History of Penbeagle Hill & St Ives Community Orchard

The Community Orchard & Nature reserve that we lease from Cornwall Council is on an area of about 30 acres. The area that leads up to the top of the Penbeagle hill is about 26 acres and is part of the County Wildlife Site (CWS). 15 acres of this land which included the Community Orchard area was given to the people of St.Ives by Ernest Harris Best in 1943 (he died in 1957). The rest of the land belonged to the Bolitho estates which was sold together with the Penbeagle Farm in 1943 to the St Ives Town Council. All this land was originally owned by St Ives Town Council but in a reshuffle of councils, the orchard & nature reserve area become owned by Cornwall Council.

Ernest Best's brother Dr Palemon Best had gifted 6.5 acres of adjacent land to the town to be used as an 'open space' when he died in 1927  and this area became the Palemon Best Recreation ground, site of the skatepark, playground and football pitch that is right next to the orchard. The Palemon Best Charitable Trust was formed to make decisions on how it's used and it is maintained and owned by St Ives Town Council. 

Ernest Best & Kitty in the 1930’s. Photo given to us by Ken Rogers a descendant of the Best family.

Below is an extract from the Tithe Map of 1840, annotated with the field names.

Our community orchard sits on the 'Bramble field' on the Tithe Map, aptly named as the land was completely covered with brambles when we started planting trees there. See maps.

The site was originally part of Penbeagle farm, which was farmed initially by Ned Wearne at the start of the war, then John Major then the Stratton family from 1950 – 1980. John Major planted all the daffodils in the land below the zipline in the park and those are the same daffodils that come up year after year. Viv Stratton, who grew up on the farm told us how he planted aprox 1000 trees on the Hill; Oaks, Sycamores, Rhododendrons, Ash, Holly, Beech and Birch Trees from 1950s until early 2000. Viv has recorded the wildlife on Penbeagle Hill for many years, click here to read his The Natural History of Penbeagle Hill & Farmland and his history of Penbeagle farm.
Viv has walked with us up Penbeagle hill showing us where the Best’s summer house and garden were and the granite rocks at the top of the hill where they used to play as kids. They called these rocks ‘The Shoe’ and ‘The Sphinx’. In fact he was the person who told us it was called Penbeagle Hill and not Carnstabba which is what we had been told. He has always hoped that this area would become a recognised Nature Reserve so he is very supportive of the project.

Here are photos of Viv Stratton and his Mum and Dad in the hayfields (the field just above the skatepark) and more recently up on the hillside telling us more information about the land

Viv Stratton on the field above the skatepark where they grew hay. He worked hard on this farm from age 8.

Viv’s Mum

Viv’s Dad

Viv with his dog.

Viv planted aprox 1000 trees on Penbeagle hill

Viv with some of the trees he planted

Viv recalling how as kids lots of them played up on this hill by these rocks. They called this rock ‘The Shoe’.

The land has happily remained untouched since 1980, used mostly by dog walkers and enjoyed by the wildlife, the trees have thrived but it has become very overgrown with brambles and bracken but also happily rewilded.  The area that is now the Orchard was also covered in brambles and bracken (it's name was in fact 'Bramble Field')

In 2018 to our excitement we discovered some amazing Boundary stones at the very top of the hill which showed some of the history. The inscription reads: Boundary Stones E & P Best 1922 and Boundary Stones EH Best JP.Dr P Best 1926. We are not sure what these dates represent as Dr Palemon Best died in 1927  and Ernest Harris Best best left 15 acres of this land to the town in 1943 (he died in 1957).

March 2018 in the Times & Echo

We were up close to the top of the hill planting trees and clearing parts of the stone walls and discovered these boundary stones.

Hidden deep under growth on Penbeagle hill we discovered the remains of the ‘Best’s’ Summer house.

Community Orchard & Nature Reserve History

The fruit trees planted in St Ives Community Orchard were originally part of a community project of PEN's (Penwith Environmental Network) that Stephanie Hirtenstein and Dylan Keating created called Penwith Edible Forest and the money was raised from a local food grant. Half of the trees were planted in Penzance on a community site they managed at the time called Love Lane Wildlife Garden and are still there. The rest of the trees were planted at Castle gate but when Dylan moved to the States, the new owner didn't want the trees and a new location was needed.

Members of the Steeple Woodland group suggested the land alongside the Palemon Best Recreational park.

Gavin Nicol and Tim Andrewes were instrumental in securing the donation and organising that the trees were moved to the current community orchard site and with the backing from the St Ives Town Council and Palemon Best Trust the aprox 150 trees were moved.

Rupert Manley had been having discussions with Penwith District Council and the Town Council since 2008 regarding protecting and planting trees on this land which helped lay the foundations for approval.

It was arranged that the Penwith Environmental Network would oversee the project with support from the Steeple Woodland group .

Gavin Nicol from Steeple Woodland, Stephanie Hirtenstein from PEN, Rachael from Cornwall Council, and Dan Richardson from Duchy college started clearing parts of the site before running the community planting days. A variety of apple, pear, cherries, plum, quince and nut trees were planted in the orchard area and around the entire park through the winter of 2012-2013.

Further native trees donated by Steeple Woodland group (originally donated by E-forests) and grown from seed by Rupert Manley were planted on the border of the orchard in 2014.

Rupert Manley continued to promote the future formation of a Nature Reserve on Penbeagle Hill towards Carnstabba Hill to ensure it remains in its current wild and natural state.  Penbeagle is derived from ‘Penn’ head, top and ‘begel’ hillock, tump, so it means ‘top of the hill’. 

In 2014 Joshua Quick volunteered to become the orchard project co-ordinator, wrote a management plan which advised that the orchard was to be maintained using the design principles of Forest gardening and ran a few large work parties to clear around the trees.

Elise Langley offered to take over as the orchard project co-ordinator in 2015 (as Joshua had become involved with a new project Wild St Ives) and together with a few keen people in St Ives, formed a community group, the 'St Ives Community Orchard & Nature Reserve Group'.

As the fruit trees were initially planted on land that was covered with brambles & bracken, the first few years were a constant battle to stop them completely smothering the trees, but with a lot of hard work, the orchard trees are now surrounded by grass, wild grasses and a variety of wildflowers.

In Sept 2016 the orchard received an official lease from Cornwall Council for 6 years.

In 2021 a Community Interest Company was formed to manage the Orchard and Nature Reserve.

The Lease was renewed in 2023 for a further 30 years together with an additional piece of land on which to build a Community Learning Centre.

The orchard has weekly work parties, has planted many new fruit trees and a couple thousand native woodland trees on Penbeagle hill and has yearly Apple Day, Wassail & other events throughout the year.

Here are a couple of earlier pictures as the orchard was starting up. Further below is more history of the Best family.