Edwin Hicks (Baptised 2 February 1846, Died 28 May 1938) was born and brought up in St Mawes.

He was the son of John Hicks and Elizabeth née Pascoe. He married Elizabeth Jane Tucker, daughter of Ezekiel Gand Tucker, in St. Just in Roseland parish church on 15 March 1870.
He was a builder by trade and involved with the building of three important buildings in the village: The Anglican church, which was opened in 1874, The Haven which was built for Joseph Kennerley, a noted benefactor of St Mawes, and he rebuilt the Manor House for his own use.

The old Manor House in this oil painting of 1880 is the large house on the left of the painting.

The Manor House was already in a state of dilapidation and had collapsed by 1890, leaving no more than a gable end. Edwin put up a new building. By 1894 he was able to host the annual general meeting of the St. Mawes Steamship and Harbour Company in the Manor House which was now his hotel and guest house. It received a fine porch and bow windows shortly afterwards and remained an imposing sight until it was substantially altered in the 1970s.

The Manor House as rebuilt

Two views of St. Mawes as Edwin Hicks would have known it.

St Mawes Anglican Church
Christianity was brought to the village by the Breton saint Saint Maudez in about 600 CE.
There was a chapel in St Mawes as early as 1427, next to the Holy Well, which was the site of the cell of Saint Maudez and from which he preached the Christian faith and taught the villagers. This church was abandoned in the reign of Elizabeth I, when it fell into disrepair. There was then no church in St Mawes until another was built, on a different site up a steep hill, now called Church Hill, in 1812 by Richard, Second Marquess and later Duke of Buckingham K.G.. Although it was not used until 1837. It was rebuilt in 1883/4 by Edwin Hicks; this is the building you see there today. It is a chapel of ease to St. Just in Roseland Church.
The church was built of local elvan stone with granite quoins in the Early English style and cost £1,500. It consists of a chancel, nave, south porch and a western turret containing a single bell. All the windows are original, apart from the three, more modern, beautiful south windows in memory of F.H. Barnaby, Rector 1939-1958. These were designed by Francis W. S. Keat and tell the story of Saint Mawes and his journey from Brittany. The glass in the west window is more recent; in memory of William Vincent 1808-1889 and of Louisa his wife. The church is a grade two listed building.

The Haven
Edwin Hicks built The Haven, one of the largest houses in St Mawes, for Joseph Kennerley. Kennerley was a retired wholesale woollen merchant who made his home in St Mawes. The house was built at the foot of the hill going up to the castle and all the land on the east side of the road formed his garden. It was the only substantial house in St Mawes apart from Braganza. Built of granite in the late Victorian period it is a prominent building when seen from the sea.

Edwin became chairman of the Parish Council and involved himself extensively in the development of St Mawes.
Historically, drinking water for the village had been collected from pumps around the village. Edwin was responsible for the searching out a spring above the castle and developing a clean water supply after two people died from typhoid. At the end of the 19th century household sewage was disposed of daily from a shed on the harbour, opposite the Ship and Castle Hotel. The sewage was emptied straight into the harbour on an ebb tide. Edwin developed the first proper sewage system for the village.
There was no road east beyond the slipway next to the Idle Rocks. Edwin built a road past the Idle Rocks and the cottages which enabled the development of New Road (Tredenham Road). His work was honoured at a luncheon of 1906, and in 1909 he was presented with a cup and scroll in appreciation of his work.

Edwin lived to the age of 92, dying within three days of his wife.