Morvah History

Morvah History........some extracts from the history collection at The Schoolhouse A Parishe standinge vpon the Irishe Sea, in a moste colde seat in winter: it longs to Madern

John Norden 1584

Morvah Church

From the very earliest times, there has been a place of worship in Morvah. Overlooking the swelling sea, at the edge of the cliffs are scant remains of a lonely Celtic chapel and now renovated holy well. It is likely that the chapel was built in the 6th or 7th century and would have been a plain rectangular building where a single holy person would have lived and prayed. By the end of the 14th century, the Knights of St John of Jerusalem from Madron erected a church tower, together with a building consisting of an aisle arcade of three bays and it was on 7th of May, 1390 that Sir Roger Melleder, Vicar of St Madern, received license from the Bishop of Exeter to celebrate divine service in some of the chapels in the parish. This included the feast of Sancta Brigida, which has been identified with Morvah Church and believed to refer to St Briget of Sweden. In 1400, the church was granted a specific license to the Chapel of St Bridget in the Parish of Saint Madern (Madron) and Pendeen.

Today, still in existence, are the parish registers, dating back to 1617. Some parishioners signed them, some made a cross, each individual name adding to the history of Morvah as a whole.

The church itself was totally rebuilt in 1828. The original idea was simply to restore it but when work started, the walls of the church started to collapse so they were forced to rebuild using the original stone. Money was raised through local subscription and via a grant obtained from the ‘Society for Promoting the Enlargement and Building of Churches and Chapels’ the good people of Morvah set to work.

However, there is a slightly more sombre story associated with the reconstruction. It was said that as they extended the church, the builders came across bones and instead of having the remains properly reburied, the men merely threw them over the hedge and in to the field. Villagers paid the price for this misdemeanor because, as word got out, they were prevented from selling their butter at market in Penzance if they came from Morvah. To try and get round the problem, they walked via Pendeen, in an effort to disguise where they were from. Towednack poet, Henry Quick, made up a poem about it, only a fragment remains;

'The skull and bones of Morvah man, Among the hay and corn.’

The Cow and the Bell Rope

1865, the dead of night, all sleep soundly in their beds. Suddenly, the mournful wail of the church bell echoes across the field. The sexton, parson, clerk and parishioners were roused from slumber by the eerie, untimely sound and rushed to the scene, to confront its monstrous cause.

It was a cow, contentedly chewing the bell rope.

Morvah Fair

The origins of Morvah Fair are all but lost in the mists of time. It is certainly ancient and most likely began as a celebration of the Celtic feast of Lughnasa on August 1st each year. Over the unfolding years it evolved into the Morvah Fair and by the 1800s, took place on the first Sunday of August, when everybody had a guaranteed day off work. The size of the fair is almost impossible to imagine today with literally hundreds gathering, hence the West Cornish expression ‘Two on a horse like going to Morvah fair.’ Everyone congregated to enjoy serious drinking and a riotous good time. A local farmer at the time described it thus; ‘A quarter of an acre would not hold the horses ridden to the fair - the hedges being covered by the visitors, who drink and carouse as former times.’ On one occasion, the Landlord of the Miner’s Arms raided the Wesleyan Chapel for benches because the pub had run out of seating. By 1850, as Victorian Christian principles and Wesleyan influences gathered momentum, Sunday was considered an absolute day of rest.

The local vicar had had enough and issued the following warning ~ Caution The vicar of Morvah having been informed that the Church-Town of Morvah has for many years past been much resorted to on the First Sunday in August by disorderly persons of every description, much to the annoyance of the parishioners, he hereby cautions all such persons from assembling on that day for idle and profane amusement, so revolting to that great command of the Law of God

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"

Strict orders have been given to the Constable and Officers of the Parish to take into custody any person who shall be found desecrating the Lord's Day.

Tregaminion

The Tregaminion Estate was the largest and most significant in the parish. Its manor house and considerable lands were marked on maps dating back to 1700, and wills show it to have existed much longer.

