Cornwall’s Celtic Christianity and Spirituality are still alive

St Ives has the best-known beach in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

In recent decades there has been a renewed interest in Celtic Christianity and Celtic spirituality. Celtic Christianity is usually linked with Ireland as the ‘Land of Saints and Scholars,’ but it is also associated with Scotland and Wales.

However, standard textbooks on Celtic Christianity pay little or any attention to Cornish Spirituality and the story of Christianity in Cornwall.

Indeed, I had little knowledge of these traditions either until I visited Cornwall at the end of autumn last year.

I was struck by the large number of towns and villages, from Saint Ives to Saint Agnes, named after Celtic saints, many of them from Ireland, others came from Wales and Brittany.

Saint Ia, a missionary from Ireland, gives her name to St Ives (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Saint Ives, Cornwall’s best-known seaside resort, takes its name from Saint Ia, a fifth century woman missionary from Ireland. Even Cornwall’s best-known beer takes its name from a town named after one of these Celtic saints, Saint Austell.

One of Cornwall’s main tourist attractions is the Saints’ Way, a 43 km trail that is well signed with Celtic cross markers and takes pilgrims, tourists and walkers across Cornwall from Padstow in the north to Fowey on the south coast.

This follows the route of early pilgrims making their way from Ireland and Wales to Brittany or Santiago de Compostella in Spain. It starts at the harbour in Padstow and heads along Little Petherick Creek, over St Breock Downs and onto Lanivet.

The second part of the walk visits Helman Tor, heads south by the Fowey River, skirts the ancient town of Lostwithiel, and continues on to Fowey, where the pilgrims set sail.

Saint Ia (centre) with two Irish companions, Saint Sennen (left) and Saint Levan (right) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Christian origins

Cornish legend says Joseph of Arimathea was a tin trader who visited Cornwall, and that he brought a young Jesus to address the miners.

From early times, Saint Michael the Archangel was recognised as the patron of Cornwall, and he gives his name to Saint Michael’s Mount off Marazion, which corresponds to a similarly named monastery in Normandy.

The Scilly Isles have been identified as the place of exile of two heretical fourth century bishops from Gaul. Instantius and Tiberianus were followers of Priscillian and were banished after the Council of Bordeaux in 384.

Mount St Michael’s, off the Cornish coast at Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

But little is known about the early beginnings of Christianity in Cornwall, it probably owes its origins to post-Patrician Irish missions. Records of those early times are sparse and oral traditions were handed down long before written accounts of the lives of these saints were recorded.

Saint Ia of Cornwall and her companions, Saint Piran, Saint Sennen and Saint Petroc, and the rest of the saints who came to Cornwall in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, introduced or reintroduced Christianity to Cornwall, and brought their own customs and rites.

Saint Piran, who gives his name to Perranporth, is regarded by many as the patron saint of Cornwall, as is Saint Petroc, who was the patron of the pre-Norman Cornish diocese.

A Cornish Cross in the churchyard at St Agnes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Stones, crosses and wells

The earliest inscribed stones with inscriptions in Latin or Ogham date from the fifth century, and some have Christian symbols. Although they are difficult to date precisely, they are thought to come from the fifth to eleventh centuries.

Both the inscriptions and the Ruin of Britain by Gildas suggest that the leading families of Dumnonia or early Cornwall were Christian in the sixth century. Many early mediaeval settlements included hermitage chapels that are often dedicated to Saint Michael, who is associated with Saint Michael’s Mount, off Marazion.

Throughout Cornwall there is a large number of wayside crosses and inscribed Celtic stones. The inscribed stones, about 40 in number, are thought to be earlier in date than the crosses and are a product of Celtic Christian society.

Cornwall has over 400 traditional Celtic crosses, the highest density in any nation. These crosses may represent a development from the inscribed stones, but nothing is certain about dating them. They are found in a variety of locations, by the wayside, in churchyards, and in moorlands. Some may be route markings, a few may be boundary stones, and others could be wayside shrines. They are plain or ornamented, often carved in granite and with the wheel-headed style of Celtic crosses.

