Hessenford, St. Anne's Church
In early May 2018, I headed east to visit Herodsfoot. Feeling peckish I first continued along A38 as far as the Trerulefoot roundabout, where I indulged myself with Kernow Mill's early bargain two bacon rolls for �4, before heading for Hessenford. Had I not stopped at Kernow Mill, I would not have taken the lane by Bake Lane End and would have missed an impressive roadside Cornish Cross, shown neither on OS108 nor on Cornwall Council's Mapping Website. A church, St. Anne's Chapel, had been founded in Hessenford in the 15th century but this was closed in the Reformation in 1539. A new church was built in 1833 and extended in 1855. Architect was the ubiquitous J P St. Aubyn and the church is very much in his simple Early English Gothic style. The boot scrapers outside the porch are also clearly his. Inside is fairly simple: nave and two aisles with a raised chancel. Choir stalls are of oak. Behind the cloth covered altar is a reredos with mosaic inlay. Stained glass is by St. Aubyn's favourites, Clayton & Bell. The pulpit is of Caen stone and alabaster and features four carved figures in recessed arches and small columns of serpentine. The lectern is of carved oak with a carved statue of St. Joseph.
Bake Lane End Cornish Cross
Hessenford Church
Hessenford's elaborate Pulpit
Photographs
More in Churches & Holy Sites
Hill, St. Sampson's Church
An unusual dedication, this; there are only two St. Sampson's in Cornwall, the other at Golant, north of Fowey, overlooking the Fowey River. South Hill lies about a mile south-east of Linkinhorne on the road to Callington. It consists of little more than a couple of farms, a few cottages and the church. After entering the churchyard through an ordinary but attractive iron gate (no lych gate here) look to your left to see a tall stone of no little significance, a Romano-British pillar, its Latin inscription reading "Cumregni/Fili Mauci" translating as "Cumregnus, son of Maucus." An early church by Cornish standards, St. Sampson's was re-dedicated in 1333. The usual Victorian restoration was by J D Sedding in 1872. The church consists of a buttressed three-stage tower with carved heads on its west door, a porch, south aisle and nave. The porch dates from the 15th century and has a wagon roof with attractive carved bosses. Inside, the church feels lofty and spacious. Chancel and south aisle also have wagon roofs. There are good stained glass windows and a couple of less common plain etched glass; the stained glass east window in the chancel, of the Decorated period, is particularly fine. The archway to the north transept (the Manaton Chapel) ia quite striking. The Norman font is of the St. Austell type, with corner faces, trees of life and animal carving. There is some nice tile work on the chancel floor.
Holywell
, The Two Holy Wells
Illogan, St. Illogan
At the end of August 2017 I was in Illogan, which lies to the north of the A30, halfway between it and the coast at Portreath. To the south, the mass of Carn Brea is topped by the Basset Monument. I had previously only passed through Illogan, on my way either to the sea at Portreath or on walks from Portreath on the trail that runs through Tehidy Woods. On this occasion, however, I was there to visit the parish church of St. Illogan. I forgot that Saturday is wedding day so I had to kill some time by an expedition to the church at Chacewater which was of little interest except for its external stair turret. At Illogan church I looked for a Cornish Cross; I failed to find it as I had expected it to the south of the church when it actually lies to the north. I returned a week later and found it. What also stands to the north of the church is the intact tower of the previous (now demolished) church. The present church has no tower, just nave and two aisles. This was a church of the mining and banking Basset family and their monuments and memorials are everywhere, starting with a massive sarcophagus in the graveyard and continuing with handsome wall monuments to John Basset and his wife Frances, for whom several mines around the Great Flat Lode Trail are named. Also noteworthy is the Bodmin type font, standing on four columns and with heads at each corner.