by Margaret Hunt

The fascinating history of our Parish………….

Coverack lies in the parish of St. Keverne, a large parish on the Lizard Peninsula, bounded by a picturesque coastline, moors upon which there still thrive plants which were growing there before the last ice age and rich arable land. It is steeped in history dating from the Mezolithic, when people were hunter-gatherers, to the Neolithic, the fruit farmers, The Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

Evidence of these periods is seen in numerous scatters of flint tools, pottery shards, standing stones, burial mounds and hut circles found on ploughed surfaces and moors.

There are numerous surviving ancient documents relating to the parish. The earliest known are the Saxon Charters of 995, 997 and 1059. All three of these record property boundaries, the names of which date to the Celtic peoples in Cornwall in prehistory.

It is recorded in the Doomsday survey that in Anglo-Saxon times St. Keverne was a collegiate college of secular cannons. The survey records that these cannons held one manor called Lannackbran and that there were four other manors.

The parish church in St. Keverne is a large and beautiful building which is, in all probability built on the foundations of the church built by St. Keverne when he came over from Ireland and converted the people of the village to Christianity in the late sixth century.

In 1235, the church and its lands were given in tenureship to Beaulieu Abbey, in Hampshire, by Richard, Duke of Cornwall, in whose care it remained until the Reformation, when it was sold by Henry VIII to a layman. The cartulary (collection of records) of Beaulieu records the tithes paid to it by St. Keverne during its three years of stewardship and the numerous expenses the parish had in producing the wherewithal to pay the tithes. The Royal Pateat-Rolls and the Fleet of Fires kept in the National records Office in London are rich in the names of people who had the rights of tenure of land in the parish from Beaulieu during this time.

The people of St. Keverne, right throughout time, have had the reputation of being very forthright and independent. In 1497, under the leadership of Michael Joseph An Gof, the local blacksmith, the people of St. Keverne marched to London in protest against the crippling taxes imposed upon them by Henry VII. Again, at the time of the reformation, they were prepared to oppose with their lives the changes in the Church rituals being imposed upon them. At both of these rebellions people lost their lives.

A study of the extant records of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries give a vivid picture of the day-to-day lives of the ordinary men and women of St. Keverne Parish. They tell tales of men going to sea to fish and never being seen again, for they were abducted by pirates; of a man requesting a piece of wood to mend his wooden leg; of new instruments needed for the small group of musicians who played in church before the days of organs; of errant fathers being made to pay the parish the cost of keeping their baseborn sons; and so much more.

The education of the children in St. Keverne is well documented, the earliest one dated 1698 when land was given to the parish, the rents of which were to be used for education.

Why not visit a new history website for our parish?
http://www.st-keverne.com/history

Thanks to Margaret Hunt of Polcoverack for helping us out with this page.

You can see a page of flint tools found near Coverack.

Meanings of Local Place-names