A Celtic Cross in the churchyard at St Ives (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Over 100 holy wells survive in Cornwall, each associated with a saint – although this is not always the same saint as the one commemorated in the name of the local church.

The church architecture in Cornwall and Devon typically differs from the rest of southern England. Most mediaeval churches in the larger parishes were rebuilt in the later mediaeval period with one or two aisles and a western tower; the aisles the same width as the naves and the piers of the arcades are of one of a few standard types.

St Ives Church … church architecture in Cornwall and Devon differs from the rest of southern England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Early bishops in Cornwall

In the mid-ninth century, the Church in Cornwall was led by Bishop Kenstec, who lived at Dinurrin, sometimes identified with Bodmin. Bishop Kenstec acknowledged the authority of Ceolnoth and brought Cornwall under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. By the 880s, many Saxon priests were being appointed in Cornwall and many of the church estates passed to the kings of Wessex.

In 909, the English or Anglo-Saxon Church created the Diocese of Crediton to cover Devon and Cornwall. King Athelstan of England (924-939) fixed Cornwall’s eastern boundary at the east bank of the Tamar, the remaining Cornish people were evicted from Exeter and the rest of Devon, and in Athelstan built a cathedral at St Germans, near Saltash in 926, with a bishopric at St Germans to cover the whole of Cornwall.

Bishop Conan was consecrated in 931, but it is not clear whether he was the sole bishop for Cornwall or the principal bishop in the area. The church in Cornwall may have been similar to the church in Wales, where each monastery or major religious house had a bishop.

At first, the new bishopric was subordinate to the see of Sherborne. By the end of tenth century, it emerged as a full bishopric in its own right, with a Bishop of Cornwall. But while the first few bishops were native Cornish, from 963 on they were all English. From around 1027 the see was held jointly with Crediton, and they were merged in 1050 to become the Diocese of Exeter.

A ‘Miner’s Loaf’ with a Cornish Cross on a market stall in Truro (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Surviving distinctions

It is not clear the degree to which the distinctive qualities of Celtic Christianity survived in Cornwall. But these traditions brought the church in Cornwall into conflict with the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon church in Wessex, and the differences continued until at least the tenth century.

Early, pre-Norman Cornish church records include the Bodmin Gospels, the Lanalet Pontifical, associated with St Germans, and the Codex Oxoniensis Posterior.

After the arrival of the Normans, many of the earlier but remote churches associated with the Celtic missionaries and saints remained as parish churches, while the churches in the mediaeval Norman towns became mere chapels of ease to the older, traditional parish churches.

Pascon agan Arluth (The Passion of our Lord), a poem of 259 eight-line verses and dating from 1375, is one of the earliest surviving works of Cornish literature.

The Tregear Homilies, the earliest surviving example of Cornish prose, is a series of 12 Roman Catholic sermons written in English and translated by John Tregear in 1555-1557.

A window in Truro cathedral recalls the Wesley brothers and their visits to Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Reformation changes

At the Reformation, the failure to translate the first Book of Common Prayer into the Cornish and the imposition of English liturgy over the Latin rite in Cornwall stirred the ‘Prayer Book Rebellion’ in Cornwall in 1549.

The ‘Prayer Book Rebellion’ was a cultural and social disaster for Cornwall. Some estimates say 10 per cent of the civilian population of Cornwall was killed in the reprisals, and the rebellion also marked the beginning of the slow death of the Cornish language.

Later Roman Catholic martyrs in 16th century Cornwall included Cuthbert Mayne, a priest harboured by the Tregian family. Others were forced into exile, although Roman Catholicism never died out in Cornwall.

In the English civil wars in the mid-17th century, Cornish loyalties were divided between the king and parliament. The Parliamentarians ejected the Bishop of Exeter and deprived the cathedral clergy in 1645. Some clergy in Cornwall submitted to the new order, but others were removed from their parishes. The stained glass at St Agnes and the rood screen at St Ives were removed, and the church organs at Launceston and St Ives were destroyed.

At the restoration of the monarchy, Puritan ministers were ejected ministers were ejected throughout Cornwall and non-Anglican services were only permitted in private houses.

