St Agnes (Standard Written Form: Breanek)[1] is a civil parish and town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

[3] The town of St Agnes, a popular coastal tourist spot, lies on a main road between Redruth and Perranporth.

The St Agnes district has a heritage of industrial archaeology and much of the landscape is of considerable geological interest.

St Agnes, on Cornwall's north coast along the Atlantic Ocean, is in the Pydar hundred and rural deanery.

[8] The 627-hectare (1,550-acre) Godrevy Head to St Agnes site,[9] is situated along the north Cornwall coast of the Celtic Sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

It starts at Godrevy Head (with the Godrevy Towans) in the west and continues for 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the north east, through Portreath, Porthtowan and ends just past St Agnes Head, north of the village of St Agnes.

[10][11] St Agnes Beacon overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and is considered "the most prominent feature" of the Heritage coastline, with coastal and inland views that may be enjoyed during hillside walks.

[5][12] "Beacon" is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin referring to the use of a hill summit for a warning signal fire.

[13] During the Napoleonic Wars a guard was stationed on the hill to look out for French ships and light a warning fire on seeing any.

[14] St Agnes Beacon and the surrounding cliff tops are one of the last remnants of a huge tract of heathland which once spread across Cornwall.

This rare and important habitat is internationally recognised for its wealth of wildlife and from late summer onwards comes alive with colour, forming a brilliant yellow and purple patchwork of gorse and heather.To the northwest foot of the St Agnes Beacon is Cameron Quarry and St Agnes Beacon Pits, Sites of Special Scientific Interest noted for their geological interest.

[5] Craig Weatherhill suggests it was a compound of brea (hill) and Anek (Agnes) and gives the first recorded form as "Breanek" (1420–99).

[19] Neither Bryanick nor St Agnes, though, were established at the time of the Domesday Survey, 1086; the area was included in Perran Sand (Perranzabuloe).

[23] During the Bronze Age, barrows were created in many places in the area,[24][nb 1] which was probably because its rich supply of bronze-making raw materials: copper and tin.

[33][34][nb 2] A noteworthy Iron Age site is the Caer Dane hillfort, 2.2 mi southeast of Perranporth.

[38] St Piran's enclosed round was 660 feet (200 m) wide and may have been a "playing place" (performance area).

Although much of the boundary has been levelled, it is presently at its highest by Bolster Farm and Goonvrea where it is about 3.3 metres (11 ft) high.

[58] There are also ancient signs of tin works at Wheal Coates, near the Chapel Porth area cliffs.

The site includes an adit, which is a tunnel or access to the mine; dam; dressing floor where the ore was processed for smelting; and an open cut where excavation occurred in a ravine on the surface.

[75][nb 7] There are churches and chapels in the district for three Christian denominations: Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic.

In 1846 it was made into a parish church and two years later the building itself, exclusive of the spire and tower, was restored by Piers St Aubyn.

[55][79] On the southwest side of the church by the churchyard gate is a granite wayside cross from the Middle Ages.

The Decorated style church was built between Mithian and Blackwater at Chiverton Cross in 1847 and dedicated to St Peter.

In 1958 the church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea (illustrated above), was built in St Agnes to the designs of Cowell, Drewitt & Wheatly, architects.

[84][85] John Passmore Edwards in 1893 had built and donated the Miners and Mechanics Institute in the village of St Agnes.

[87][88] The Blue Hills area hosts the Motor Cycling Club's Lands End Trial for cars and bikes.

[98] Historically, St Agnes and the surrounding area relied on fishing, farming and mining for copper and tin.

A new harbour constructed in 1798 supported a fishing industry and allowed for the export of copper ore and the import of coal from South Wales for the smelters at the mines.

[59] The visible remains of Wheal Coates are the engine houses built in the 1870s to crush ore, run a Calciner, or pump water.

The following is an aggregate statistic of the Community Network Area that St Agnes shares with Perranporth for managing local governmental activities with Cornwall Council: This represents a 6% growth since 2001.