Mousehole Cornwall
Mousehole, pronounced Mowzel, is the most completely charming and most frequently cited perfect small fishing village in Cornwall, a community of granite cottages around a small medieval harbour south of Penzance whose combination of the harbour architecture, the tight lanes of the village, the quality of the independent cafés and restaurants and the complete absence of the commercial clutter that has compromised other Cornish villages creates a destination of apparently effortless perfection. Dylan Thomas described it as the loveliest village in England, a claim that Cornish people typically contest.
The harbour at Mousehole, built in the medieval period and substantially unchanged in its essential form, provides the visual focus of the village, the granite walls and the fishermen's cottages around it creating a composition that has been painted and photographed since the Victorian period. The passage of time and the gradual replacement of the working fishing community by residents whose primary relationship with the sea is recreational has changed the underlying character of the village, but the physical fabric remains extraordinary in its completeness.
The Stargazy Pie tradition at Mousehole, commemorating the legendary fisherman Tom Bawcock who braved a December storm to bring fish to a starving village in the sixteenth century, is celebrated each year on Tom Bawcock's Eve on December 23rd with a procession and the traditional pie whose filling of fish allows the heads to protrude through the pastry lid staring at the sky.