The last church services in the Cornish language were held in Penwith in the far west in the late 17th century.

The Methodist Church at Saint Agnes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The arrival of Methodism

By the mid-18th century, the state-sponsored church was perceived as remote and ill-equipped to retain the loyalty of illiterate miners and labourers who formed most of the population of Cornwall. Mining was expanding, the population was shifting away from the old parish churches, and church attendance figures showed a downward trend.

John Wesley and his brother Charles first visited Cornwall in 1743, and gave their priority to the newly industrialised areas. But their timing was unfortunate and coincided with expectations of a French invasion. There were several incidents of mob violence at Methodist meetings, and John Wesley was threatened by a mob at Falmouth in 1745.

But as mining expanded, Methodism attracted many followers among the miners after 1780. From the early 19th until the mid-20th century, Methodism was the leading form of Christianity in Cornwall.

The Bible Christian Chapel in St Ives dates back to 19th century revivals (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Bethesda House in St Ives … memories of Cornish evangelicalism (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Anglican renewal

One reaction to the rise of Methodism among Anglicans was a renewal in High Church liturgy, with a new emphasis on the sacraments and priestly ministry. Many new parishes were established and new parish churches were built in Cornwall when Henry Phillpotts was Bishop of Exeter (1830-1869).

The Diocese of Truro was created in 1876, and Edward White Benson was appointed the first Bishop of Truro in 1877. The 24 honorary canons of Truro Cathedral hold stalls named after 24 Cornish saints, many of them with Irish, Welsh and Breton roots.

There was a renewed interest in Cornwall’s Christian past when the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman was buried in the churchyard of St Enodoc's Church in Trebetherick with a simple inscription on his gravestone, ‘John Betjeman 1906-1984.’

Inside Saint Agnes Church … there was a renewal of Anglo-Catholicism in Cornwall in the 20th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Inside Saint Ia’s Church in Saint Ives (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Anglicanism in the 20th century was marked by the spread of Anglo-Catholicism, and the use of Cornish as a liturgical language was revived.

In recent decades, Methodism in particular has declined numerically. But there has also been a renewed interest in the older, Celtic forms of Christianity in Cornwall. Cowethas Peran Sans, the Fellowship of Saint Piran, was founded in 2006 and Fry an Spyrys (Free the Spirit) was formed in 2003 to call for the disestablishment of the Church of England in Cornwall.

The former Congregationalist Chapel in Truro … now an art shop and café (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

This feature was first published in the ‘Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough) in January 2020

A former convent in Truro is now an hotel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Cornwall’s Jews today and myths about mediaeval Market Jew and Marazion

The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro … the Torah Scroll from Falmouth Synagogue was given to Kehillat Kernow in Truro in 2004 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The names of the small coastal town of Marazion in Cornwall, the street name of Market Jew Street, the main street in Penzance, and a street in St Ives called Mount Zion, between the Wharf and Victoria Place, made we wonder last week about the history and presence of Jewish communities in Cornwall.

It turns out, in fact, that both the name of Market Jew Street and the name of Marazion came not from the presence of any mediaeval Jewish communities but from the corruption of the name Marghas Yow or Jovis, meaning the ‘Thursday Market.’

But I was working on a series of blog postings on the history of present and past synagogues in Dublin, which came to a conclusion this morning. And so, last week, as I photographed churches, chapels, former convents and a cathedral throughout west Cornwall, I naturally wondered whether there was also a Jewish community or a synagogue in Cornwall.

At the corner of Market Jew Street in Penzance … the mediaeval street name has no links to a mediaeval Jewish community (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Keith Pearce and Helen Fry published their The Lost Jews of Cornwall in 2000. Keith Pearce, in his book The Jews of Cornwall – A History – Tradition and Settlement to 1913, records how the first Jews arrived in Cornwall in the 1740s. They and Charles Thomas, former professor of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter, agree the first Jews arrived in Cornwall in the 1740s and they were attracted to the two ports, Falmouth and Penzance, where there was no ghetto system.

A small number landed at Falmouth and one or two at Fowey, only to move on promptly to London and elsewhere. Others arrived in Cornwall, mainly from continental Europe.

