Knill’s Games at St Ives

John Knill of St Ives left the income of an estate to trustees to pay for prizes in racing, rowing and wrestling, to be held every fifth year for ever round the mausoleum he built in 1782 on a high rock near the town. At the first celebration in July 1801 a band of girls dressed in white, with four matrons and musicians, walked in pairs up to the summit, where they danced and sang a hymn round the monument, and ten guineas went on a dinner in the town. Crowds came in from Helston, Truro and Penzance, the mayor attended in his robes, wrestlers fought in the ring and crews in blue, white and red rowed in the bay. The games were held again in 1806, 1811, 1816 and 1821, and Knill’s ceremony is still kept at St Ives on St James’s Day every five years.