Morwenstow, Cornwall's Most Northerly Parish
Home to a Rugged Coastline, Dramatic History and Eccentric Vicar
A few steps down from the coastal footpath, overlooking the surf breaking on a rocky shore, a curious wooden hut has been built into the cliff. Its doors bear the scars of daily bleaching by the sun, battering by storms rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean and the carving of names and initials by passing hikers.
Hawker's Hut
Welcome to Hawker's Hut, built from driftwood by Robert Stephen Hawker soon after he became the vicar of Morwenstow Parish in 1834 and the smallest property owned by the National Trust, England's leading charity devoted to preserving heritage buildings and landscapes. Inside, the hut has two wooden benches where Hawker spent many hours smoking his opium pipe and writing poetry.
It is hard to separate Morwenstow from Hawker. The parish lies at the northern tip of the county of Cornwall, and is notable mainly for its beautiful, rugged coastline with its distinctive geology and long history of shipwrecks, and as the starting point for intrepid hikers planning to walk the entire length of the Cornish coast path. Hawker served as vicar for 41 years, and no local history is complete without many references to him.
Morwenstow Vicarage
Hawker's eventful life is graphically and entertainingly described by Sabine Baring-Gould in his biography The Vicar of Morwenstow (1876). Born in 1803, Hawker was known for his practical jokes and eccentric habits and dress style, but he was also an accomplished poet, farmer, local philanthropist and rescuer of shipwreck victims. He rebuilt the derelict Morwenstow vicarage, now a private residence immediately below the church.
At the age of 21 he rushed into a marriage with a woman a year older than his mother, in order to pay his way through Oxford. When he was 61 and after his first wife died he married a 20-year-old woman almost young enough to be his granddaughter.
Song of the Western Men
Hawker is credited with reviving the Anglican Church's tradition of the harvest festival, and he wrote the Song of the Western Men, now widely regarded as the anthem of the putative Cornish nation: "And shall Trelawney die? Then twenty thousand Cornishmen Shall know the reason why!" Alfred Lord Tennyson visited during his tenure as the Poet Laureate, and Hawker was friendly with Charles Kingsley who lived nearby.
Morwenstow's severe west-facing coast offers no shelter, and many ships have been blown on to it by the predominantly westerly winds or lured by the lights of treasure-seeking wreckers. Hawker became used to leading his parishioners down the dangerous cliff paths to rescue or retrieve the bodies of victims.
Wreck of the Caledonia
The most dramatic incident was the wreck of the Scottish ship the Caledonia in 1842, recorded in detail in Baring-Gould's biography and in Jeremy Seal's The Wreck at Sharpnose Point (Picador, 2002). All the passengers and crew were lost except for one man, who Hawker personally resuscitated.
The Caledonia's plain white figurehead is displayed inside the church, with a replica outside in the churchyard. The well-maintained church, dedicated to St John the Baptist and St Morwenna, is also notable for its Norman font, carved wooden pews and stained glass windows.
Getting There, and Beyond
Morwenstow is three miles west of the A39 Atlantic Highway, and there is a car park between the church and the much-praised Vicarage Tea Rooms. A few hundred meters before the church the newly extended thirteenth century Bush Inn serves excellent lunches. It is an ideal starting or finishing place for hikes north towards Hartland Point, or south towards the Coombe Valley, Sandy Mouth and the obtrusive GCHQ Bude satellite ground station at the former Cleave RAF base.
The parish church, Morwenstow
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Hawker's Hut, above Vicarage Cliff
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View from near Hawkers Hut towards Lundy Island
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The white Caledonia figurehead in the churchyard
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One of the church's stained glass windows
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