St Ives dances round the Steeple to honour John Knill

Every five years, a fiddler in red velvet leads a line of girls in white up a hill above St Ives to dance around a stone steeple. It looks like a wedding, but it is not one. It is the will of a man who died more than two centuries ago, carried out to the letter, and on Saturday 25 July the town honoured it for the 46th time.

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

Opening the chest at the War Memorial Gardens

The day began at the War Memorial Gardens, where the three Knill Trustees opened a chest holding the payments set aside for the people who keep the ceremony alive. The money goes to the maids, the two widows and the fiddler, given in thanks for taking part, and it is handed over exactly as John Knill wanted. The Trustees are the three office-holders he named for the job: the Mayor of St Ives, the Vicar and the Customs Officer.

John Knill himself was a former Mayor and Customs Officer of the town, and by most accounts an eccentric one. He set the whole thing down in his will in 1797 and built the monument he would be remembered by while he was still alive. He asked that the ceremony be repeated every five years, and since 1801 it has been, which makes this year the 46th celebration.

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

Through the streets and up Worvas Hill

After the chest was opened, the assembled group paraded through the streets of St Ives and climbed to Knill’s Monument, the tall granite steeple that stands on Worvas Hill. Residents and visitors lined the route and followed the procession up through the gorse to the top, where the crowd gathered around the monument in the sun.

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

Dancing round the Steeple

Knill’s instructions are specific, and 225 years on they were followed closely. A fiddler led the dancing, and behind her came 12 local maids and two widows of fishermen, seamen or tinners. Together they danced around the Knill Steeple in the traditional dance before singing the hundredth psalm. This year the fiddler was Katrina Geraghty, whose playing carried the procession from the town all the way to the hilltop.

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

A promise kept since 1801

The ceremony is organised on behalf of the Trustees by St Ives Town Council, and it remains one of the Duchy’s most distinctive heritage events, a rare custom that brings residents and visitors together every five years.

The Town Council thanked the maids for the invaluable part they played, for the hours they gave to rehearsals and for the energy they brought to the dancing throughout the day. It also thanked the three Trustees who upheld the tradition: the Mayor of St Ives Andrew Mitchell, the Customs Officer Nick Jackson and the Vicar of St Ives Reverend Dr Nicholas Widdows. Thanks went too to the fiddler Katrina Geraghty for her contribution, and to the town councillors for their support.

The next time the fiddler climbs Worvas Hill will be in 2031.

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷At the Knill Monument - Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷The procession to the Knill Monument. - Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷At the Knill Monument. - Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷The procession to the Knill Monument. - Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷The procession to the Knill Monument. - Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography

📷Credit: Ian Kingsnorth Photography