St.Ives takes it's name from the Irish Saint, ST.Ia who arrived in the town - legend would have - on an Ivy Leaf.  The Parish Church in the heart of St.Ives was built by Henry v in her memory.  The Feast Day celebrated on the first Monday after February 3rd is held in her honor.

The town was the site of a particularly notable atrocity during the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549. The English Provost Marshal (Anthony Kingston) came to St Ives and invited the portreeve, John Payne, to lunch at an inn. He asked the portreeve to have the gallows erected during the course of the lunch. Afterwards the portreeve and the Provost Marshall walked down to the gallows; the Provost Marshall then ordered the portreeve to mount the gallows. The portreeve was then hanged for being a 'busy rebel'.

 The headland known locally as "The Malacoff" (from where both bus and train depart) was named by children of St.Ives playing "War" in this area during the Boer War.

Modern St Ives came with the railway in 1877, the St Ives Bay branch line from St Erth, part of the Great Western Railway.  With it came a new generation of Victorian seaside holidaymakers. Much of the town was built during the latter part of the 19th century. The railway, which winds along the cliffs and bays, survived the Beeching axe and has become a tourist attraction itself. St Ives hit the national headlines on 28th July 2007, following a suspected sighting of a Great White Shark. The Chairman of the Shark Trust, Mr Pierce, could not rule out the possibility that this was a genuine sighting after watching video footage of the shark. However, he added that it could also have been either a Mako or a Porbeagle shark. Both are predatory sharks. Coastguards dismissed the claims as "scaremongering" when questioned by reporters.^[3]