The Mermaid.
The figure of the "Mermaid of Zennor" with a comb and glass" in her hand, is carved on a bench-end in the small chapel on the right hand side of the church, the date of this is uncertain but it is thought to be five or six hundred years old. The legend tells how the mermaid came up the little stream from the sea to listen to the beautiful singing of a chorister named Matthew Trewella. She succeeded in luring him down the sea shore and enticing him into the sea, and he was never seen again. For many years after his voice could be heard in Pendour Cove as he sang to his mermaid bride beneath the waves.
There are Norman stones in the chancel walls. a piscina and a fragment of font also from this period.
15th Century the church was made new, when the north arcade was built. The low tower was also built at this time, as does the font.
1737-On the tower wall can be found a sundial made by Paul Quick, Notice the two pairs of crossed bones -to show that the passage of time ends in death. "the glory of the world passeth" but above we find an angel's head and wings to rise above mortality. Henry Quick a relative of Paul was known as the Zennor poet, who went around Cornwall ringing a bell to sell his rhymes.
The Quicks were said to be descendants of a sailor shipwrecked on this coast.
1891-John Davy was laid to rest at the church he was born in 1812, on the wall to the left of the porch can be found a memorial stone, saying he was the last man to have real knowledge of the traditional Cornish language. The Cornish language revived and spoken today ,may be different to the language that John knew, we must give credit to all of those who have help to stimulate and hold fast to this important part of Cornish culture. We must remember all languages evolve; even in church you hear very little today of Tudor English and they in their day would not of had words to describe aeroplane, computer, or even anaesthetic.
The words on his memorial in Cornish are a quotation from the book of proverbs,
"The words of wise men are as a deep pool, a flowing stream-a fountain of life"
1895-Over the great vault in which lies Admiral John Borlase (who was buried this year) are two old crossheads believed to be Saxon. The widow above the stone altar in the side chapel is also to his memory. This window shows (in the centre light) Christ walking on the sea; in the right hand light, the angel of the Last Day blowing the trumpet-"and there was no more sea". the left- hand light portrays the sea giving up the dead.
Note.
Just inside the door can be found a old tithe measure now serving as a stoup having been used as a feeding trough in a farmyard for half a century.
In the corner of the side chapel can be found a stone figure of an unknown saint. This was once placed in a niche on the outside of the tower. It is very much weathered and was thought at sometime to be a figure of St Christopher, with staff in his left handed the Christ child in his other arm. This is possible, but unlikely. The stone ball at the feet of the figure is unusual, and the Christ child is customarily shown on the shoulder of the Saint not in his arm.
The Squint-the arched "peep hole" through the wall from the side chapel to the chancel. Although the stonework of the arch is ancient (being parts of the older windows from the north wall of the church) the "Squint" itself dates from 1890- when it was made to enable people sitting in the side chapel to hear and see what went on in the main body of the church.
Framed on the wooden panelling near the organ can be found a List of Vicars of Zennor from 1271 The earlier names bear the prefix "Sir"; this was merely their title and its use was dropped at the reformation in 1535.
The Rood Screen-Evidence that there was once a beam or screen across the church may be seen in the odd-shaped indentation in the plaster above the pillar between the lectern and the organ.