RURAL BUSINESS
As sustainable candle-makers St. Eval turns 30, we speak to co-founder Sarah Young-Jamieson about what it takes to turn a struggling start-up in Cornwall into a worldwide success
Little is known about St Eval, a sixth-century bishop who gave his name to a hamlet on the north Cornish coast. But there’s some evidence he had a penchant for candles.
Sarah Young-Jamieson, who adopted his name for the candle-making business she founded here 30 years ago, believes he has been on their side. “I spent many nights while I was building up the company thinking, ‘How can I take the next step?’” she says.
“I put my faith in St Eval. He’s been my guide.”
That faith appears to have been well-placed. Today, St. Eval makes several million candles a year, with a huge proportion sold in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year. Factory workers start making festive candles in May to meet demand.
LIGHT WORK
Sarah started St. Eval in the early 1990s with her husband, Tim. They had left her family’s business, running aretirement complex just outside Winchester in Hampshire to strike out on their own, and moved into a holiday cottage Tim inherited in Cornwall. They decided to make and sell candles. “Candles and the light have been important to me for a long time,” says Sarah, who is into natural healing and meditation. “Candles weren’t as popular as they are now, but I used them a lot. I loved being around them.” Could she help others see the light? “No one thought we’d be successful making candles in the back of beyond at a time when few people bought them. But we really believed in it.”
For advice on wicks and waxes, they rang up established candle-makers, researching as much as they could. Tim, who was into mechanics, looked into candle-drawing machines, devices with drums that could produce rows of moulded candles. He found one in Germany made in the 1940s, which the couple bought. They had a similar one made so they could run two at the same time.
Both machines, which are used for dinner candles, mini-candles and long pillar candles, are still going strong. The process involves fixing strings of cotton wicks around huge cylinder drums in figure of eight shapes. The wicks then glide through a pool of hot molten wax between the rotating drums, building up layers of wax until the candle reaches the required diameter, from half an inch to two inches. “It is a real skill operating those machines,” Sarah says. “If something goes wrong, you’ve lost a whole batch of candles in one go.” Temperature is a big factor. The warmer it is in the factory, the longer the wax takes to set. The candle-makers are experts at judging the consistency of the wax so that it is just right.
The drawing machines sit in St. Eval’s original building, affectionately kno
