Knave-Go-By (also known as ''Knave-go-bye'' or ''Knave Go By'') is a village located on the outskirts of

Camborne Camborne (from Cornish language, Cornish ''Cambron'', "crooked hill") is a town in Cornwall, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,845. The northern edge of the parish includes a section of the South West Coast Path, Hell's Mouth, C ...

in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

county of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in the

South West Southwest is a compass point. Southwest, south-west, south west, southwestern or south-western or south western may also refer to: * Southwest (direction), an intercardinal direction Geography *South West Queensland, Australia *South West (Weste ...

region of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is in the TR14 postcode area. Knave go by is sometimes erroneously depicted as being located in

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

in the neighboring county of

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, despite no place of that name ever having existed there. The village is featured as the backdrop to the 1951 book ''Knave-go-by: the adventures of Jacky Nameless''. It also occasionally features in books such as ''Collection of Weird: Place Names'' on account of its unusual name.

Politics

The village is within the

Camborne and Redruth Camborne and Redruth () is a constituency in Cornwall represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Perran Moon of the Labour Party. The seat is on the South West Peninsula of England, bordered by both the Celtic Sea to ...

UK Parliament

Constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

. The current MP of this constituency is

George Eustice Charles George Eustice (born 28 September 1971) is a British politician and former public relations executive who held office as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between 2020 and 2022. A former UKIP member, he later j ...

of the Conservative Party. It is represented at

Cornwall Council Cornwall Council ( ), known between 1889 and 2009 as Cornwall County Council (), is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in South West England. Since 2009 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary ...

as part of the Camborne Treslothan Unitary Authority

Electoral Division An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provid ...

. As of 2017, the current Cornwall Councillor for Camborne Treslothan is David Atherfold from the Conservative Party

Name

The origin of its name has been subject to speculation. It refers to an incident involving the founder of the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church the Reverend

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

. Wesley came to the village several times in August 1743, it is supposed that he took the route to avoid the warden of the neighboring parish. He preached to the local population from a split elm tree in the village centre. After crowds gathered there to watch John Wesley, an incident occurred by which the village was named, however, the exact details of what happened are subject to speculation. Unfortunately this story appears to be just that - a story - the name was recorded as Never-go-by, before Wesley's time, because it was relatively little visited. According to locals one supposed version is that during one of Wesley's missionary visits, a woman leaned from her cottage window and shouted, “Let the knave go by”, a comment for Wesley to move on. This is based on the supposition that the local

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

s referred to Wesley as a ''Knave'' on account of his faith. Another possible version is that Wesley was heckled by a drunk "knave" during a sermon, and when the crowd tried to detain the troublemaker, Wesley is reputed to have said, “Let the knave go by.” The area has been known as Knave-go-bye ever since, although the spelling has varied. John Wesley's elm tree, named ''Wesley’s Tree'' stood in the village until it died and blew over on Camborne Festival Day, circa mid 1980s. No new tree has been planted at the site to replace it. BBC Radio Cornwall featured an item on the hamlet in 2014, and added a Facebook video of a resident who, in part, explains the historic nature of this location. It was since learned that the tree was not an oak, as spoken of in the video, but an elm, which suffered Dutch Elm disease and fell.

References

{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Methodism 1743 establishments in England