St Agnes, Isles of Scilly


St Agnes is the southernmost populated island of the Isles of Scilly — Troy Town Farm on the island is the southernmost settlement in the United Kingdom.

Description

St Agnes joins the island of Gugh by a tombolo, a kind of sandbar, called the Gugh Bar, which is exposed only at low tide. The Gugh is inhabited, with some three residents. The two islands of St Agnes and Gugh together have a population of 85 residents recorded in the 2011 census and a landmass of. Without the Gugh included, St Agnes is marginally smaller than Bryher in either population or area; however if Gugh is included with St Agnes, it is Bryher that is marginally smaller in area and population.
In earlier times many men from St Agnes earned a living as pilots, guiding transatlantic liners and other vessels through the English Channel. Now the mainstay of the economy is tourism, together with some bulb farming. Accommodation is limited, and St Agnes is the only populated island in the Isles of Scilly which has no hotel. However, it has a few B&Bs and self-catering cottages, an ice cream shop, a campsite, a small post office and general store and a gift shop. It also has a pub and a cafe, although these are closed in the winter.
The main population centre is in the north and middle of the island. The southern end of the island is covered by the heather moorland of Wingletang Down.

Lighthouse

The island's most notable landmark is its lighthouse, which has been converted into living accommodation as the tower no longer contains a light. St. Agnes lighthouse was the second to be built in the western approaches ; it was also only the second lighthouse station to be established by Trinity House.
In 1680 Trinity House began a survey of the coasts of England as it was known that the contemporary charts were inaccurate; the Isles of Scilly was plotted ten miles to the north. On 24 May that year, Trinity House was given permission to erect and maintain one or more lighthouses on the islands. St Agnes was chosen as it is the most westerly of the inhabitable islands and close to the collection of rocks, tidal flows and currents, now known as the Western Rocks.
The lighthouse was built in 1680 and stands 74' above the ground, and 138' above mean high water; the incorporation of gun ports in the structure of the tower is an unusual feature. A plaque records the original construction by Captains Hugh Hill and Simon Bayly. There were two protests against the building of the St Agnes light: officials from the Isle of Wight complained that they would lose revenue from harbour dues and victualling as shipping would prefer to use the Isles of Scilly, and the Governor of Scilly objected on the grounds that he would lose money from wrecks. Earlier petitions to build a lighthouse on St Agnes had been refused.
from the coal-fired lighthouse; now in Tresco Abbey Gardens.
The light was first lit on 30 October 1680; it was provided by coal burned within a brazier atop the tower. By 1756 the brazier was set within a lantern structure made up of 16 sash windows, roofed, with multiple chimneys. The lighthouse was coal fired until 1790, when it was converted to oil: twenty-one Argand lamps with reflectors, mounted on a three-sided revolving array. This 'very novel and ingenious operation' represented an innovation in optic design which was subsequently adopted in other lighthouses, including those at Cromer and Flamborough Head. In 1806 the lantern structure at the top of the tower was rebuilt to accommodate an enlarged three-sided revolving array of 30 lamps, each with a 21-inch reflector.
After the completion of Bishop Rock Lighthouse in 1858, St Agnes's lost its status as a landfall light and England's westernmost lighthouse. It was, in any case, prone to fog. In 1880 the optical equipment was upgraded: it now consisted of fourteen reflectors and lamps, arranged on opposite sides of a revolving square frame. The speed of rotation was increased, to give a flash every thirty seconds. In 1911 the St Agnes lighthouse was decommissioned, having been superseded by Peninnis Lighthouse. The old lighthouse tower continues to be maintained as a daymark for shipping.

Other landmarks

Other landmarks include a standing stone known as the Nag's Head. In 1707, many of the sailors who had drowned in the great naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly were reputedly buried on the St Agnes playing field.
; Troytown maze
The Troytown Maze is said to have been laid out by the son of the lighthouse keeper in 1729, but may be much older. Although called a maze it is strictly a labyrinth with a convoluted path to the centre via seven rings. It is the only one outside Scandinavia made of beach pebbles, which may indicate it to be of Viking origin. References in the Norse sagas tell of raiders coming to Scilly as late as the mid-12th century. Any buried evidence of its origins may have been destroyed during an unofficial rebuild in 1988.

Church

See St Agnes' Church, St Agnes.

Population

Sporting and social life

Friday evenings in the summer see men's domestic Cornish Pilot Gig racing on Scilly, with the ladies' race on Wednesday. After the race, supporters fill the Turk's Head to discuss the race and to socialise. The pub is open through the summer, but during the winter it only opens on Wednesdays for a Pub quiz, and one other night. The pub is supplied from St Austell and stocks a range of beers and ales including Burton ales.

Notable residents

Periglis Cottage was the home of St Agnes's resident ornithologist Hilda M. Quick. She was the author of Birds of the Scilly Isles published in 1964.

Education

has its St Agnes Base, a primary campus. Secondary pupils board at the St Mary's main campus, staying there on weekdays and coming back and forth to their home islands on weekends.
Students at the sixth-form college level reside and board elsewhere, in mainland Great Britain. Previously the Learning and Skills Council paid for costs of accommodation for sixth-formers.

Natural history

Over one third of the area of St Agnes is designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. In the south of the island Wingletang Down is noted for its heath, dune grassland and rocky coast and is the only site in Britain where the fern least adder's–tongue grows. Other rare plants include the orchid autumn lady's-tresses and early meadow-grass. The only freshwater pools on St Agnes are Big Pool and Little Pool in the north-west of the island which are part of the Big Pool and Browarth Point SSSI. Big Pool shows evidence for inundation by the 1775 Lisbon tsunami that was caused by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The vegetation has some brackish influence because of occasional influx of the sea during winter storms with rushes such as saltmarsh rush and sea club–rush. The surrounding grassland, which is also a cricket pitch, is notable for the clovers amongst its flora including western clover, suffocated clover and subterranean clover. Other plants include adder's-tongue and small adder's-tongue.

Vagrant birds

St Agnes is visited by birdwatchers, particularly during the ″Scilly season″ of September and October. Among the many vagrant birds which have been found here around this time are the following, which were all ″firsts″ for Britain:
In addition:
Among rare vagrants recorded at other times of year are the following:
St Agnes is one of the five civil parishes of the Isles of Scilly, which are also wards. The civil parish and ward include Gugh and several uninhabited islands and rocks, including the Western Rocks, Annet, Rosevear, Pednathise Head and the Bishop Rock. St Agnes returns one councillor to the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the same as the other "off-island" wards. The civil parish is not functional however, and there is no council or meeting.