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Lamorna

 

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Lamorna



 
 
Lamorna is a small fishing village on the Penwith
Penwith

Penwith is a Non-metropolitan district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council is based in Penzance. The district covers all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which includes an area of land to the east that falls outside the peninsula, being the most westerly distric...
 peninsula
Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of Landform that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paeninsula : paene, almost + insula, island....
 in Cornwall
Cornwall

Cornwall , constitutional Duchy and palatine, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of England, United Kingdom, located at the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. It is effectively a small congregation of houses clustered around a natural harbour. At the end of the nineteenth century it became popular as a subject among many of the painters of the Newlyn School
Newlyn School

The Newlyn School is a term used to describe a colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century....
, including, particularly, the artist S J "Lamorna" Birch
Lamorna Birch

Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS was an artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the soubriquet "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from Lionel Birch, an artist who was also working in the area at that time....
, who lived there in a small cottage.

It has a pub, "The Wink", whose name alludes to the other occupation of its inhabitants in days gone by, smuggling
Smuggling

Smuggling, also known as trafficking, is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of the law or other rules....
, "the wink" being the indication that contraband could be obtained.






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Lamorna is a small fishing village on the Penwith
Penwith

Penwith is a Non-metropolitan district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council is based in Penzance. The district covers all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which includes an area of land to the east that falls outside the peninsula, being the most westerly distric...
 peninsula
Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of Landform that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paeninsula : paene, almost + insula, island....
 in Cornwall
Cornwall

Cornwall , constitutional Duchy and palatine, is a metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of England, United Kingdom, located at the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. It is effectively a small congregation of houses clustered around a natural harbour. At the end of the nineteenth century it became popular as a subject among many of the painters of the Newlyn School
Newlyn School

The Newlyn School is a term used to describe a colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century....
, including, particularly, the artist S J "Lamorna" Birch
Lamorna Birch

Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS was an artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the soubriquet "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from Lionel Birch, an artist who was also working in the area at that time....
, who lived there in a small cottage.

It has a pub, "The Wink", whose name alludes to the other occupation of its inhabitants in days gone by, smuggling
Smuggling

Smuggling, also known as trafficking, is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of the law or other rules....
, "the wink" being the indication that contraband could be obtained. The pub is the subject of a novel by Martha Grimes
Martha Grimes

Martha Grimes is an United States author of detective fiction.She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to D.W., a city solicitor, and to June, who owned the Mountain Lake Hotel in Western Maryland where Martha and her brother spent much of their childhood....
, entitled The Lamorna Wink. A small pottery, Lamorna Pottery, was founded in 1947 by Christopher James Ludlow and Derek Wilshaw.

Newlyn School of Art


In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Lamorna became a popular muse for painters of the Newlyn School
Newlyn School

The Newlyn School is a term used to describe a colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century....
, with a small colony led by Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch
Lamorna Birch

Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS was an artist in oils and watercolours. At the suggestion of fellow artist Stanhope Forbes, Birch adopted the soubriquet "Lamorna" to distinguish himself from Lionel Birch, an artist who was also working in the area at that time....
 and included painters such as Alfred Munnings
Alfred Munnings

Sir Alfred James Munnings Royal Victorian Order, Royal Academy was known as one of England's finest painters of horses, and as an outspoken enemy of Modernism....
, Laura Knight
Laura Knight

Dame Laura Knight, Order of the British Empire was an England Impressionism painter. Famous for capturing the world of London's theatre district, ballet and the circus, she was a member of the Newlyn School of art and was the first woman artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire....
 and Harold Knight lived and painted there. This period is dramatised in the novel Summer in February by Jonathan Smith
Jonathan Smith

Jonathan Smith may refer to:*Jonathan Smith , American professional race car driver*Jonathan Smith , American professional wide receiver*Jonathan Smith , English professional striker...
. Lamorna also housed the jeweler Ella Naper and her husband, the painter Charles, who built Trewoofe house there.

Lamorna in song

Lamorna has been immortalised in the song Way Down to Lamorna, about a wayward husband receiving his comeuppance from his wife. The song, beloved of many Cornish singers
Brenda Wootton

Brenda Wootton was a Cornwall poetess and folk music and was seen as an ambassador for Cornish people tradition and culture.She began her musical career as a young schoolgirl, singing in village halls throughout the remote communities of west Cornwall....
. This may refer to local geography as there was an Albert Square, which features in the first line of the song, in nearby Penzance
Penzance

Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, UK.Granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and Incorporation in 1614, it has a population of 20,255 and is currently Penwith's principal town....
 (near the current Albert Street) in Victorian times. 'Jorey’s Jingle', a horse drawn vehicle, used to run from Albert Square, Penzance to Lamorna Cove which was three miles South West.. Another theory is that it may actually hail from Manchester
Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. Manchester was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1853....
, where there is a Pomona Dock
Pomona Docks

File:Manchester Dock No 9.jpgSalford Docks, sometimes called Manchester Docks, was an area of nine docks in Salford and Stretford, at the east end of the Manchester Ship Canal in North West England....
, near an Albert Square
Albert Square, Manchester

Albert Square is a public plaza in Manchester, England.It lies in front of Manchester Town Hall and features the monuments:* A canopied memorial to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha by architect Thomas Worthington , with a figure of Albert by Matthew Noble ...
 

Twas down in Albert Square,
I never shall forget,
Her eyes they shone like diamonds
And the evening it was wet, wet, wet.
Her hair hung down in curls,
She was a charming rover,
And we rode all night
In the pale moonlight
Away down to Lamorna

Lamorna Cove was the title of a poem by W. H. Davies
W. H. Davies

William Henry Davies or W H Davies was a Wales poet and writer....
 published in 1929

Lamorna Stone


Granite taken from Lamorna cove has been used world wide for construction, most famously the Thames Embankment
Thames Embankment

The Thames Embankment is a major feat of 19th century civil engineering designed to reclaim marshy land next to the River Thames in central London....
. Stone from the cove was also used to construct the nearby church of St Buryan
St Buryan

St Buryan is a village and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The parish encompasses the villages of St. Buryan, Lamorna, and Crows-an-wra and shares boundaries with the parishes of Sancreed and St Just in Penwith to the north, Sennen and St Levan to the west, with Paul, Cornwall to the east and by the sea in...
, whose 92 foot wrought granite tower is an imposing local landmark often used as a line of sight by fisherman coming into port.

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