THE PARISH OF

ST KEVERNE

St Keverne is situated in the deanery and Hundred of Kerrier and is on the extreme southern coast of Cornwall on the Lizard Peninsula. Surrounding parishes are Manaccan, St Anthony Meneage, Grade, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, St Martins in Meneage and close to the Helford river.

The parish is a coastal one, mainly agricultural and small amounts of quarrying activity. There are three inhabited fishing coves in the parish: Porthallow, Porthoustock and Coverack with several hamlets including Traboe, Rosenithon, Laddenvean, Tregowris and Ponsongath.

The church spire has been a landmark for shipping for much of its existence. The parish includes the notorious Manacle Rocks (deriving its name from the old Cornish "Maen Eglos" - or Church Rocks) which has claimed many a ship because the rocks are submerged at high tide. The most famous ship lost was the SS Mohegan which was wrecked on the Manacles in 1898 with the loss of 106 lives and also the Barque John.

The parish is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 and in 1497 the Cornish rebellion, led by Michael Joseph An-Gof and Thomas Flamank, started their march on London from St Keverne. The event is marked by an inscription on the Church wall and a statue of the pair in the village.

For a Special Notice regarding the Centenary of the Methodist Church, and a new family history publication, please click HERE.

There is a dedicated website for the parish which contains more in depth information on the history of the parish, transcriptions of parish registers, some family trees, information on the SS Mohegan and links to information on Barque John.

 © 2004 Cornwall OPC

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