A Compilation of Taverns, Inns and Public Houses of St Agnes Parish

Researched and compiled by Tony Mansell, Bard of Gorsedh Kernow and a member of St Agnes Old Cornwall Society.

Updated 2022

Revised but not updated: March 2025

Introduction

From An account of all inns, taverns and ale houses in the kingdom, we find that in 1577, the ale taverns in St Agnes (presumably just the village) were held by Pawle Polpera, John Rodger, Roger Jeffrye and Robert Nicholas.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s the proliferation of drinking houses across Cornwall was directly related to the increased mining activity. The popularity of such places led John Wesley (1703 to 1791) to conclude that Cornwall was a place that did indeed need saving.

For some folk, alehouses were the ruination of their lives and the destroyer of family life but to others they were a break from their stressful existence, and havens from the daily grind of the workplace. They were somewhere to socialise, a place of relaxation where news could be gathered and gossip exchanged. In some, food and lodging was available to the traveller and stabling and fodder for his horses. These early alehouses were the forerunners of the modern public house.

In 1828, The Alehouse Act established a General Annual Licensing Meeting to be held in every city, town, division, county and riding, for the purposes of “granting licences to inns, alehouses and victualling houses to sell excisable liquors to be drunk on the premises.” The Beer Act of 1830 (referred to as the Goulborn Act) liberalised the regulations and enabled anyone to brew and sell beer on payment of a licence costing two guineas. The intention was to increase competition between brewers. It resulted in the opening of hundreds of new beer houses, public houses and breweries throughout the country. The Act’s supporters hoped that by increasing competition, the price of beer would be lowered and the population weaned off more harmful drinks such as gin. For this reason, even the Evangelical Church and the Temperance Movements encouraged the consumption of beer which they considered to be harmless, nutritious and certainly healthier than water. For many though, this relaxation was controversial. They claimed that it removed the power to regulate local trade in alcohol and even promoted drunkenness.

Gin was popular, in many cases too popular. It was relatively cheap and often illegally brought into the country by free traders (smugglers). Whether or not the Cornish theologian, Richard Polwhele, (1760 to 1838) had a vested interest in the trade we do not know but he certainly threw his weight behind it as he declared, “Gin enables the stomach to extract wholesome nutrient from the food which would otherwise have carried with it the certain seeds of disease.”

By 1841, 45,500 licences had been issued across the country and the easing of regulations during the reign of King William IV led to many taverns and public houses being named in his honour. It is suggested that he remains the most popular monarch among pub names.

Further licensing laws were introduced in 1869 and in some towns, a brew was available in almost every other house.

Pub names were, and still are, very varied and we are left to wonder at the actual connection with the suggested activity. In some cases the name struck a chord with the landlord who took it with him when he moved to a new house.

In recent years, many public houses have undergone considerable change with small rooms giving way to open plan and the provision of food becoming the main attraction. Many have found it necessary to close due to regulations, re-development or for financial reasons. It is now difficult to find a traditional ‘spit and sawdust’ pub, but it is still possible to find one where the locals can be observed playing their traditional games such as euchre, spoof and darts.

Sundry Notes:

H L Douch in Old Cornish Inns wrote, “There were five Miners Arms or Miners Inns in St Agnes. These are often shown without an apostrophe, leaving us to wonder whether it should be included before or after the s.”

Writing in the 12^th Journal of the St Agnes Museum Trust, Betty Tredinnick said, “Almost every man visited the public house as it was the one place from which the news was circulated and where they could congregate in some degree of comfort to talk. There were plenty of public houses, beer houses or kiddlywinks in the parish – no less than 40 … Although beer was the common drink, spirits were fairly cheap as they were obtained principally by smuggling! The parish was noted for this and the coastguards and preventative men were busily employed in patrolling and sometimes coming into conflict with those who persisted in carrying out what they regarded as legitimate traffic. The liquor was landed in kegs, often in Perran Bay or under Cligga Head, where it was secured to the backs of mules, one keg on each side, and transported quietly to hiding places.”

The location maps are used under a licence between Cornwall Council and St Agnes Old Cornwall Society.

There is no copyright restriction on the use of this material but if you can provide additional material or correct errors then please do so using these contact details so that the resultant revisions can be included.

Tony Mansell: 01872 552098 Mob – 07812 463746 tonymansell4@outlook.com

“There have been 10 or 11 kiddlywinks in the village [Mount Hawke].” (Frank Carpenter/St Agnes Museum Trust)

In a paper for the St Agnes Museum Trust journal Frank Carpenter wrote: “Up until 1830 there were three public houses in [St Agnes] Churchtown: the White Hart, Pearce’s Hotel and the Plume of Feathers. Following the Goulborn Act of 1830 ale houses and kiddlywinks opened all over the parish and within ten years there were six in Churchtown.”

“The coming of the railway to Cornwall began to erode the shipping trade and, with it, the business enjoyed by harbour pubs [St Agnes Trevaunance Cove].” (Frank Carpenter in an article for the journal of St Agnes Museum Trust)

“There being four licensed houses in the area [Towan Cross] during the latter half of the nineteenth century plus, of course, a few kiddlywinks. Mining and religious pressure was the cause of the demise.” (1989 Frank Carpenter article in the Fifth Journal of St Agnes Museum Trust)