St Columb Major is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay The designation Major distinguishes it from the nearby settlement and parish of St Columb Minor on the coast. An electoral ward simply named St Columb exists with a population at the 2011 census of 5,050. The town is named after the 6th-century AD Saint Columba of Cornwall, also known as Columb. Twice a year the town plays host to "hurling", a medieval game once common throughout Cornwall but now only played in St Columb and St Ives. It is played on Shrove Tuesday and again on the Saturday eleven days later. The game involves two teams of unlimited numbers (the 'townsmen' and the 'countrymen' of St Columb parish) who endeavour to carry a silver ball to goals set apart or across the parish boundary, making the parish, around in area, the de facto largest sports ground in the world. History and antiquities Bronze and Iron Ages Monuments that date from these periods include Castle an Dinas, an Iron Age hillfort, the Nine Maidens stone row, the largest row of standing stones in Cornwall, and the Devil's Quoit (sometimes recorded as King Arthur's Quoit) in the hamlet of Quoit, King Arthur's Stone, said to be not far from the Devil's Quoit near St. Columb, on the edge of the Goss Moor, was a large stone with four deeply impressed horseshoe marks. Legend has it that the marks were made by the horse upon which Arthur rode when he resided at Castle An Dinas and hunted on the moors. Middle Ages and early modern period There are four Cornish crosses in the parish: two are in the churchyard, one is at the hamlet of Black Cross and another (defaced) at Black Rock. (one of the crosses is illustrated below, under Church.) In 1333 Edward III granted a market in St Columb Major to Sir John Arundell. This was as a reward for supplying troops to fight the Scottish at the Battle of Halidon Hill near Berwick-on-Tweed. Following the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, William Mayow the Mayor of St. Columb was hanged by Provost Marshal, Anthony Kingston outside a tavern in St Columb as a punishment leading an uprising in Cornwall. The link between the Cornish language and Catholicism was also