![The green at st just in penwith cornwall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/The_green_at_st_just_in_penwith_cornwall.jpg)
A plen-an-gwarry or plain-an-gwary ( kw, Plen an Gwari), is a "playing-place" or round, a medieval
amphitheatre
An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...
found in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. A circular outdoor space used for
plays
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
, sports, and public events, the plen-an-gwary was a Cornish variant of a construction style found across Great Britain. Formerly common across Cornwall, only two survive nearly complete today: the ''Plain'' in
St Just in Penwith
St Just ( kw, Lan(n)ust), known as St Just in Penwith, is a town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to the A30 road. The parish encompasses th ...
() and Saint Piran's Round near
Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
().
[''St Just Plain-an-Gwarry''.](_blank)
Historic Cornwall. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
The theatre area could be used for local gatherings, sports events, and production of plays. Cornwall culture had a type of play called
miracle play
Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represen ...
s, written in the
Cornish language, that were meant to spread
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
. To capture the attention of the audience, "the plays were often noisy, bawdy and entertaining."
[ The most important work of ]literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
surviving from the Middle Cornish period is ''Ordinalia
The are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are (The Origin of the World, also known as , 2,846 lines), (The Passion of Christ, ...
'', a 9000-line religious verse drama which had probably reached its present form by 1400. The ''Ordinalia'' consists of three miracle play
Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represen ...
s, ''Origo Mundi'', ''Passio Christi'' and ''Resurrexio Domini'', meant to be performed on successive days. Such plays were performed in a plain-an-gwarry.[
]
St Just-in-Penwith
St Just's plain-an-gwarry is a large circular space, encircled by a wall of stone. There are two entries into the space.[ In November 1878 the ″Plane-an-Guare″ was restored under the guidance of several gentlemen including ]William Copeland Borlase
William Copeland Borlase (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal.
Early life
Borlase was born at Castl ...
. The outer wall was exposed and several loads of stone were brought up from Boscean. By December 1878 the ″renewal″ of the outer wall was almost complete. The restoration was funded to provide relief for the unemployed due to the closure of local mines. It is central to the celebrations of the annual Lafrowda Day festival.
Perran Round
Perran Round in the parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
of Perranzabuloe
Perranzabuloe (; kw, Pyran yn Treth) is a coastal civil parishes in England, civil parish and a hamlet in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Perranzabuloe parish is bordered to the west by the Atlantic coast and St Agnes, Cornwall, St Agnes par ...
, between Perranporth
Perranporth ( kw, Porthperan) is a seaside resort town on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 1 mile east of the St Agnes Heritage Coastline, and around 8 miles south-west of Newquay. Perranporth and its long beach f ...
and Goonhavern is considered to be the best surviving example of a plen-an-gwary.
Other sites
Plen-an-gwarys were largely confined to the west of Cornwall. Depending on sources there are a possible 48 to 51 plen-an-gwarys including nine sites with extant remains and a further nineteen sites with no above-ground remains. The possible sites are based on place-names.
* The Long Sentry field south-east of the church in St Mabyn
St Mabyn ( kw, S. Mabon) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated three miles (5 km) east of Wadebridge. The parish includes a hamlet called Longstone to the east and many small manor ho ...
, has been identified as the possible location of the most northerly Plain-an-gwarry.
* There is evidence to suggest that Bartinney Castle
Bartinney Castle is an Iron Age enclosure located in the Penwith Peninsula of Southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, it is surrounded by a circular earthwork standing on a hill surrounded by various archaeological prehistoric remains, incl ...
near Sancreed
Sancreed (''Cornish: Eglossankres'') is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance.
Sancreed civil parish encompasses the settlements of Bejouans, Bosvennen, ...
in the Penwith Peninsula
Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...
may have been an Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
Plen An Gwarry for the celebration of Celtic Fire festival
is an annual professional wrestling round-robin tournament held by Pro Wrestling Zero1 to determine the top wrestler in the promotion, typically contested in late July/early August. Within the English-speaking professional wrestling world, th ...
s.
* There is an area called Plain-an-Gwarry one mile to the north-east of Marazion
Marazion (; kw, Marhasyow) is a civil parish and town, on the shore of Mount's Bay in Cornwall, UK. It is east of Penzance and the tidal island of St Michael's Mount is half-a-mile offshore. At low water a causeway links it to the town and ...
.
* Site in the parish of Grade–Ruan
Grade–Ruan is a civil parish on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, approximately ten miles (16 km) south of Falmouth.
It is a rural parish bounded to the east by St Keverne parish and by the sea; to the west by ...
approximately 200 m from Treleage farm ()
* In circa 1587 it is recorded that in Penryn a group of Spaniards landed with the intention of sacking the town, however finding the streets deserted they were alarmed by a 'mighty shout' and ran to their boats. The townfolk were at a performance of 'Samson' and the gates of Gaza had just fallen, resulting in a deafening cheer.
Gallery
File:Field at Playing Place - geograph.org.uk - 1058901.jpg, Field at Playing Place, the site of the plain-an-gwarry that gave the village of Playing Place its name.
File:Plaque at Playing Place - geograph.org.uk - 1058923.jpg, Playing Place plaque that acknowledges the plain-an-gwarry for which the village was named. It specifically refers to performances about Saint Kea
Saint Kea ( Breton and Cornish: ''Ke''; french: Ké) was a late 5th-century British saint from the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North")—the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. According to tradition he was ...
File:Origo Mundi kynsa gwersow.jpg, The opening verses of Origo Mundi, the first play of the Ordinalia
The are three medieval mystery plays dating to the late fourteenth century, written primarily in Middle Cornish, with stage directions in Latin. The three plays are (The Origin of the World, also known as , 2,846 lines), (The Passion of Christ, ...
(the magnum opus of mediaeval Cornish literature), written by an unknown monk in the late 14th century
See also
* Christianity in Cornwall
* Cornish literature
References
{{Cornish language
Amphitheaters
Cornish culture
Cornish language
Theatres in Cornwall