St Senara's Church, Zennor, Medieval church in Zennor, England.
St Senara's Church is a Norman church in the small village of Zennor, on the far west coast of Cornwall, England. It sits within an oval churchyard and has a north aisle added in the 15th century, a granite exterior, and a tower that holds six bells.
The present building dates to around 1150 and replaced an earlier place of worship linked to Saint Senara, a figure from the 6th century. The church was later enlarged in the 15th century when the north aisle was added, giving it much of the form it has today.
The Mermaid Chair, a carved bench end from the 15th century, shows a mermaid holding a mirror and a comb, and visitors regularly stop to look at it closely. It is one of the few surviving examples of this type of carving in a Cornish church and gives a sense of the stories people told in this part of England during the Middle Ages.
The church is easy to find in the center of Zennor and the churchyard is open to walk around at any reasonable hour. Taking time to look at both the inside and the outside is worthwhile, as each offers something different.
A plaque inside the church commemorates John Davey, widely recorded as the last person to have had a complete knowledge of the Cornish language. This makes the building one of the few places in England where the end of an entire language is marked with a permanent memorial.
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