Coverack
Coordinates: 50°01′N 5°06′W / 50.017°N 5.100°W
Coverack (Cornish: Porthkovrek,[1] meaning cove of the stream) is a coastal village and fishing port in Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the east side of the Lizard peninsula, about nine miles south of Falmouth.[2]
Coverack has several hotels and a youth hostel.[3] The area is a centre for watersports, particularly wind surfing, sailing and diving. The nearby rocks known as The Manacles have been the site of many shipwrecks and as a consequence are now a favourite diving destination.
Geography
Near the South West Coast Path is Poldowrian Garden which includes a prehistoric settlement discovered in 1965, dated by archaeologists at 5500 BC. Finds from the site are available for viewing.[4] The roads to Coverack cross Goonhilly Downs (famous for the BT satellite earth station).
"Coverack Cove and Dolor Point" SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) is one of the most famous geological localities in Cornwall, providing an almost continuous section across a mantle-crust boundary.[5] Other nearby SSSI are Coverack to Porthoustock and Kennack to Coverack.
Coverack lies within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Almost a third of Cornwall has AONB designation, with the same status and protection as a National Park.
Coverack Lifeboat
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) stationed a lifeboat at Coverack in 1901 following the wreck of the SS Mohegan on The Manacles in 1898 with the loss of more than 100 lives. A boat house with a slipway was built on the harbour. The station was closed in October 1978 following the allocation of a faster boat to Falmouth Lifeboat Station.[6]
A coxswain of the Coverack lifeboat, Archie Rowe, was a subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.
The following lifeboats were stationed at Coverack. 'ON' is the RNLI's sequential Official Number; 'Op. No.' is the operational number painted onto the boat.
| ON | Op. No. | Name | Built | At Coverack | Class | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 458 | – | Constance Melanie | 1901–1934 | Watson | [6] | |
| 771 | – | The Three Sisters | 1934 | 1934–1954 | Liverpool | Reported working as a pleasure boat at Rhyl in 2007.[7] |
| 907 | – | William Taylor of Oldham | 1954–1972 | Watson | Reported working as a fishing boat named Gipsy Moth in Petit Martinique.[8] | |
| – | ? | ? | 1972–1978 | D | Inshore lifeboat.[6] | |
Christmas Swim
Every year on Christmas Day, all the local villagers and many holiday makers turn out to watch volunteers go swimming in the harbour in aid of charity. This tradition has gone on for nearly 50 years and raised thousands of pounds for Cancer Research.
References
- ↑ Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) : List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel. Cornish Language Partnership.
- ↑ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 204 Truro & Falmouth ISBN 978-0-319-23149-4
- ↑ A magnificent staircase salvaged from the wreck of the SS Mohegan on The Manacles stands in Coverack youth hostel, at Parc Behan, School Hill, Coverack.
- ↑ "Poldowrian Garden". Gardens of Cornwall. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
- ↑ "Coverack Cove and Dolor Point". Natural England. 1992. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Leach, Nicholas (2006) [2000]. Cornwall's Lifeboat Heritage. Chacewater: Twelveheads Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-906294-43-6.
- ↑ Denton, Tony (2009). Handbook 2009. Shrewsbury: Lifeboat Enthusiasts Society. pp. 16–17.
- ↑ Denton, Tony (2009). pp. 22–23. Missing or empty
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