St Just

St Just, known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of Trewellard, Pendeen and Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of Morvah to the north-east, Sancreed and Madron to the east, St Buryan and Sennen to the south and by the sea in the west. The parish consists of of land, of water and of foreshore. The town of St Just is the most westerly town in mainland Britain and is situated approximately west of Penzance along the A3071. St Just parish, which includes Pendeen and the surrounding area, has a population of 4,637 (2011 census). An electoral ward of the same name also exists: the population of this ward at the same census was 4,812. St Just lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). St Just is one of only two towns included within the Cornwall AONB. History The identity of Saint Just is not known. Cornwall's long resistance to the edicts of Canterbury and Rome makes it most unlikely that the saint was Archbishop Justus of Canterbury, as some sources claim. Another possibility is the 6th- or 7th-century Saint Iestyn, who is said to have been the son of Geraint ab Erbin, a ruler of Dumnonia. In 1478 William of Worcester found that the church was believed to contain the bones of Justus of Trieste. Among the prehistoric antiquities nearby is Ballowall Barrow, a chambered tomb. St Just is one of the most ancient mining districts in Cornwall, and remains of ancient pre-industrial and more modern mining activity have had a considerable impact on the nearby landscape.