St Just in Roseland

St Just in Roseland (including Trethewel and Trethem). Not to be confused with the much bigger St Just in Penwith in west Cornwall, St Just in Roseland is a village of two parts. The larger part lies on the road to St Mawes and the road to the King Harry Ferry. It consists of some traditional cottages but mainly more modern dwellings. Some of these cottages are situated on Windmill Hill leading out of St Just towards St Mawes and would undoubtedly have been originally occupied by mill workers. The windmill itself seems to have ceased operating early in the 19th century.

The smaller part of the village lies down a hill on St Just Creek which feeds into Carrick Roads (Fal estuary). At this point can be seen between October and March, traditional Falmouth working boats dredging for oysters under sail. The use of engines is prohibited to preserve the fishery so the technique which has been used for hundreds of years continues today.

This lower part of St Just is where its idyllic waterside church, Grade l listed and founded around 550AD, sits in a sub-tropical churchyard. It was described by Sir John Betjeman as the most beautiful churchyard on earth. The church is alongside St Just Pool which fills and drains with every tide and is shielded from the creek by a shingle bar. There is a legend that Jesus came ashore here with his tin merchant uncle Joseph of Arimathea.

Established somewhat later than the church, in 1771, is Pasco’s Boatyard, where boat building and maintenance have been carried out for generations. These days its business is concerned with leisure craft and moorings, rather than the working boats of the past, and its operations spread along the bar. There is a road sign on the main road pointing to ‘St Just Church and Bar’ which often confuses thirsty travellers. However, they can get refreshments at Renwicks cafe next to the church car park. Other than this, the facilities of St Mawes just 2 miles to the south are made use of by St Just residents.

There is a long-established community centre, the St Just Institute, and the recently created Roseland Centre which occupies the refurbished former Methodist School built in 1893. This provides residential outdoor activities for young people both locally and nationally. There is also a car maintenance garage in the village.

To the north of the main village, only just detached from it, is the hamlet of Trethewel. A little further on is the scattered hamlet of Trethem, where there was a water mill powered from a leat drawing from the upper Percuil River just above its tidal limit.

In the northwest corner of the parish, where Carrick Roads narrows, is Turnaware Point. In 1945 this was the scene of intense USA military activity during preparations for D Day on June 6^th.

For more information see ‘The Roseland between River and Sea’ by Laurence O’Toole, Pasco’s Boatyard’ by Peter Bodle, and various church leaflets.