St Columb Major

St Columb Major
The crest of St. Columb with town motto
St Columb Major is located in Cornwall
St Columb Major
St Columb Major
Location within Cornwall
Population4,681 (2011 Census)[1]
OS grid referenceSW912633
Civil parish
  • St Columb Major
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townST. COLUMB
Postcode districtTR9
Dialling code01637
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°25′55″N 4°56′24″W / 50.432°N 4.940°W / 50.432; -4.940

St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is approximately seven miles (11 km) southwest of Wadebridge and six miles (10 km) east of Newquay [2] The designation Major distinguishes it from the nearby settlement and parish of St Columb Minor on the coast. An electoral ward simply named St Columb exists with a population at the 2011 census of 5,050.[3] The town is named after the 6th-century AD Saint Columba of Cornwall, also known as Columb.

Twice a year the town plays host to "hurling", a medieval game once common throughout Cornwall but now only played in St Columb and St Ives.[note 1] It is played on Shrove Tuesday and again on the Saturday eleven days later. The game involves two teams of unlimited numbers (the 'townsmen' and the 'countrymen' of St Columb parish) who endeavour to carry a silver ball to goals set two miles (3 km) apart or across the parish boundary, making the parish, around 17.2 square miles (45 km2) in area,[4] the de facto largest sports ground in the world.[5]

  1. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – St. Columb Major Parish (E04011538)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  2. ^ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 Newquay & Bodmin ISBN 978-0-319-22938-5
  3. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – St Columb Ward (E05008288)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Church of England parish map". ArcGIS.
  5. ^ Hornby, Hugh (2008). Uppies and Downies: The extraordinary football games of Britain. English Heritage. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-9056246-4-5.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).