Crowd Gallery

The 'Riots Group Committee', Newquay, Cornwall. 1897

A photograph of the 'Riot Committee' set up to object to the building of the Headland Hotel on the site known as Fistral Meadow, taken around the time of the riots on 31st August 1897. The proposed site of the hotel had previously been used as land on which farmers grazed livestock and local fishermen dried their nets. The proposals of architect, Silvanus Trevail, threatened to ruin their livelihoods. When building work commenced, outraged farmers and fishermen rushed to the site, where they tore down the wooden works office and valuable tools and planks of wood were hurled off the cliff onto the beach. Photographer: Unknown.

© From the collection of the RIC

Bishop Frere in procession to St Piran's Oratory, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. Between 1923 and 1935

A procession arriving at the oratory for a service under Bishop Frere. St Piran's Oratory survives as an early Christian chapel with all four walls standing. It represents the supposed site where St Piran, an Irish saint came ashore and established a Christian centre of worship in the sixth or seventh centuries AD. The site has a documented entry in the Domesday book. There is a small nave, chancel and stone bench around much of the interior plus a cemetery. Situated on Penhale Sands, east of Perranporth, the Oratory has been subject to blown sands over the years. Excavations were carried out in 1835 and 1843 and then railings were erected around the site in the 1890s. In 1910 it was re-excavated and a concrete 'preserving structure' constructed over it. A large number of burials were uncovered during the works. The concrete shell was largely demolished in 1980 and the chapel reburied. The site was re-excavated in 2014-2015. Walter Frere (1863-1938) was appointed Bishop of Truro in 1923 and held this position until 1935. Photographer: Arthur William Jordan.

© From the collection of the RIC