Perran Round

[4] Henry Jenner compiled the scheduling paperwork which states that it is ″more probable″ that it was constructed as a plain-an-gwary, an open-air theatre for the performance of miracle plays although earlier structures were commonly repurposed as later 'playing places'.

Richard Carew in his Survey of Cornwall (1602) mentions ″Gwary miracles, kind of interlude, compiled in Cornish out of some scripture history.″ The round still contains a small trench, known as the ′Devil's Spoon′ for use in the performances.

[5] The earliest known plan, in William Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall shows two opposite entrances and the ″Devil's Spoon″, a hollow and trench on the eastern side of the arena.

The pit could hold 1500 people and in 1880 was described as ″... kept exceeding neat and clean, having a small house inside its boundary, fitted up with every requisite for the preparation of those tea-meetings that have given it a name″.

[9] Between the wars the round was neglected and used as a rubbish dump, and in the 1930s was cleared by the Perranzabuloe branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE).

[10] As part of the Festival of Britain in 1951 the miracle play Bewnans Meryasek (The Life of St Meriasek) was performed by Gwaroryon Gernewek.

In 1967 Cornwall County Council raised the level of the forecourt and paved the entrance to improve drainage as well as some scrub clearing and reseeding.