The first Jewish communities in Cornwall were formed in Falmouth and Penzance, and there was a smaller community in Truro, with a few Jewish families in other small Cornish towns. The Jewish families who moved to Cornwall include the de Pass and Hart families.

Lehman or Lemon Hart, a trader from Penzance and the grandson of a German rum traders, became famous for his own brand of rum. He set up his own company in 1804 and is thought to have been the person who negotiated with the Royal Navy to provide the required ration of a daily tot of rum for sailors.

There is no evidence that there was ever a synagogue in Truro and services were presumably held in private homes. Although the community did not appoint a minister, it had a shochet in the 1820s.

However, these communities died out by the end of the 19th century. A movement to the cities after the industrial revolution severely diminished Cornwall’s Jewish Community. The synagogue in Penzance had closed its doors by the 1850s, and the building was bought by the Plymouth Brethren.

There are Jewish cemeteries in Penzance and Ponsharden (Falmouth). A small Jewish burial ground is thought to have existed in Truro, but this was abandoned in the 1840s, and no visible remains exist today.

In recent years, a Reform Jewish congregation has been formed by Jews living in and around Truro. Kehillat Kernow, or the Jewish Community of Cornwall, has about 100 members, was founded 20 years ago in 1999, and is an associate community of the Movement for Reform Judaism.

The community has no synagogue and services take place fortnightly on Shabbat mornings in a local school, with alternative venues for High Holidays and some festivals. They are led by members of the community and, occasionally, by visiting student rabbis from Leo Baeck College.

The community uses a Torah scroll on permanent loan from Exeter Synagogue and a scroll it received from the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro. The scroll was previously used by Falmouth Synagogue, which closed in 1882, and it was officially handed over by the Duke of Gloucester to Kehillat Kernow at a ceremony in the Royal Cornwall Museum on 28 May 2004.

In the past, services were held at a school in Blackwater, near Truro, and formerly in the Truro Baptist Church. The High Holy Day services this year were held on 8 and 9 October at Roselidden Farm, a retreat centre halfway between Truro or Falmouth and Marazion or Penzance. The services were led by Eleanor Davis, a student rabbi.

Cornwall’s Jewish population today is a small but thriving congregation of around 50 families in Truro. Their numbers are boosted in summer with the influx of visitors and holidaymakers.

The King’s Arms on Market Place in Marazion … the name of Marazion may be a corruption of the name Marghas Yow or Jovis, meaning ‘Thursday Market’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

An evening in Porthleven, the most southerly port and harbour in Britain

Porthleven is the most southerly port in the United Kingdom (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Marazion and St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall on an overcast, wet afternoon, last week, the family group I was with continued on south along the coast of Mount’s Bay to the fishing harbour of Porthleven, where we had dinner that evening.

Porthleven, with its granite harbour and pier and its famous clock tower, has a population of about 3,000, and is the most southerly port in the United Kingdom.

During winter storms, many people visit the town to watch the waves crashing over the sea defences and storms roll in from the Atlantic.

The Bickford-Smith Institute in Porthleven is one of the landmark buildings of Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Porthleven’s harbour is best known for the Bickford-Smith Institute, a prominent building next to the pier and harbour entrance. It looks like a church, and its clock tower, standing 20 metres high, makes it one of the landmark buildings of Cornwall.

The tower has been painted by many artists and is used as popular image of Porthleven. A photograph of the building with large breaking waves often appears in the background of BBC weather forecasts, particularly when windy conditions and rough seas are expected.

The institute has a plaque to Guy Gibson VC, the leader of the Dambuster Raid, on the wall facing the harbour. Gibson was born in India, but his mother was from Porthleven, his parents were married here, and he regarded Porthleven as his hometown.

Gibson visited the town regularly during World War II, and occasionally attended Porthleven Methodist Church. He was killed in 1944 and his name is included on the community’s war memorial and Gibson Way in the town is named after him.

Today, the institute building houses the town council offices and is also used by a snooker club.

