Qualla: Penzance https://qualla.com/penzance en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Penzance https://qualla.com/penzance Penzance: Introduction https://qualla.com/penzance/ The train pulls in at the end of England. Penzance station is the terminus of the Cornish Main Line, the southernmost and westernmost on the entire British rail network. Beyond the buffer stops there is harbour, and beyond that, in a curve held by Mount's Bay, is the granite cone of St Michael's Mount nine miles east. Behind the station the town climbs up Market Jew Street to its centre, past a small Egyptian-style facade built by a businessman in 1830 to advertise his curiosity shop, past the bronze statue of Humphry Davy who was born here in 1778. Penzance was granted its market charter in 1404 and incorporated as a borough by James I in 1614. Despite Gilbert and Sullivan's joke, it is not - has not been for nearly four hundred years - the kind of place where pirates show up.

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Penzance: The Holy Headland https://qualla.com/penzance/ The name comes from Cornish: pen sans, holy headland. The headland in question is the rocky western point of the harbour, where a small chapel - said to have been dedicated to St Anthony - stood for centuries before being converted to a fish cellar around 1800. A licence for divi...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-the-holy-headland.mp3 0:06 2 full Penzance: Plundered and Plagued https://qualla.com/penzance/ Being on the western edge of England meant being the first place reached by anyone coming from across the sea, which through the Middle Ages and Tudor period was generally not a friendly visit. In 1595, seven years after the Spanish Armada, a Spanish raiding force of four galleys...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-plundered-and-plagued.mp3 0:06 3 full Penzance: Railway and Promenade https://qualla.com/penzance/ Penzance's modern shape was set in the nineteenth century. The West Cornwall Railway opened the station on 11 March 1852, initially running only as far as Redruth on a standard-gauge track that was incompatible with the broad-gauge Cornwall Railway from Plymouth. Through trains t...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-railway-and-promenade.mp3 0:06 4 full Penzance: The Bronte Connection and the Cornish Davy https://qualla.com/penzance/ Two unexpected lives intersect with Penzance. Maria Branwell, the mother of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte, was born here in 1783 to a prosperous merchant family in Chapel Street and lived in the town until she travelled north to Yorkshire and married Patrick Bronte in 1812. Sh...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-the-bronte-connection-and-the-cornish-davy.mp3 0:06 5 full Penzance: Streets and Buildings https://qualla.com/penzance/ Chapel Street is the architectural spine of old Penzance. The Egyptian House, built in 1830 by a Mr Lavin to advertise his geological curiosity shop, has a richly painted facade of lotus columns, cobras and winged solar discs - an Egyptian Revival fantasy that survived demolition...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-streets-and-buildings.mp3 0:06 6 full Penzance: The Pirates Joke https://qualla.com/penzance/ The Pirates of Penzance opened in New York on 31 December 1879 and in London the following April. The comic premise - a band of tender-hearted pirates terrorising the most peaceful seaside town in England - works precisely because Penzance was, by 1879, well established as a resp...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-the-pirates-joke.mp3 0:06 7 full Penzance: End of the Line https://qualla.com/penzance/ Stand on the platform now, before the buffer stops, and you can see the harbour wall a few yards beyond the station. The Scillonian, the passenger ferry to the Isles of Scilly, leaves from the pier between March and November. The Night Riviera sleeper service - one of only two re...

Read more: Penzance on Qualla

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/u/j/penzance-wp/gbuj-penzance-end-of-the-line.mp3 0:06 8 full