Lamorna
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Lamorna | |
| Cornish: Nansmornow | |
  Lamorna shown within Cornwall |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| District | Penwith |
| Shire county | Cornwall |
| Region | South West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | TRURO |
| Postcode district | TR19 |
| Dialling code | 01736 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Cornwall |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| European Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | Falmouth and Camborne |
| List of places: UK • England • Cornwall | |
Lamorna (Cornish: Nansmornow) is a small fishing village on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, England. It is effectively a small congregation of houses clustered around a natural harbour. At the end of the 19th century it became popular as a subject among many of the painters of the Newlyn School, including, particularly the artist S J "Lamorna" Birch, 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, "the wink" being the indication that contraband could be obtained. The pub is the subject of a novel by Martha Grimes, entitled The Lamorna Wink. A small pottery Lamorna Pottery was founded in 1947 by Christopher James Ludlow and Derek Wilshaw.
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[edit] Newlyn School of Art
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Lamorna became a popular muse for painters of the Newlyn School, with a small colony led by Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch and included painters such as Alfred Munnings, Laura Knight and Harold Knight lived and painted there. This period is dramatised in the novel Summer in February by Jonathan Smith. Lamorna also housed the jeweler Ella Naper and her husband, the painter Charles, who built Trewoofe house there.
[edit] 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. This may refer to local geography as there was an Albert Square, which features in the first line of the song, in nearby Penzance (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.[1]. Another theory is that it may actually hail from Manchester, where there is a Pomona Dock, near an Albert Square [2]
'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 published in 1929
 Lamorna Cove, toward Mount's Bay |
 Millennium gardens at Lamorna |
[edit] Lamorna Stone
Granite taken from Lamorna cove has been used world wide for construction, most famously the Thames Embankment. Stone from the cove was also used to construct the nearby church of St Buryan, whose 92 foot wrought granite tower is an imposing local landmark often used as a line of sight by fisherman coming into port.
