Penzance

Sister cities

• Concarneau
• Cuxhaven
• Nevada City
• Bendigo

History

About 400 prehistoric stone axes, known as Group 1 axes and made from greenstone, have been found all over Britain, which from petrological analysis appear to come from west Cornwall. Although the quarry has not been identified, it has been suggested that the Gear, a rock now submerged half a mile from the shore at Penzance, may be the site. A significant amount of trade is indicated as many have been found elsewhere in Britain. The earliest evidence of settlement in Penzance is from the Bronze Age. A number of bronze implements such as a palstave, a spear-head, a knife, and pins, along with much pottery and large quantities of charcoal were discovered when building a new housing estate, at Tredarvah, to the west of Alverton. The defensive earthwork known as Lescudjack Castle is not excavated, but almost certainly belongs to the Iron Age. A single rampart encloses three acres of hilltop, and would have dominated the approach to the area from the east. There are no signs of the additional ramparts reported by William Hals in about 1730, There are traces of a rampart and ditch to the west of Penzance at Mount Misery, and an oval rampart and ditch at Lesingey above the St Just road, which together with Lescudjack, overlook the coast of Penzance and Newlyn. Until recently, there was little evidence for anything but an early and short Roman occupation of Cornwall, and there have so far been only three finds in Penzance. In August 1899 two coins of Vespasian (69–79 AD) were found in an ancient trench in Penzance Cemetery. The coins were eight feet below ground together with some cow bones, and are now in the Penlee House Museum. Another coin, found in 1934 in the Alverton area, depicts Sol, the Roman sun god. It is described as a ″coin of the reign of Constantine the…

Geography

Penlee Quarry which is within the boundaries of the Penzance parish is a geological SSSI.

Most-observed species

• Herring Gull

  Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763 · Aves
  11,779
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,208
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,059
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,906
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,383
• Eurasian Wren

  Troglodytes troglodytes (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,086
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  7,023
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,658

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2008-03-23
  38 km NW of St Just, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2007-12-02
  46 km SSE of Mullion, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2006-12-19
  1 km NNE of Polperro, United Kingdom
• M 3.6 — 2005-08-24
  48 km SSW of Newton Ferrers, United Kingdom