N. of Wadebridge
OS SW997786 GPS 50.5733N, 4.8301W
The church stands almost alone on a hill-top, a long way from its nearest village, Trelights, and its nearest town, Port Isaac. One steps down from the lichened granite exterior into a light and airy building with two aisles, slate floors, grey walls and light oak benches of a modern and impressively simple design. There are three single altars, that in the S. aisle being a 15th-century table-tomb of blackish-blue Catacleuse stone, possibly the shrine of St Endelienta. The font is Norman. The glass is unstained; the old roofs survive. Indeed, the church gives the impression that it goes on praying day and night, whether there are people in it or not. St Endelienta’s touching hymn by Nicholas Rosscarrock, c. 1550, is pasted into the hymn books. In the tower is a Georgian ringers’ rhyme on a painted board. It is a prebendal church which somehow escaped all reformations. The low slate houses for the prebendaries survive around the church.
ST GERMANS † St Germanus of Auxerre
8m/12km S.E. of Liskeard
OS SX359577 GPS 50.3967N, 4.3096W
Different from other churches in Cornwall, it is of monastic origin and was attached to an Augustinian priory founded in the 12th century; earlier St Germans was the seat of the bishops of the S.W. before Crediton and Exeter. It consists of the nave and S. aisle of what must have been an imposing structure. The W. front has a magnificent Norman doorway with Art Nouveau ironwork by Henry Wilson, and is flanked by two towers. The N. tower is 13th-century and octagonal, and the S. tower 15th-century and four-sided. Interior scraped and refurbished by St Aubyn, 1887–94, and interesting rather for its architecture than its contents. Inside is a monument to Edward Eliot, 1722, by Rysbrack, dramatically lit, and a fine Burne-Jones ten-light window at the E. end.
ST IVES: ST IA – on the harbour’s edge, the church stands proud in the pleasant seaside town, its tower one of the tallest in the county
ST IVES † St Ia
St Andrews Street
OS SW518405 GPS 50.2125N, 5.4799W
Built in 1410–34, St Ia is a prominent landmark among the narrow roads that make up the heart of St Ives. Like the town itself, it bustles with visitors in the summer. It has a rather lovely interior, with good carving throughout: on the capitals of the sandstone piers, as well as in the woodwork – deeply carved on the bench-ends, more delicate in the choir stalls and the 1930s parclose screen. Best of all is the wagon roof, decorated with vines and other patterns and populated by sculpted figures of saints, apostles and angels. Much of the woodwork was painted and gilded in the 1960s, with some further restoration to paintwork in the 1990s. In the Lady Chapel is Barbara Hepworth’s Madonna and Child, a tender sculpture created in memory of her son Paul, who was killed in active service with the RAF in 1953.
ST JUST-IN-PENWITH † St Just
4m/6km N. of Land’s End
OS SW371314 GPS 50.1247N, 5.6788W
St Just-in-Penwith is a mostly 15th-century Perpendicular church, with stout square tower, battlements and pinnacles – a no-nonsense church for a town rooted in tin mining. The heavily restored interior, back to uneven stone walls, contains an early wall-painting of St George and the Dragon. Good atmosphere, though: the light a salty haze across the cool, gloomy interior.
ST JUST-IN-ROSELAND † St Just
2m/3km N. of St Mawes
OS SW848356 GPS 50.1821N, 5.0150W
A 13th-century church overlooking the tidal creek of the R. Percuil, more to be appreciated for its setting than anything else. The churchyard slopes steeply down: it is adorned with luxurious sub-tropical plants, and the path is lined with granite slabs bearing biblical quotations.
ST JUST-IN-PENWITH: ST JUST – a sea-salty air pervades the interior, which, though scraped, has a compelling atmosphere that seems part of the windblown landscape on the western headland
ST KEVERNE † St Keverne
9m/15km S.E. of Helston
OS SW791212 GPS 50.0507N, 5.0867W
Dominates the village square, with its good tower and spire. The spacious 15th-century interior has a wall-painting of St Christopher on the N. wall. There are many memorials to local families who served in the Honorable East India Company, early 16th-century bench-ends, and in the churchyard the Mohegan Stone, an engraved Cornish cross.
ST LEVAN † St Levan
6m/10km S.W. of Penzance
OS SW380222 GPS 50.0423N, 5.6602W
Possibly 13th century, the church is cut into the slopes above Porthchapel. The two-stage tower is 15th-century, embattled and pinnacled. The six-bay arcade is supported on monolithic rough cut granite pillars, and the roof has gilded and painted bosses. The Victorian pews made use of older bench-ends with shepherds, eagles and a hatted jester. J. D. Sedding did the Victorian restoration.
ST MINVER † St Menefreda
3m/4km N.W. of Wadebridge
OS SW964770 GPS 50.5580N, 4.8747W
In an attractive wooded church-town, the church is mainly 13th–15th-century, with a tall octagonal spire; the octagonal slate pillars and arches of the N. aisle are Norman. The granite pillars and arches of the S. aisle date from the 15th century, when the church was enlarged. The tower and spire were there before this, but became dilapidated and were rebuilt in 1875. The porch was built in the 14th century and probably rebuilt in the 15th. The carved bench-ends are 15th-century too – mostly secular figures, and one of Henry VIII. The rich Victorian E. window is by Michael O’Connor.
ST NEOT – filled with richly coloured medieval glass, this north aisle window depicts 12 scenes from the life of St Neot
ST NEOT † St Neot
5m/8km N.W. of Liskeard
OS SX186678 GPS 50.4824N, 4.5582W
A slate and granite village in a wooded valley below Bodmin Moor and dominated by the church with handsome Decorated tower and buttressed 16th-century double-aisled exterior. This is the Fairford of the West and has 15 windows of medieval glass sensitively renewed by W. Hedgeland, 1829; the most interesting show the lives of St Neot and St George. There are old roofs and a rood screen. The walls are scraped.
ST WINNOW † St Winnow
2m/3km S. of Lostwithiel
OS SX115569 GPS 50.3824N, 4.6522W
A lovely situation on the Fowey River, which laps the churchyard wall. There are woods in tiers across the wide river, an old stone boathouse and, by the church, a farm that was once the rectory. There is a fine early 16th-century rood screen restored by E. H. Sedding and a splendid E. window to the S. aisle filled with 15th- and 16th-century glass, whose wealth of imagery may well occupy the wandering attention of the congregation. The old stained glass depicting the Crucifixion, in the E. window of the chancel, is to be noted; also the shape of the arches of the arcade – slightly stilted.
TINTAGEL † St Materiana
4m/6km N.W. of Camelford
OS SX050884 GPS 50.6630N, 4.7597W
All alone on the open cliffs above the Atlantic, it still retains an atmosphere of early Christianity. A large Norman cruciform church refashioned in the 13th century and later, it retains its original plan. The scraped interior contains a late 15th-century rood screen and Norman font decorated with grotesques. The iron hinges