Cyril Noall (1918-1984) was the pre-eminent chronicler of St Ives and district in the twentieth century. He lived all his life in the town. For nearly thirty years he made countless visits to record offices, libraries and museums where he gained access to vast amounts of document. As a result Noall was able to write hundreds of articles on a very wide variety of subjects. These appeared regularly in the local newspapers; in particular The St Ives Times and The St Ives Times & Echo.

Active in the St Ives branch of the Old Cornwall Society, in 1959 Noall was elected a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, taking the name Scryfer por’ ya (writer of St Ives). He was for many years Curator of the St Ives Museum, and he oversaw the transfer of the Museum from its original home on the first floor of the public library in Gabriel Street to new spacious premises in the former Seamen’s Institute at Wheal Dream.

Among his many books, the following are the most important:

            The Story of St Ives (1970)     

            Smuggling in Cornwall(1971)

            Cornish Seines and Seiners (1972)

            The Book of St Ives (1977)

            Yesterday’s Town: St Ives (1979)

            The St Ives Mining District Volumes One and Two (1982 and 1993)

Most of Cyril Noall’s articles may be seen in the Archive Study Centre. They continue to be a marvellous resource for all who want to know about any aspect of the town.