St Agnes

St Agnes is said to have got its name from the local legend of Bolster the giant. Bolster was a mighty giant who terrified the villagers and ate small children, but he fell in love with a beautiful young woman called Agnes and wanted to marry her.

Seeing a way to free the parish from his tyranny, Agnes asked Bolster to prove his love for her by filling a hole in the rocks by Chapel Porth with his blood. What he didn’t realise was that the hole ran right down through the cliffs and opened into the sea, and so the more blood Bolster let bleed into the hole, the more ran out the bottom and the hole never filled.

in that way Bolster was tricked, and he died on the cliffs. St Agnes was hailed a heroine, and in time the village took her name. Nowadays there are still days when you will see Bolster's blood staining the waters around St Agnes and the village celebrates his death on Bolster Day every May.