The parish church is dedicated to Saint Ia of Cornwall, an Irish holy woman
of the 5th or 6th century, and St Andrew, the patron saint of fishermen. In
1408 the townsmen attempted to get a papal bull to authorise the consecration
of their church and cemetery but did not achieve this so they continued without
the rights of baptism or burial. However, they undertook the building of the
present church between 1410 and 1434 as a chapel of ease, St Ives being within
the parish of Lelant. They were able to obtain the right to a font in 1428 but
consecration of the cemetery only in 1542. For over a century the vicars of