Morvah
Encyclopedia
Penwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
in west Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The village is situated approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
and 5½ miles (8.6 km) north-west of Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
.
Morvah parish encompasses the settlements of Chypraze and Rosemergy
Rosemergy
Rosemergy is a hamlet near Morvah in Cornwall, England, UK....
and is bounded by the parishes of St. Just
St Just in Penwith
St Just is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of Trewellard, Pendeen and Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of Morvah to the north-east, Sancreed and Madron to the east, St Buryan and Sennen to...
to the west, Zennor
Zennor
Zennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall in England. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about north of Penzance. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain—its name comes from the Cornish...
to the north-east, Madron
Madron
Madron is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a large rural parish on the Penwith peninsula north of Penzance.Madron village is situated approximately two miles northwest of Penzance town centre....
to the south and by the sea in the north. The parish consists of 1270 acres (5 km²) of land, 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) of water and 14 acres (56,656 m²) of foreshore.
The small village of Morvah straddles the B3306
Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
road and consists of housing, an art gallery, a dairy farm and the parish church, St Bridget's.
Antiquities
Evidence of a settlement at Morvah in the early Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
is in the form of an inscribed stone, a memorial to one 'Rialobranus son of Cunovalus', located in a field on a moor about three kilometers from the village. It was first described in a letter written by the antiquary Edward Lhwyd. The inscription has been dated from the fifth to the eighth century., but more firmly and authoritively dated to the middle third of the 6th century by Professor Charles Thomas ('And Shall these Mute Stones Speak', University of Wales Press 1994). In fact, this inscribed stone stands in the parish of Madron, a good mile east of Morvah parish. The finest antiquities of Morvah parish are the Neolithic dolmen of Chun Quoit (c. 3500 BC) and the nearby Iron Age hillfort (c. 300 BC) of Chun Castle (half of which is also in Madron parish), as well as the Late Iron Age settlement of four distinctively local courtyard houses at Croftoe. These include a rare "semi-detached" dwelling.
Morvah Gold Hoard
In 1884 during quarrying for building materials at Morvah, on the north-western coast of the Penwith peninsula at Carne Farm, (which lies about half a mile north of Chûn CastleChûn Castle
Chûn Castle is a large Iron Age hillfort near Penzance in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The fort was built around two and a half thousand years ago, and fell into disuse until the 6th century AD when it was possibly reoccupied to protect the nearby tin mines. It stands beside a prehistoric trackway...
and quoit), a hoard of gold ornaments was found dating from the late Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. The hoard of gold bracelets discovered here consisted of six large bracelets, three with distinctive trumpet-like ends. One also has engraved geometric designs on it. These bracelets were almost certainly either made in Ireland or made from Irish gold, and made their way, probably through trade in exchange for tin, to Cornwall. They now reside in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
but are a vivid reminder of how relatively well-off Cornwall was in prehistoric times. In 2007 there have been calls in the local Cornish press for the gold hoard to be returned to Cornwall from the British Museum.
Local government
For the purposes of local government Morvah is a civil parish. Morvah does not hold elections to a parish council but instead, holds a statutory meeting of electors of the parish every 12 months known as a parish meetingParish meeting
A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of the parish council itself, with statutory powers, and electing a...
. The principal local authority in this area is Cornwall Council.
Morvah Fair
Morvah was prior to the 20th century the home of the Morvah Fair (held on August 1 every year) which has been described as the biggest LughnasadhLughnasadh
Lughnasadh is a traditional Gaelic holiday celebrated on 1 August. It is in origin a harvest festival, corresponding to the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas.-Name:...
celebrations outside Ireland. The fair was attended by a large number from across West Cornwall. The fair was also associated with the legend of "Jack the Tinkard". In the late 19th century the then priest of Morvah lead a successful campaign to ban the celebrations due to the excess of drunken and promiscuous behaviour.
In a proclamation he stated
"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."
Morvah now celebrates 'pasty day' on the same date.
Shipwrecks
The 9000 tonne MV Karin Schepers (
Netherlands), with a cargo which included petroleum ran on to a sandy beach under Trevean Cliff at 17 knots on 3 August 2011. The crew managed to refloat the ship and continue on its journey from CorkCork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
to Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
. Falmouth Coastuard contacted the ship two hours before she went aground and made repeated calls as the ship appeared to ignore shipping lanes. The Sennen Lifeboat
Sennen Cove
Sennen Cove is a small coastal settlement in the parish of Sennen, in Cornwall, United Kingdom. According to the Penwith District Council, the population of this settlement was estimated at 180 persons in 2000.-Geography:...
was first on the scene followed by a helicopter from RNAS Culdrose
RNAS Culdrose
Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose , based in Cornwall, near Helston, on the Lizard Peninsula, has three major roles: serving the Fleet Air Arm's front line Sea King and Merlin helicopter squadrons; providing search and rescue for the South West region; and training specialists for the Royal Navy...
, both reported no sign of any crew on deck. Representatives of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch
Marine Accident Investigation Branch
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch established in 1989 following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster is a branch of the United Kingdom Department for Transport which can investigate any accident occurring in UK waters, regardless of the nationality of the vessel involved, and accidents...
(MAIR) met with the crew after docking at Rotterdam. The ship also ran aground two year previously in the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
off Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.