The present village began with the construction of the harbour in 1811(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The history of Portleven dates back to at least the mid-11th century, and nearby Methleigh is said to have been the site of a fair and annual market from the year 1066. After the Norman Conquest, the Manor of Methleigh was held by the Bishop of Exeter but the Earl of Cornwall possessed the fair.

The name Porthleven is probably connected with Saint Elwen or Elwyn, who gave his name to a chapel that stood here before 1270. There were also chapels in neighbouring Higher Penrose and Lanner Veor and a holy well at Venton-Vedna.

Saint Elwen’s chapel was rebuilt about 1510, but it was destroyed at the Reformation in 1549.

The Ship Inn in Porthleven dates from the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Ship Inn in Porthleven at the harbour is said to date from the 17th century. However, Porthleven did not develop until the days of sail, when it became a harbour of refuge at a time when this part of the Cornish coast was a black spot for wrecks. Due to the prevailing westerly winds, it was easy for a ship under sail to be trapped in Mount’s Bay and wrecked nearby.

The present village began with the construction of the harbour in 1811. The harbour faces south west into the prevailing wind and so building the harbour and sea walls was a major undertaking.

From the cliffs there are views of the abandoned engine houses of the tin mine at Rinsey and of Tregonning Hill, an extinct volcano where china clay was first discovered in England.

William Cookworthy leased the quarries at Tregonning Hill quarries and shipped china clay from Porthleven to his porcelain factory in Plymouth. In 1826, 150 tons of china-stone and 30 tons of china clay were shipped, and by 1838 this amount had risen to 500 tons of china-stone. Granite from the quarries at Coverack Bridges and Sithney was also shipped from the harbour.

Although Saint Bartholomew’s, the parish church, was built in Porthleven in 1842, the town remained part of the neighbouring small parish of Sithney until 1844.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed a lifeboat at Porthleven in 1863. A boat house was built at Breageside, and from there the boat was taken to the water on a carriage.

Shipping china clay from Porthleven came to an end in 1880. But by then Porthleven had also become a centre for shipbuilding, employing up to 20 people at times. Between 1877 and 1883, 52 fishing boats were built here, ranging in length from 6.7 m to 17 metres. The harbour once had a fleet of more than 100 drifters used to fish pilchard and mackerel.

A new boat house opened on the west side of the harbour entrance in 1894 with a slipway to make launching easier. The station was closed in 1929 and the slipway was dismantled. The boat house was used as a store for a while, later become the Shipwreck Centre museum, and is now a gallery, studio and party venue.

The small beach below the harbour at Porthleven (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Porthleven lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the South West Coast Path, which follows the coast from Somerset to Dorset and passes through the town.

Porthleven remains the most southerly working port in the United Kingdom. But it is also popular with artists and has several studios and craft shops, as well as several good restaurants and a small beach.

We stopped briefly for a drink in the Harbour Inn, and had dinner that evening at Kota Kai in Celtic House at Harbour Head. Kota Kai and its neighbour, Kota Restaurant, where Jude Kereama is the head chef.

The Harbour Inn at the harbour uses the clock tower as its pub sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A rainy afternoon at Saint Michael’s Mount and Marazion in Cornwall

St Michael’s Mount, the small tidal island in Mount’s Bay, has become the picture postcard image of Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During my few days in Cornwall last week, one of the most spectacular sights I visited was St Michael’s Mount, the small tidal island in Mount’s Bay that has become the picture postcard image of Cornwall.

We had travelled the short distance around Mount’s Bay from Penzance to the small coastal town of Marazion. The blue skies and sunshine we had enjoyed earlier in the day at St Ive’s had turned to grey, the seas had turned from blue to green, and the waves were beginning to churn up.

As the rain threatened, St Michael’s Mount was covered in a slight haze that made it difficult to photograph. By then, there was a high tide, and there was no possibility of walking across from Marazion to St Michael’s Mount along the man-made causeway of granite setts that makes it accessible on foot between mid-tide and low water.

This is one of the 18 unbridged tidal islands in England – others include Lindisfarne – that it is possible to walk to from the mainland. However, the tides and waves put an end to any notions we had of being able to walk across on Thursday afternoon.