In 1350, Tregaminion Farm was owned by John Lanyon. He was a serf who married Sybil Tregaminion, the daughter of a Lord, but he was later charged with 'feloniously taking away' her late mother’s jewels. Luckily for him, he was pardoned by the King for good service at Gascony.

After John Lanyon’s death in 1386, the farm passed to Ralph Lanyon who also owned other property in the area including Morvah. The names Tregaminion and Lanyon have remained synonymous with the area since this time.In 1586 the estate consisted of 300 acres, the manor house and a grain mill and was owned by William Lanyon who lived in the manor.

Tregaminion Holy Well

This well, which is about a metre and half long and a metre deep, lies in a corner of a field on Tregaminion Farm. Although impossible to date, it can be said that natural springs issuing forth from the ground would have been a vital source of sustenance to pre-historic people, so vital that such places were considered sacred. Later these pagan places remained holy under Christianity. This too applies to Tregaminion Holy Well, where nearby a Chapel was built in 6th to 8th century AD and continued to be the place of worship for the parish until the church was built in the 15th century.

Over the centuries the chapel declined but the holy well remained a powerful spiritual force. In the 1880’s, when the antiquarian, Quiller Couch, made his visit, he recorded that the waters of the well were considered to have extraordinary healing properties. It is also said that mermaids guard the well, the story perhaps has some substance as Morvetha is the Breton name for ‘woman of the sea.’

Morvah Mills

‘The owre being with greate labor and charge gotten, requireth muche after-coste and trowble: firste it is broken with mightie hammers of iron; afterwards stamped to a lesser size with stamps headed with iron and raysed with a wheele which is driuen with the force of water: Then is it made farr smaller with a mill called a Crazing mill, which grindeth it to a small powder; then it is washed with a mylde currant of water that falleth vpon greene turffes, carrying away the sande, and leauinge the mettall.’

Norden, 1584

Schools and Education

Originally, the school was in the church and early plans mark it as such. Some say that a barn at the Eastern edge of Tregaminion farm was used as a second schoolroom. This pre-Victorian building is tiny, windowless and simple, but no doubt served its purpose well.

Madron Charity School was founded by George Daniel in 17.. It was established as an educational charity, with ten pounds per year set aside for each child of Morvah Parish to pursue secondary education. This continues to this day, where the children of Morvah receive a ten pounds book token.

In 1866 the new, larger Wesleyan Chapel opened, superseding the old chapel, originally a single storey building. This was then used as a Sunday School. Today the 'new' Wesleyan Chapel is a private residence and the Sunday School ( Chapel built in 1744) is the community centre and gallery.

1n 1881 the Board School opened in Morvah in what was previously a Bible Christian Chapel, costing a little over £200 to convert. There was a school board made up of local people to take care of its interests.

Morvah School continued until shortly before the Second World War when the school was closed and the pupils transferred to Pendeen. In fine weather children were also able to walk to Madron Daniel School founded by George Daniel in 1710 It was established as an educational charity, for the children of Madron and Morvah Parishes. It was a ten-mile round trip, inconceivable today with school runs and bus journeys.

‘Paul’s Ope’ and the Shoe Makers

In the terrace of cottages between Merthyr farm and The Schoolhouse, it is possible to make out a blocked archway. This was originally the entrance to the stable block of the Star Inn. Over the archway was a small room accessible by a stone stair-case, now removed. The men from the village gathered in this little room to play dominoes and chat.

The room was known as Paul’s Ope after the Shoe-Maker, William Paul who occupied the shop next door from about 1832. William Paul continued as shoe maker in Morvah until 1913.

Village Constable

One of the last village constables, William Williams, was also the village carpenter, but the staff of office carried by the officer still exists today, and is in the possession of a descendant who has inherited it from a
James Trembath.

