Zennor Mermaid Villiage
Recommendation added: 28/03/2006 21:54
By: jsimons128 (YSUK rating +93)jsimons128 has been thanked 3 times for this contribution
"Zennor is sometimes known as the mermaid village because of a legend involving a mermaid who used to sit at the back of the church in a long dress listening to the singing of Matthew Trewhella, one of the choristers. One day, she persuaded him to walk down to Pendour Cove and to enter the sea with her. They never returned but it is said that you can hear them singing on warm summer evenings. Although it is only a legend, the mermaid chair showing the mermaid of Zennor with a mirror in one hand and a comb in the other feature of the village church that few visitors miss. The church also contains a model of a West Country schooner given in memory of a sailor who was lost in the pacific after he had sailed the world single-handed. Another memorial is to john Davy, said to be the last person to speak Cornish as his native language. Certainly this claim is better than that of Dolly Pentreath who was buried at Paul in 1777, for John Davy didn't die until more than 100 years later. Zennors exposed position, with little protection from the fury of the winter Atlantic storms, could well be a recipe for longevity. Certainly, the churchyard contains a gravestone to three members of one family whose average age was exactly 100! It is the wilderness of the moors that has attracted so many artists and others to this lonely village. One person was D.H. Lawrence the author, who lived at higher Tregarthen during the First World War with his wife, Freida. Unfortunately, his wife was not only German but her brother was Baron Von Richtofen, probably Germany's most successful air ace. The couple was regarded as spies by the local people, and, although these suspicions were without any foundation, the police eventually moved in and ordered them to return to England. There is plenty of evidence remaining to show that the hills and moors around Zennor have been populated for thousands of years. To the south of the village, for instance, is Zennor Quoit, a burial chamber built 4000 years ago while at Treen, to the west, is a barrow, or a burial mound, 3000 years old.
And also neat Treen, on a cliff edge close to the Gurnards Head are the ruins of a chapel, while on the headland itself is Trereen Dinas, an iron age cliff castle with three defensive rampant, the innermost having been designed for the launching of the sling stones. To learn more about Zennor you should visits the Wayside museum, housed in an old mill and the adjoining miller's cottage, just down the road from the church. Zennor is situated five miles to the west of St. Ives. There is a pub and ample parking, as well as a hotel."
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