Beach Retreats team
05 July 2024
Life in Sennen Cove isn’t all about surfing. Whether saving lives or making art, its people have long shaped its identity.
"When the maroons sound, hearts stand still. Boots ring out down Stone Chair Lane, run along Maria’s Lane and stamp down Cove Hill. Voices echo in the night."
These words – taken from a book of linocuts and poems by local artist Angela Annesley – describe the response of Sennen’s lifeboat volunteers to a raised alarm. And they hint at the true essence of the town.
“Lots of people I’ve known my whole life still live here. It’s a lovely place to be.”
It may be surfing that draws most visitors, but when we asked the locals what made Sennen unique, everyone said the same thing: the community, with a thriving school, a weekly farmers’ market, and a buzzing community centre.
“It’s not really changed,” says Jo Shannon, whose grandparents opened Sennen’s original beach cafe back in the 1950s. Having grown up helping her family there, Jo now runs Sennen Surf Co, the beach hardware and fashion shop just a few yards away. “Lots of people I’ve known my whole life still live here. It’s a lovely place to be.”
In the elements
If Sennen breathes a sense of hearty togetherness, much of that is down to its remote location. Lying just to the north of Land’s End, the most westerly point in mainland England, the town is a refuge from the elements, a place made for hunkering.
“It’s amazing how many people say they haven’t been to Sennen in decades, when they may live just a few miles away,” says Jo.
Yet as Annesley’s poem suggests, Sennen boasts another feature that bonds its people to each other: the lifeboat. First stationed here in 1853, the boat aids ships caught in the treacherous waters off Land’s End. It draws volunteers from a host of local families to serve as winchmen, launchers, shore helpers, secretaries, treasurers, doctors and fundraisers, as well as its crew.
Image credit: Sennen Surf Co
“The Round House was built to shelter a large capstan wheel, which once winched fishing boats up and down the slip. Its wood is still marked by the names of generations of fishermen.”
As a child, Jo’s father Philip would rush to watch the boat launch after hearing those maroons firing – a type of small rocket that explodes in the sky to raise the alarm. He joined the crew at 17, eventually becoming a coxswain and receiving an MBE for his dedication, which included crewing two infamous rescue attempts – the Icelandic Tungufoss, and the Solomon Browne, both in 1981. The first rescue was successful; the latter, tragically, was not.
"The crew do not falter," wrote Annesley. "They are the light in the storm."
Where you belong
We found Annesley’s poems when we ducked our head under the low beams of the Round House & Capstan Gallery. Housed in a historic landmark next door to Sennen’s lifeboat station, the gallery reveals a different side of life there.
A Grade II-listed building, standing almost in the ocean, the Round House was built to shelter a large capstan wheel, which once winched fishing boats up and down the slip. That wheel remains its centrepiece, its wood still marked by the names of generations of fishermen who used to turn it by hand.
A warm welcome
We spoke to Rachel Holmes, who was staffing the gallery’s art shop. Having moved to Sennen in 2019, she lives directly opposite the Round House, in the heart of the cove.
“It was a great place to move into and it’s a happy place to live,” Rachel told us. “Very few of us actually live down here – most locals live ‘at the top’, as we call it. But because Sennen is a little out of the way, we do all come together. It’s a really lovely community.”
Rachel’s experience shows that it’s not just those who grew up in Sennen who make the place tick. Newcomers are welcomed, not least in recognition that it takes a certain type to build a life in the place where the land runs out.
When she’s not welcoming the stream of walkers wandering in off the spectacular coast path and introducing them to the region’s deep artistic talent, Rachel is out walking her dog or running the path herself – in marathon training.
If you’re here, the cove seems to say, then you belong.
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