The village of Zennor, on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, lies only a few miles from the town of St Ives. It is bounded on one side by high, wild and rocky cliffs, and on the other by rugged, boulder-strewn, granite hills (Zennor Hill had a stone quarry, and much of St Ives was built with its stone, as was the Falmouth Harbour walls). Low farmhouses huddle close together in the brooding landscape of this wild and windswept coast; habitation here dates back to the early Bronze Age, 4000 years ago.

The belt of land between was described in the last century as: 

" very fertile, particularly abounding in milk and honey.............."

"Zennor church-town is disfigured by many ruinous houses, due to the immigration which of later years has (deprived) this and other once populous districts of some of its best blood. The continuous parishes of Zennor, Towednack and Morvah are locally termed the "high countries" and preserve much of the social aspect of former ages. Here may still be commonly seen the immense open chimney, with dried furze and turf piled up on the earthen floor of the kitchen. "

"It was said that Zennor people would contrive, by their thrifty habits, to live like goats. Hence the nickname "Zennor Goats", or "as careful as Zennor people"

"Grain is produced in the rich level country which lies between the Zennor hills and the sea; but the farms within the four parishes are, for the most part, pastoral and not agricultural. In the first half of the eighteenth century, even the pasturage of cattle in Cornwall was restricted by the difficulty of feeding the stock in winter; but about the year 1747 the turnip was introduced into West Cornwall by a Norwich farmer named Mathews, whose son Thomas Mathews, brought this well-known root into the Saint Ives district."

"The houses cling to the hillside as if hung there by the wind. Waves still lick the ledges in the coves, and a few fishermen still set out to sea in their boats. In times past, the sea was both the beginning and the end for the folk of Zennor. It gave them fish for food and fish for sale, and made a wavy road to row from town to town. Hours were reckoned not by clocks but by the ebb and flow of the tide, and months and years ticked off by the herring runs.The sea took from them, too, and often wild, sudden storms would rise. Then fish and fisherman alike would be lost to an angry sea. At the end of a good day, when the sea was calm and each boat had returned with its share of fish safely stowed in the hold, the people of Zennor would go up the path to the old church and give thanks. They would pray for a fine catch on the morrow, too."

 

In Sep 1748, the John Wesley preached to about 300 people in Zennor. He found "much good-will in them, but no life".
By the road leading into the village is a large stone said to have been used as a pulpit by John Wesley to convert the locals to Methodism in the 1750’s.

 

n years past, the local people lived mainly by farming, fishing, quarrying and mining, but today, tourism is the major industry.

 

D.H Lawrence and his German wife lived in Zennor during the First World War, whilst he was writing "Women in Love". The suspicions of the local populace that they were signaling to German U Boats eventually drove the Lawrences away.

 

Part of Zennor parish, seen from the window of  Tregeraint House, a superb place for Bed and Breakfast accommodation, with wonderful hosts - recommended!