Germoe

Germoe (Cornish: Germogh)[1] is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Germoe village, the parish's main settlement and church town, is about five miles (8 km) west of Helston and seven miles (11.3 km) east of Penzance. The A394 Penzance to Helston road runs along the southern border of the parish.[2] Other settlements in the parish include Balwest, Boscreege and Tresowes Green.

Germoe
Germoe
Location within Cornwall
Population528 (United Kingdom Census 2011 including Balwest)
OS grid referenceSW585294
Civil parish
  • Germoe
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPENZANCE
Postcode districtTR20
Dialling code01736
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
St Germoe's Chair

The parish is named after Saint Germocus, one of the companions of Saint Breage. According to legend Germoc was a king in Ireland whose feast day is 6 May.

Historically, the largest landowners in the parish were the Godolphin family (the Dukes of Leeds).[3]

Germoe parish is bounded to the north, east and south by Breage parish and to the west by St Hilary parish.[4] The population was 508 in the 2001 census.[3] This had increased to 549 at the 2011 Census.[5] The parish is now rural in character but was once associated with mining; to the north it borders the geological formation known as the Tregonning-Godolphin Granite (one of five granite batholiths in Cornwall) and the area was formerly an important source of tin and copper ore (see Geology of Cornwall).[3] Tregonning Hill is the site of the Germoe war memorial.

Churches

The parish church in Germoe is mostly of the 14th century and is built on the site of an earlier Norman church. The church has a chancel, nave, north aisle, south transept, and a three-stage battlemented tower of granite ashlar. There are three long tailed monkeys carved on the porch which are said to ward off evil. There is a Godolphin family pew in the north aisle.[3] A small medieval building in the churchyard wall is known as St Germoe's Chair. The Anglican ecclesiastical parish of Germoe is now grouped with Breage. A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Balwest in 1829 for miners in the north of the parish.

Pengersick Castle

Pengersick Castle is a fortified manor house near Praa Sands which is a Grade II* listed building.[6]

The house is of late medieval date and features one of the few towers of its type preserved in Britain.[7] John Milliton of Pengersick Castle became High Sheriff of Cornwall and Pengersick Castle was also improved around 1530 as a fortified manor house after the wreck of a valuable Portuguese ship.[8] Rumours of ghosts and devil-worship[9] surround the castle.[10] The ghost of John Milliton is said to haunt the castle. Legend says that he attempted to poison his wife, but she switched goblets with him and the Devil was all too happy to take them both to hell.[11] Historical research has proven some of these stories to be false: no monks were murdered there (although one was assaulted by Henry Pengersick), the supposed plague pits featured in the television programme Most Haunted were located in another part of the castle,[12] and the Black Dog is reported to be a myth created by 19th century smugglers to frighten people away.[12] Additionally, Sir John Milliton died in 1570, and his wife in 1579.

  • Pengersick Castle
  • St Germoe church
  • Kenneggy Methodist Chapel
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References
The gardens of Pengersick Farm
  1. Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine : List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel Archived May 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Cornish Language Partnership.
  2. Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
  3. GENUKI website: Germoe. Retrieved May 2010
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Cornwall Council mapping. Retrieved May 2010
  5. "2011 census. Retrieved 5 Feb 2015".
  6. Historic England. "PENGERSICK CASTLE (1311147)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  7. Pevsner, N. (1970) Cornwall, 2nd ed. Penguin Books; pp. 72, 134
  8. Pengersick Castle
  9. BBC Cornwall: A night at Pengersick
  10. "Legend of Pengersick Castle". Archived from the original on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  11. Anthony D. Hippisley Coxe, Haunted Britain, pg. 22, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York 1973
  12. Double Exposure: Pengersick Castle Archived 2012-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
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