St. Columb Major

St. Columb Major(Cornish: Sen Kolomm Veur) is a town and parish in Mid Cornwall. Now more commonly called simply St. Columb, it lies to the east of Newquay and to the southwest of Wadebridge. The north of the town leads down into the Vale of Lanherne.

There are several ancient monuments and sites around the town indicating that there has been some sort of habitation here since the Bronze Age at least. The main sites being Castle-an-Dinas Iron Age hillfort and the Nine Maidens - a row of standing stones.

The town was granted a market by King Edward III in 1333 and has been visited by royalty on more than one occasion since.

One of its most famous residents was Richard Bullock (1847-1921).Dick Bullock was such a proficient guard of gold bullion shipments on early stagecoaches, and later on the railroads, he never lost a single ounce of gold entrusted to his care. His shooting skills, honed in sporting events in his native Cornwall, apparently were his ticket to claim the 'Deadwood Dick' designation. In later years Bullock was a stock broker in Lead; his final years were spent quietly living in California, where he died at the age of 73.

Hurling

St. Columb has a claim to fame that few outside the parish know about... Hurling the silver ball...Once popular throughout Cornwall, hurling now survives traditionally in only two places—St Columb Major and St Ives. It is a street ball game, similar to the mass football customs described elsewhere, but in hurling the ball is thrown or carried, but never kicked. The ball is also smaller, about the size of a cricket ball, and although made of wood is coated with silver. At St Columb, the game is still played in the streets, between two sides—the ‘town’ and the ‘country’, with the latter coming from the outlying districts. The ball is thrown up in the Market Square and the idea is to get the ball back to your side's base, which is about a mile away. This takes place on Shrove Tuesday and again on the second Saturday following.