Instead, we walked along the shore, enjoying the spectacular sight, and continued to enjoy the view of St Michael’s Mount, with its castle and former Benedictine abbey, from the terraces at the Godolphin Arms Hotel.

A walk along the beach at Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

St Michael’s Mount is the Cornish counterpart of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. They share the same tidal island characteristics have a similar conical shape. However, St Michael’s Mount, at 57 acres, is much smaller than Mont St Michel, with 247 acres.

The Cornish language name Karrek Loos yn Koos – ‘the grey rock in a wood’ – may represent a folk memory of a time before Mount’s Bay was flooded, when the mount was set in woodland.

The island was formed when the hazel wood in Mount’s Bay was submerged ca 1700 BC. Some writers suggest the Mount could be the island of Ictis, described as a tin trading centre by the Sicilian-Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca Historica in the first century BC.

According to legend, the island sits on the site of the cave that was the home of Cormoran, an 18-ft giant with an appetite for cattle and children and who terrorised local people. Jack, the young son of a local farmer, killed the giant by trapping him in a concealed pit and bringing down his axe on his head. And so the legend developed of ‘Jack the Giant Killer.’

Local lore also says the Archangel Michael appeared before local fishermen on the Mount in the 5th century AD. St Michael’s Mount may have been the site of a monastery from the 8th to the early 11th centuries. One of the earliest references to the mount is in the mid-11th century, when it was ‘Sanctus Michael beside the sea.’

Saint Michael’s Mount seen from the terrace of the Godolphin Arms Hotel on a winter-like October afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Before the Norman invasion of England, King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) gave the monastery and the island to the Benedictines of Mont Saint-Michel at Looe Island, also dedicated to the Archangel Michael.

The island became a place of pilgrimage, and pilgrims were further encouraged by an indulgence granted by Pope Gregory in the 11th century. The earliest monastic buildings on the summit and the castle, date from the 12th century. Chapel Rock, on the beach, marks the site of a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where pilgrims paused to pray before ascending the Mount.

Sir Henry de la Pomeroy captured the Mount on behalf of Prince John in 1193, during the reign of King Richard I. But St Michael’s Mount remained a priory of the abbey in Normandy until ‘alien priories’ in England were dissolved houses by Henry V during the Hundred Years’ War.

Henry V gave St Michael’s Mount to the Abbess and Convent of Syon at Isleworth, a monastery of the Bridgettine Order, at its foundation in 1415. However, Henry VI bestowed the mount on King’s College, Cambridge, at its foundation in 1441. But when Edward IV became king during the Wars of the Roses, the mount was returned to Syon Abbey in 1462.

The chapel of Saint Michael, a 15th-century building, has an embattled tower, one angle of which is a small turret that served guide ships.

John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, seized and held the Mount during a siege of 23 weeks against 6,000 troops loyal to Edward IV. Later, Perkin Warbeck, a Yorkist pretender to the throne, occupied the Mount in 1497.

Sir Humphrey Arundell, Governor of St Michael’s Mount, led the ‘Prayer Book Rebellion,’ a popular revolt against the imposition of the English language, in 1549. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Mount was given to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. His son sold it to Sir Francis Bassett.

John Milton used the Mount as the setting for the finale of his poem Lycidas’ in 1637. He drew on the traditional sea-lore that said the Archangel Michael sat in a great stone chair at the top of the Mount, seeing far over the sea and protecting England.

During the Civil War, Sir Arthur Bassett, brother of Sir Francis, held the Mount against the Parliament until July 1646. The Mount was sold in to Colonel John St Aubyn in 1659.

Until the early 18th century, that there were a few fishermen’s cottages on the shore. After improvements to the harbour in 1727, St Michael’s Mount flourished as a port.

Following the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, a tsunami to hit the coast of over 1,600 km away. The sea rose 2 metres in 10 minutes at St Michael’s Mount, ebbed at the same rate, and continued to rise and fall for five hours.

The structure of the castle was romanticised in the 18th and 19th centuries.

