History

The village of Sennen is the most westerly in the country.   The First & Last Inn is one of the most famous inns in Cornwall, not only due to its location, but because of its notorious reputation, since the 1600s, of being the headquarters of smugglers and wreckers.

The inn is thought to have been built about seven centuries ago.   The small building next to the inn, now known as the Saddle Rooms, may well have been the housing for the donkeys that would carry lanterns across the clifftops to fool seamen and create many shipwrecks in and around the Cove.   There are many suggestions and tales and because people of every status were involved, so much of the subject was covered up.   Smuggling was at its peak at the beginning of the 1800s.   Brandy, silk and tea were among the vast range of goods brought in from France.   Locals would be warned to face the walls when the smugglers were due to travel through their village, so that, if asked, they were able to say that they had not seen a thing.   Secret tunnels and passages were dug by smugglers to evade capture by government officials and the glass covered, well that you will see in the inn, known as Annie's Well, is thought to have been one of these.

Joseph and Annie George ran the inn around this time, and they managed to blackmail the landlord, Dionysius Williams, a wealthy farmer, into letting them live there rent-free, due to their knowledge of his smuggling business.   Joseph George also happened to be Williams' smuggling agent.   Williams eventually decided to remove them from the inn.   This infuriated Annie, who then turned King's evidence against Williams and he was served with a long term of imprisonment.   She did not stop there.   Her enemies increased as she turned on others, including Christopher Pollard of Madron, who was found not guilty, the Vingoe family and Joseph's brother, John George, after a row over a tobacco deal.   He is said to have been convicted and hanged for this.  

The villagers got their revenge on Annie for turning against them.   To punish her, they staked her out on the beach at low tide, and as the water rose and the fishing nets pulled her down, Annie drew her last breath.   They laid her body to rest in her bedroom before she was then buried in an unmarked grave, in the cemetery, next to the pub.

She still has her own room at the Inn and she doesn't like anyone else to sleep in it.   This has been made clear over the years with new landlords and their pets.   Stories of dreams of drowning and being covered in fishing nets are common with people who have stayed in her room, and cats have been found, shut in wardrobes and drawers.   Some have seen a lady on the landing, others have felt something touch their hair or a sudden chill.   Spooky!