Welcome to Hayle, Cornwall - A Visitor's Guide to its beaches, attractions and accommodation

Hayle (Cornish: Heyl) is a small town, civil parish and cargo port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, UK. The parish was created in 1888 from part of the now defunct Phillack parish, with which it was later combined in 1935, and incorporated part of St Erth in 1937. The modern parish shares boundaries with St Ives to the west, St Erth to the south, Gwinear and Gwithian in the east, and is bounded to the north by the Celtic Sea. The town, whose name derives from the Cornish heyl, meaning estuary, is situated at the southern end of St Ives bay on the estuary of the Hayle River, approximately 9 miles south-east of the town of St Ives by road.

Hayle was initially a coal importing and ore exporting port but Hayle was initially dwarfed by nearby Angarrack, where a tin smelter was built in 1704 and mills and stamps converted/constructed to process the ore. Hayle's role was simply to serve as a convenient point to land coal from South Wales, which was then taken to Angarrack by mule. In 1710 a copper and tin smelter was built at Mellanear Farm on the Mellanear stream which prospered for many years.

Perhaps the first major development at Hayle was the construction of the first modern quay by John "Merchant" Curnow, in the 1740s, to service the growing mining industry. In 1758 the Cornish Copper Company (CCCo) moved from Camborne and set up a copper smelter at Ventonleague (Copperhouse Creek) and this proved very successful, so much so that a canal was built to bring vessels right up to the works and additional land was purchased on both sides of the creek for industrial use and providing housing for the workers.

In 1779 John Harvey, a blacksmith from nearby Carnhell Green, established a small foundry and engineering works in the area, now known as Foundry, to supply the local mining industry. The business flourished and by 1800 employed more than 50 people. It went from strength to strength through both professional and family partnerships with a series of great engineers and entrepreneurs, including Richard Trevithick, William West and Arthur Woolf, giving the firm a level of expertise unmatched in Cornwall. The firm of Harvey & Co is probably best remembered for producing beam engines, considered as some of the finest ever built, which not only served in Cornish mines but were exported worldwide. It also produced a range of products ranging from hand tools to ocean going ships, including the SS Cornubia and the world's first steam-powered rock boring machine.

As Harvey's and the Cornish Copper Company continued to thrive, the rivalry between the two grew into open hostility. Disputes regularly erupted over access to the sea as The Cornish Copper Company controlled the dock and the tidal sluice which they had built at Copperhouse. Harveys acted to break the Cornish Copper Company's monopoly by constructing their own harbour by deepening Penpol Creek and building a dock. They even constructed their own tidal reservoir and sluice by creating Carnsew Pool. Harvey's operated a "Company Store policy" forcing workers to buy their provisions from Harvey's Emporium and prohibiting the development of any independent shops. When this policy was finally brought to an end a number of shops quickly established. These so called "Garden Shops" were built in the front gardens of existing buildings, and are still evident in modern Hayle.

Prior to 1825 anyone wanting to go from Hayle to St Ives or Penzance either had to cross the sands of Hayle Estuary, or had to make a significant detour crossing the River Hayle at the ancient St Erth Bridge. Guides took travellers across the sands, but even with guides it was sometimes a perilous journey and the shifting sand and racing tide claimed several lives. Recognising this major obstacle to trade a turnpike trust was formed, with Henry Harvey a trustee, to build the causeway which now takes the road below the plantation west to the Old Quay House. Costing £5000 in 1825, the investors charged a toll to use the causeway to recover their costs.

As Hayle’s prosperity grew the foundry and smelter owners invested in the nearby mining industry. There was relativity little mining in and around Hayle itself, with Wheal Alfred and Wheal Prosper (near Gwithian), being the only mine of any note, the nearest significant mines being around Helston. As Hayle's involvement in the mining industry around Helston grew it eventually reached the point in 1833 that it replaced Helston as the local coinage (Stannary) town, although this was short-lived as the Stannary system was abolished in 1838.