The Lizard is a peninsula of Cornwall, and contains the most southerly point of mainland Cornwall and of the island Great Britain, Lizard Point. The peninsula measures approximately 14 x 14 miles. Historically a particularly hazardous stretch of coastline, it was also known as the "Graveyard of Ships". The name 'Lizard' is a corruption of the Cornish name 'Lys Arth', meaning 'high court'; it is purely coincidental that much of the peninsula is composed of a rock called serpentine. The Lizard is important from a geological point of view as it is Britain's only example of an ophiolite.
History
EarlyThere is evidence of early habitation with several burial mounds and stones. Part of the peninsula is known as the Meneage (land of the monks). There are several towns and villages on the peninsula, some of which are covered below.
Helston once headed the River Cober, before it was cut off from the sea by Loe Bar in the 13th century. It was a small port which exported tin and copper. Helston was certainly in existence in the sixth century when it was inhabited by Saxons. The name comes from the Cornish 'hen lis' or 'old court' and 'ton' denoting that it was a Saxon manor; the Domesday Book refers to it as Henliston. It was granted its charter by King John in 1201. It was here that tin ingots were weighed to determine the duty due to the Duke of Cornwall.
By the 14th century, a hamlet of fishermen's dwellings had established itself around the cove at Porthleven, named from the old Cornish porth (harbour) and leven (level or smooth). It grew with miners and farmworkers; and building of a harbour began in 1811. In 1855 the harbour was deepened, and a boatbuilding industry began, lasting until recently. The port imported coal, limestone and timber, and exported tin, copper and china clay. The harbour also heralded the start of Porthleven's golden days of pilchard fishing.
Mullion holds the 15th century church of St Mellanus, and the Old Inn from the 16th century. The harbour was completed in 1895 and financed by Lord Robartes of Lanhydrock as a recompense to the fishermen for several disastrous pilchard seasons.
The small church of St Peter in Coverack, built in 1885 for 500 pounds, has a serpentine pulpit, a rock unique to The Lizard.
The Great Western Railway operated a road motor service to The Lizard from Helston railway station. Commencing on 17 August 1903, it was the first successful British railway-run bus service and was initially provided as a cheaper alternative to a proposed light railway.
Technology
In 1900 Guglielmo Marconi stayed the Housel Bay Hotel in his quest to locate a coastal radio station to receive signals from ships equipped with his apparatus. He leased a plot in the wheat field adjoining the hotel where the Lizard Wireless Telegraph Station still stands today. Recently restored by the National Trust, it looks as it did in January 1901, when Marconi received the distance record signals of 186 miles from his transmitter station at Niton, Isle of Wight.
In 1910 the station received an SOS call, which was two years before the Titanic, and was the first recorded reception of SOS by a coast station. The Lizard Wireless Station is the oldest Marconi station to survive in its original state in the world and is located to the west of the Lloyds Signal Station in what appears to be a wooden hut.
In December 1901, on the cliffs above Poldhu, Guglielmo Marconi sent a radio communication across the Atlantic to St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
In 1869, John Pender formed the Falmouth Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph company, intending to connect India to England with an undersea cable. Although intended to land at Falmouth, the final landing point was Porthcurno near Land's End.
A radar station called RAF Drytree was built during World War II. The site was later chosen for the Telstar project in 1962; its rocky foundations, clear atmosphere and closeness to the equator being uniquely suitable. This became the Goonhilly satellite earth station, now owned by BT Group plc. Some important developments in TV satellite transmission were made at Goonhilly station.
A wind farm exists near to the Goonhilly station site.
Titanium was discovered here by Reverend William Gregor in 1791.
