The Mermaid of Zennor

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Her green eyes looked back calmly at the villagers, who were staring, for newcomers were rare in that far-flung parish; her tawny-gold hair flowed down over her back, wild and untrained; the long dress she wore swept the ground like a bride’s train, and was made of some material that no one there had ever seen, for it shimmered like the sea on a sunny day. When Zennor folks learnt that a mermaid dwelt near Pendower, and what she had told the captain, they concluded it was, this sea-lady who had visited their church, and enticed Trewella to her abode. The famed "mermaid chair" was the same bench on which the mermaid had sat and sung, opposite Trewella in the singing loft.

One fine Sunday morning in Zennor church, perched on the cliffs of Penwith, the choir and congregation were ready for service when through the church door came a strange lady of unearthly beauty. The fisherman initially dismissed the encounter as a bad omen, but, as written in Bottrell’s telling of the story ‘When Zennor folks learnt that a mermaid dwelt near Pen-dower, and what she had told the captain, they concluded it was this sea-lady who had visited their church, and enticed Trewella to her abode. Whenever they sang songs in church, she had the most beautiful voice, and everyone else sang quietly so they could hear her better. Hence if the villagers of Zennor had instructed a woodworker to carve them a mermaid to commemorate the tale, it is highly likely a mermaid in the classic pose with mirror and comb would have resulted anyway.In 1816 there was a wreck so catastrophic that it reduced the width of the channel by nearly half and locals had to petition the Admiralty to have it removed. Location: Paid parking at the museum, or (if there is space), free parking along the very narrow village road.

They’re bigger than empanadas and smaller than calzones, but like a calzone, a Cornish pasty can be an entire meal. Looking over the side of the ship he saw a beautiful mermaid, with her long, blonde hair flowing all around her. The song is sung from the perspective of the mermaid, giving her a voice which she is so often denied, but still presenting her as a strange and dangerous sea creature.The captain wanted very much to leave, but he had to tell the people of the village about what happened. In 2014 indie band The Hit Parade released the rather excellent album Cornish Pop Songs featuring the song, Zennor Mermaid.

This does not have to be achieved by forming a deal with an octopus-legged sea witch, as in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid, but derives from some magical power which the mermaid herself possesses. I’m not the only one endlessly fascinated by the story – since Cornish folklorist William Bottrell first recorded the mermaid’s tale/tail in 1873 there have been constant homages to the legend, from operas to poems and indie pop and folk songs. It is adorned with a thin cushion with a pattern of fishes, and one side has a beautiful but unremarkable intertwining pattern.

His stories were longer than similar versions published by others and reflected the way the old story tellers embellished the basic tales to increase the entertainment value.

The small village of Zennor huddles around the medieval churc hbetween the West Cornwall moors and North Cornish coast not far from St Ives. Every night at evensong the mermaid would come to hear him until one night as Mathew sang a particularly lovely verse Morveren let out a tiny sigh. Initially, she didn’t dare get any closer than the rocks at Pendour Cove near the village, but as the week’s went on she grew bolder and finally became so brave she dressed as a noblewoman and attended a church service. There’d been a steady stream of boats pulling up since 8am, clearly in cahoots so as to avoid cluttering the picture of remoteness with more than one ship. An earlier book by Robert Hunt in 1865, ‘Popular Romances of the West of England’ mentions other Cornish mermaids but not our own ‘Morvoren’.However it may be, her polite request had a magical effect upon the sailors, for they immediately "worked with a will: hove anchor and set sail, not wishing to remain a moment longer than they could help near her habitation. It’s even more unsettling, then, that a creature of the sea could reach up into a holy ark itself and pluck out the most gifted there for a watery death. Two ways of telling the same story: a church postcard (left) and a photo from St Senara's at night (right).