the town. After its 200th anniversary in 2001, the next Knill ceremony will be in 2011.
The St Ives September Festival Fortnight
A more modern invention is the September festival, a series of mainly musical events by nationally recognized performers, supported by informal shows in local pubs and open days in artists’ studios. The Festival Fortnight has grown rapidly and attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Shortly before Christmas the Fair Mo celebrates the tradition of raising pigs in yards adjoining local houses.
Cornwall Day Ranger
The St Ives Bay Line is supported by the local council, which plans to extend the successful park-and-ride service to St Erth in 2010; and by the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, organizers of the Rail Ale Trail among other promotions.
First Great Western operates the line and offers various discounted rover and ranger tickets: the Cornwall Day Ranger for off-peak train travel throughout the county, at £10; the St Ives Bay Line Ranger, £4, allows unlimited travel between St Erth and St Ives for a day; and a £12 Ride Cornwall ticket, which combines train and bus travel.
Low tide in St Ives harbour
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Porthminster beach
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Whitewashed walls and a lichen-covered roof
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St Ives harbour and lighthouse
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The train pulls into St Ives station
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