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

Knill ceremony, Knills Monument, St Ives, Cornwall. 25th July 1981

The Mayor at the Knill ceremony with spectators in the foreground. John Knill was born in Callington on 1st January 1733 and worked as a collector of Customs in St Ives between 1762 and 1782, where he also became mayor in 1767. He was regarded as being slightly eccentric. In that same year, 1767, he decided to build a 50 foot, three sided, pyramid style granite structure on Worvas Hill just to the south of St Ives, to be known as Knill's Steeple. It was erected as his intended burial place. The monument bears on one side the painted coat of arms of Knill, with the Latin "Resurgam" (I shall arise) and, in English, "I know that my redeemer liveth". He left detailed instructions in his will for ceremonies to be carried out in his memory every five years on St James Day, July 25th, at the Steeple. This included dancing for fifteen minutes to the tune of "All people that on earth due dwell" by ten young girls under the age of 10, dressed in white and who traditionally have to be daughters of either fishermen, tinners or seamen. They are accompanied by two widows, the Mayor, the Customs Officer and a Master of Ceremonies. In his will, Knill left money for the upkeep of the monument and for celebrations to take place. The first ceremony, in which Knill participated, took place in 1801. He died in his chambers on 29th July 1811 in Gray's Inn Square London and is buried in St Andrew's Church, Holborn. Photographer: Charles Woolf

© RIC, photographer Charles Woolf