Local Mines

Carn Galver Mine

A tin mine situated near the parish border of Zennor. In 1871 it employed seventy miners, with an adit 70 fathoms below the surface and a shaft sunk to 130 fathoms. The ore was crushed by a compound steam engine, fitted with two pneumatic stamps. The mine bore a considerable accumulation of water that was pumped out by steam power.

Garden Mine ( or Morvah Hill mine )

The mine formed part of the Morvah and Zennor United complex and proved profitable during the mid 1800s due to its favourable location and various lodes but its fortunes because, during the 1870s, the mine kept flooding and it proved an arduous task to stop this from happening. It closed soon after when the inland, hilly section of the mine became unproductive at the same time as Cornish Tin in general began to decline.

Morvah Consols.

This site was first mentioned in records dating back to 1507 where stream works and surface mining took place. Between the 16th century and the mid 19th century it appears that this tin and copper mine was worked intermittently with little success. It was described as a ‘new’ mine in 1851 when a promising copper lode was discovered. That venture too proved unprofitable and it closed permanently in the early 1900s.

Mining

Mining has existed in Cornwall for centuries, the increasing use of metals attracting prehistoric settlers to the metal ores found in the granite. The Phoenicians bartered their pottery, salt, skins and cloth for tin and copper from Cornwall. Mining then was conducted on the surface, near rivers. Out near the chapel on the bronze age road now a footpath can be found the sites of Wheal Myrther and Wheal Chapel where it is still possible to see where miners scratched at the banks and piled up debris in search of tin ore. The miners would bash lumps of granite together, reducing the lumps in size, to then pan it for tin.

By the fifteenth century the miners had begun to dig under ground. Underground lode mining had developed and by the 17th century, records show a period of mining prosperity. Towards the end of this century, gun powder was introduced down mines for the process of breaking rock. In the eighteenth century pumps were invented, allowing for deeper mining by pumping out the water that constantly seeped into mine workings. During the first half of the 19th century, copper mining had begun in seriousness.

In Morvah alone, at the Garden Mine
( or Morvah Hill Mine ) one hundred and sixteen men were employed.

At that time a staggering forty percent of the world’s copper output came from Cornwall and Devon.

'Not far from thence, in the Innland is great store of Copper and Copper mynes; as about Morvath, Sener and Lelante and at St. Sennar, a parish upon the North Sea, where are Copper Mynes verie riche.’

A Topical and Historical Description of Cornwall - Norden 1598

Accident at Morvah Consols

On Wednesday, a lad, named Oats,…. met with an accident at the above mine in a singular manner. He, with several others, saw a rabbit enter the pit of the fly-wheel, which was then at rest. He followed it into the pit, and whilst he was there, the engine driver, ignorant of his dangerous position, started the machinery. The poor lad had the presence of mind to clutch one of the arms of the fly-wheel, and in this perilous situation was carried around till the cries of the men caused the engine man to stop the wheel. The lad’s clothes were torn to pieces, and his legs and chest were cut and badly bruised.

Cornish Telegraph, 25th March 1874

Morvah During the Wars

There is a plaque in the church dedicated to the men who enlisted and lost their lives in the Great War. During World War Two, farming was a reserved occupation so men from the area, whether they wished to or not, were forbidden from joining up.

There was a, however, a Home Guard, but on one occasion, the lights did not go out over Morvah; sinister lights were spotted in the dead of the night flitting across the fields. With a pounding heart, someone called in The Penzance Home Guard to investigate.............

There were no German invaders or enemy saboteurs, instead they found the Morvah Home Guard who had decided to a bit of rabbiting-by-torch-light whilst out on patrol!

John Casley

John Casley Jr., local farmer and much loved church organist until his death in 1968, gave a talk about Morvah to the Madron Old Cornwall Society, here are extracts that reveal the character and history of Morvah from a man who knew it so well;

‘It used to have a village constable who was the (last) village carpenter called William Williams. The constable’s staff of office was an ornamented truncheon and was locally called a stave. The constable was chosen by the parishioners and deemed a steady, upright man.