There were 53 houses and four streets on the Mount by 1811. The pier was extended in 1821 and the population peaked that year, when the island had 221 people. There were three schools, a Wesleyan chapel, and three public houses, mostly used by visiting sailors.

The harbour was enlarged in 1823 to accommodate vessels of up to 500 tonnes deadweight, and Queen Victoria disembarked from the royal yacht at St Michael’s Mount in 1846, and a brass inlay of her footstep can be seen at the top of the landing stage.

The architect James Piers St Aubyn (1815-1895) made additions to the South Court for his cousin, Sir John St Aubyn, in 1850. But the village went into decline following major improvements to nearby Penzance harbour and the extension of the railway to Penzance in 1852, and many of the houses and buildings were demolished, although a short underground, narrow gauge railway was built in Victorian times.

The causeway linking the Mount and Marazion was improved in 1879 by raising it by 30 cm with sand and stones from the surrounding area. Several houses are built on the hillside facing Marazion. Elizabeth Terrace, a row of eight houses at the back of the village, was built in 1885.

In the late 19th century the remains of an anchorite were found in a tomb inside the domestic chapel.

The Mount was fortified during World War II. The former Nazi Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, frequently visited Cornwall when he was Ambassador to London and planned to live at the Mount after a German conquest.

Saint Michael’s Mount seen through the side streets of Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Mount’s Bay stretches from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In winter, onshore gales present maritime risks, and there are more than 150 known wrecks from the 19th century in the area.

The town of Marazion (population 1,440) on the shore of Mount’s Bay is 3 km east of Penzance and is a thriving tourist resort with an active community of artists.

At an early period, this was a centre for tin smelting, and Marazion prospered because of the pilgrims who visited St Michael’s Mount until the Reformation.

Although Marazion was not recorded in the Domesday Book in 1088, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, Robert, Count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall, granted lands and liberties to St Michael’s Mount opposite Marazion, with a market on Thursdays.

The King’s Arms in the Market Place in Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

These markets were known as Marghasbighan (Parvum Forum or ‘small marketplace’) and Marghasyewe (Forum Jovis, ‘Thursday Market’ or ‘Marketjew’). The names Marketjew and Marazion have given rise to erroneous stories about Jewish origins for the town. Three fairs were also held, on the two feasts of Saint Michael and at Mid-Lent, and the Priors of St Michael’s Mount held three markets. Later, markets were held on Mondays, with a three-day fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of Saint Andrew at ‘Marghasyon.’

Marazion was plundered twice in the first half of the 16th century, first by the French and later by Cornish rebels.

Queen Elizabeth granted Marazion a charter of incorporation in 1595. The corporation consisted of a mayor, eight aldermen and 12 capital burgesses.

As neighbouring Penzance developed as a borough, Marazion was eclipsed in the 17th century marginalised Marazion. A new parish church, All Saints’ Church, was designed for Marazion in 1861. He had been involved in earlier designs for the castle on Mount St Michael, and he was the architect of the parish church in the village of Saint Agnes.

The corporation was dissolved in 1835. From 1894 to 1974, Marazion was part of West Penwith Rural District and then from 1974 part of Penwith District Council. Marazion regained its town status in 1974, with the right to elect a Mayor from the Marazion Town Council.

In The Square in the centre of Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Meanwhile, Francis Cecil St Aubyn (1895-1978), who succeeded as 3rd Baron St Levan in 1940, gave most of St Michael’s Mount to the National Trust in 1954, along with a large endowment fund. The St Aubyn family retained a 999-year lease to inhabit the castle and a licence to manage the public viewing of its historic rooms. This is managed in conjunction with the National Trust.

Today, St Michael’s Mount is managed by the National Trust, but the castle remains the home of the St Aubyn family and Lord St Levan. For local government purposes, St Michael’s Mount forms its own civil parish, with a parish meeting chaired by Lord St Levan. The chapel is extra-diocesan and continues to serve the Order of St John by permission of Lord St Levan.

Part of the island was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1995 for its geology. The east side of the bay centred around Marazion and St Michael’s Mount was designated as a Marine Conservation Zone in January 2016.

A small cottage near the Marketplace in Marazion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)