St Keverne

St. Keverne is one of the main villages on the Lizard Peninsula and historically the most important within the area known as The Meneage, derived from the Cornish meaning Monk’s Land or monastic. This area covers more than 10,000 acres on the east side of the peninsula.

The village is a friendly community with the village stores, a butcher, Post Office, newsagent, two pubs and an organic restaurant. Unusually for Cornwall it is built around a central square overlooked by the church.

St. Keverne church dates from the 15th century and is large for a village church with a distinctive octagonal spire. This was apparently added as daymarker to warn sailors of the treacherous Manacles Reef, a square mile of barely submerged rocks just off shore. Over the centuries these have claimed hundreds of ships and many lives. There are 400 victims buried in this churchyard and memorials to ships such as The Primrose, The Bay of Panama and The SS Mohegan.

Two large rebellions had their roots here and were led by men from the village. The first, in 1497, was the Cornish Rebellion led by the blacksmith, Michael Joseph “An Gof”, and the next was the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion led by a local vicar, Martin Geoffrey. Both men however lost their lives for their causes.

The village has an award winning brass band which plays in the square during the summer, a pig roast in the spring and an ox roast during August.