There was also a pub known as the Star Inn, which was shut as such about 60 years back, and is now the farm we know as Merthyr Farm.’

Then there was the story of the Morvah Devils, Bob and Jan Edwards who beat the Press Gang in the pub known as the ‘Wink’ (The Miner’s Arms) situated just behind the present vicarage, now demolished. They eventually joined the navy and became champion fighters. Bob returned home with a gold watch which he took from an officer he killed in a corn field.

Then there is the story of the man who had had a drop too much and on the way home he started kicking a stone on the way in the hedge, opposite the Wesleyan Sunday School, and made two dents* as if the toeplate may have done so!

But that is a vexed question, as antiquarians say that it might have been done by the old way of rubbing a small pointed stone with sand, as they used to drill holes in rock before the iron age.
(*The dents are still there in a large base stone. )

The Round Table

Lots of places claim an association with King Arthur, Morvah does too!

Arthur is said to have dined with his allies at Table-Men, a large flat stone (known as the Four Parish Stone) where the parishes of Morvah, Zennor, Gulval and Madron meet.

Suicide

West Briton 28 August 1813

On Sunday last, the body of a young woman was buried at a place where four roads meet, in the parish of Morvah near Land's End. This unfortunate creature having become pregnant in consequence of an illicit intercourse resolved to put a period to her existence. she purchased a quantity of arsenic under pretence of a purpose to poison rats and having put it in a cup of tea, she swallowed it in the presence of her mother.

The body was opened by Messrs Berryman & Giddy, and the arsenic was found in the stomach, which was much inflamed. The bodies of two infants, apparently about six months old, were extracted.

The whole of the circumstances induced the Coroner's Jury to return a verdict of felso-de-se, and Mr Rogers, the Coroner, issued his warrant for the interment in the manner prescribed by law.

In 1813, the Morvah to Madron road would have been in frequent use as a main road, with people walking and carts rolling along. This poor anonymous girl must have been buried where the cross roads where the Tinner’s Way and the Morvah to Madron road meet.

Suicides were often buried at cross roads (supposedly to confuse the devil) and were buried at night without religious ceremony.

Fourteen years would elapse before the law permitted burial within a churchyard but still with no service being performed.

A GUIDE TO PENZANCE & IT'S NEIGHBOURHOOD J.S.COURTNEY

ROSEMERGY - near village almost close to road a cicle different from others seen formed of small stones placed close to each other.

This village is interesting in another point of view, in the early visits of the Rev.John Wesley to Cornwall, he used to preach in many villages in the neighbourhood of Penzance long before he was permitted to do so unmolested in that place. One of these villages which he scarcely ever failed to visit was Rosemergy, where, in the house in which he was received his host almost literally following the example of the Shunamite had prepared for him a little chamber & set for him there a bed, & a table & a stool& a candlestick. The chamber was ever afterwards called Mr Wesley's room & some of the furniture, including his inkstand, was almost sacredly preserved until a few years ago, when the family which had so long resided in the house were obliged to leave it.It has since been taken down but a window pane on which was written the names of several of the early preachers of Methodism was purchased & preserved by Mr.W.Pengelly of Hea in Madron.

Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society - Annual Excursion 1883

Zennor, Bosigran Castle, Chun Castle and Madron Church

Cornish Telegraph 13 September 1883

... in due time all arrived at the hamlet of Rosmirgie on the site of the cottage where John Wesley preached and slept. two of the window panes from the cottage were placed in Wesley Rock Chapel. Enthusiastic Wesleyans, it is said, often visit the spot and cary away ferns and stones as relics.

From Rosmirgie ... Cornishman 13 September 1883

Carn Galva...The Morvah and Zennor tin mine house was crumbling to ruins just under the hill... On our way through Rosmergy we stayed a moment to look at the site of a house where Wesley was said to have slept and preached, and then kept on through Trevean