Morwenstow () is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in north

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom. The parish abuts the west coast, about six miles (10 km) north of

Bude Bude (, locally or ; Cornish language, Cornish ) is a seaside town in north Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as ...

and within the

Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty The Cornwall National Landscape (formerly the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) covers in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom; that is, about 27% of the total area of the county. It comprises 12 separate areas, designated under the Na ...

(AONB). Morwenstow is the most northerly parish in

. As well as the churchtown (a hamlet called Crosstown), other settlements in the parish include

Shop Shop or shopping may refer to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop * Reta ...

, Woodford,

Gooseham Gooseham () is a hamlet in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated six miles (11 km) north of Bude and is approximately one kilometre south of the border with Devon.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 ''Bude & Clov ...

, Eastcott, Woolley and

West Youlstone West Youlstone is a hamlet in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies seven miles north north west of Bude and north of Kilkhampton along the A39 road. It belongs to the parish of Morwenstow, and lies to the east of it. East Youlstone i ...

. The population at the 2011 census was 791. Morwenstow parish is bounded to the north and east by parishes in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, to the south by

Kilkhampton Kilkhampton () is a village and civil parish in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is on the A39 about four miles (6 km) north-northeast of Bude. Kilkhampton was mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Chilchetone". T ...

parish and to the west by the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. The

River Tamar The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...

has its source at a spring on Woolley Moor, at , which is in the parish near the border with Devon. Morwenstow is the one-time home of the eccentric vicar and poet

Robert Stephen Hawker Robert Stephen Hawker (1803–1875) was a British Anglican priest, poet, antiquarian and reputed eccentric, known to his parishioners as Parson Hawker. He is best known as the writer of " The Song of the Western Men" with its chorus line of ...

(1803–1875), the writer of Cornwall's anthem '' Trelawny''. Hawker is also credited with reviving the custom of

Harvest Festival A harvest festival is an annual Festival, celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different ...

Parish church

The

Church of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist, Morwenstow The Church of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist is the parish church of Morwenstow, north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, the most northerly parish in Cornwall. The church is dedicated to Morwenna, a local saint, and to John the Baptist, and ...

is dedicated to Saints

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

and

Morwenna Morwenna is the eponymous patron saint of Morwenstow, a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, UK. Her name is thought to be cognate with Welsh '' morwyn'' "maiden", although the first name is also used in Wales and Brittany and said to ...

and is of the Norman period. The Vicarage was built for Hawker and has chimneys in the form of the towers of various churches associated with him. The nearby coast is hazardous to shipping and the corpses of drowned sailors were laid out in the churchyard and then buried. Hawker buried over forty who were washed up within the parish boundaries. One of the memorials in the churchyard was the white figurehead of the "

Caledonia Caledonia (; ) was the Latin name used by the Roman Empire to refer to the forested region in the central and western Scottish Highlands, particularly stretching through parts of what are now Lochaber, Badenoch, Strathspey, and possibly as ...

", a brig from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

that sank on the perilous rocks of Higher Sharpnose in 1842. The captain and most of the crew are buried in the churchyard. In 2004 the figurehead was removed for conservation and is now displayed on the north wall inside the church. A resin replica of the figurehead stands in the churchyard.

History and description

A path leads from the church and down to the cliff edge, where the National Trust's smallest building, "

Hawker's Hut Hawker's Hut is an historic hut at Morwenstow, Cornwall originally built by the eccentric clergyman, poet and antiquarian, Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 – 1875), close to Higher Sharpnose Point. The hut is located approximately 1 mile from M ...

", is built into the face of the cliff overlooking the sea out towards the island of

Lundy Lundy is an English island in the Bristol Channel. It forms part of the district of Torridge in the county of Devon. About long and wide, Lundy has had a long and turbulent history, frequently changing hands between the British crown and ...

. Here, Hawker spent many hours in contemplation, writing poetry, and smoking his

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

pipe. He also entertained guests here, including

Alfred Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

and

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the workin ...

. The holy well of St John on the glebe was mentioned in 1296. The so-called well of St Morwenna is on the cliff. There was a chapel of St Mary at Milton in 1407. The manor of

Stanbury Stanbury is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Haworth and Stanbury, in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. In 1931 the parish had a population of 453. The name Stanbury translates ...

in the parish is the birthplace of John Stanberry,

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. Until 1534, the Diocese of Hereford was in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and two of its bishop ...

, who was made first Provost at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

King Henry VI Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne at the age of eight months, upon ...

. Sir William Adams the

oculist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

was also born at Stanbury. The manor house was built in the 16th century. Nearby Tonacombe Manor has been described as the perfect Tudor manor. A round-headed Celtic cross was found here in the early 20th century; no round-headed cross was known north of Laneast before this one was found.''The Cornish Church Guide'' (1925) Truro: Blackford; pp. 167-68 A striking example of curved and contorted stratified rocks occurs at Stanbury Creek. Dark cliffs of folded, interbedded

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

s and

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

s form wave-cut platforms.

GCHQ Bude GCHQ Bude, also known as GCHQ Composite Signals Organisation Station Morwenstow, abbreviated to GCHQ CSO Morwenstow, is a UK Government satellite ground station and eavesdropping centre located on the north Cornwall coast at Cleave Camp, betwe ...

, a satellite ground station stands on the cliffs of Cleave and its array of dishes is visible for miles around.

Cornish wrestling

Cornish wrestling Cornish wrestling () is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton people, Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’"Phillipps, K C: ...

tournaments, for prizes, were held at an Inn that used to adjoin Morwenstow church.Cornubian and Redruth Times, 27 March 1885.

Literary associations

Morwenstow and its surroundings feature heavily in the plot of the mystery thriller novel ''Set in Stone'' (1999) by the British author

Robert Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully lau ...

. ''The Wreck at Sharpnose Point'' by Jeremy Seal (June 2003) is a novel based on the wrecking of the 'Caledonia' (first published in New York, 2001 ).

Notable people

*Sir William Adams the

was born at Stanbury *

Michael Axworthy Michael George Andrew Axworthy (26 September 1962 – 16 March 2019) was a British academic, author, and commentator. He was the head of the Iran section at the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 1998 and 2000. Personal life and fami ...

, historian and commentator *

Sally Axworthy Sally Jane Axworthy, (' Hinds, 1 September 1964) is a British diplomat who was formerly the British Ambassador to the Holy See. Life Axworthy is the widow of Michael Axworthy, whom she married in 1996 and who died in March 2019, and has four c ...

, diplomat *

, poet and priest * John Stanberry,

, who was made first Provost at

, was also born at Stanbury * Jonah Barrington, international squash player and coach *

Adelaide Phillpotts Mary Adelaide Eden Ross (née Phillpotts; 23 April 1896 – 4 June 1993) was an English novelist, poet and playwright. She married at the age of 55 leaving behind her father who had controlled their incestuous relationship. Life Phillpotts wa ...

, writer, is buried here

References

External links

Cornwall Record Office Online Catalogue for Morwenstow
{{authority control Villages in Cornwall Civil parishes in Cornwall Populated coastal places in Cornwall