Tresillian, Holy Trinity Church
Situated as it is on one angle of a double bend, Holy Trinity Church in Tresillian, on the road from St. Austell to Truro, is very easy to miss. However, if you can find somewhere to park, this small church is well worth a visit. You will, however, need to go to "A Church near you" to make arrangements for a visit, as Holy Trinity is firmly locked normally. I did make such arrangements and was pleased that I did so. Viewed from the road (best from the Truro direction) Holy Trinity is not unattractive, its nave topped by a triple bell-cote. Also from the road, do note the small Cornish Wayside Cross head below its (approximately) west front. Holy Trinity dates from 1904 and is by W D Carὅe in an Arts and Crafts style. While the exterior is perfectly pleasant, it is not outstanding, particularly as it can be difficult to see for traffic. What is important is the collection of fittings inside which were brought from the abandoned church at Merther, a couple of miles to the SSW of Tresillian. These include the 12th century octagonal-shafted Pentewan stone FONT; the 17th century polygonal Jacobean oak PULPIT with carved panels; the 15th century figure of ST. ANTHONY carved in Catacleuse stone; the wheel-head CORNISH CROSS which stands at the roadside in front of the church; and, of the trio of bells, prominent in the bell-cote above the end of the church, two are from Merther, the third from the detached bell-tower at Lamorran. More images of Holy Trinity, Tresillian
Holy Trinity Church, Tresillian
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Treslothan. St. John's Church
When I walked from Beacon to Clowance on the Land's End Trail I was really surprised by Treslothan hamlet. All very grey and Victorian othick but all most beautifully maintained. This was the estate village of nearby Pendarves House and survived intact when the Georgian home of the Pendarves family was demolished in 1955. All built in the 1840s by architect George Whitwick, the church, house and former school are all of the same silvery grey granite and surround a war memorial. Contrast the number of names on the memorial with the smallness of the village; these must mostly have been workers on the large but dispersed Pendarves estate. Next to the church is the Pendarves Mausoleum. Buried in the churchyard is self-taught Camborne poet John Harris. On a corner by woods is the former village well. From here a footpath heads roughly south, first passing the former schooll, now a private home, then continuing through fields and woods to the road from Troon to Carwynnen. If you are visiting Carwynnen Quoit, re-erected in 2014 by the Sustainable Trust, this is as good a route as any, turning right on the road towards Carwynnen, then right into a gate into a field. Inside the gate is a storyboard; the quoit is across the field.
Trethevy, St. Piran's Church
This Trethevy, just off the road between Tintagel and Boscastle, should not be confused with Trethevy Quoit at Darite south of Minions on Bodmin Moor. Yet, oddly, only a short distance from this Trethevy, and on the opposite side of the road, is a large flat stone known as KING ARTHURS' QUOIT. I visited this Trethevy early in October 2019, primarily to visit ST. PIRAN'S CHURCH, or Chapel as it should be known as it is a Chapel of Ease to St. Materiana's Church in Tintagel. I suggest, if there is space there, parking in the Rocky Valley Car Park, on the other side of the main road from the lane up to St. Piran's Church. The lane is signed to Rocky Valley and it is only a hundred yards or so up the lane to church and well. There is more than just the church at Trethevy. Diagonally across the lane from the gate to the churchyard is ST. PIRAN'S HOLY WELL, the beehive shaped well house topped by a small iron cross. And, if you turn down the lane at the side of the church, signed as a footpath to Rocky Valley, you will find a ROMAN MILESTONE. This is believed to date from AD 251-3 and bears a rather illegible Latin inscription reading "For the Emperor Caesar, our Lords Gallus and Volusian." A few yards further along the lane is the entrance to St. Piran's House, believed once to have been part of a monastery. The first mention of the church was in 1457 when Parson Gregory received licence from the Bishop to celebrate Mass. A century later, after the Reformation, it was used as a farm building and it was not until 1914 that the owner, Sidney Harris, gifted it to the Church. After restoration, it eventually reverted to use as a Chapel and the first service was held in it on 9th February 1944. Further restoration took place as recently as 2015. Externally, the church is set partly into a small hill and is rectangular under a slate roof. Inside it is quite simple, the nave just a plain rectanguIar space. In the east wall is a small lancet window with a trefoil head. In the north wall an attractive modern stained glass window depicts St. Piran against a background of Rocky Valley. On one wall a plaque commemorates the Reverend Dudbridge Arundel, the vicar responsible for the restoration of the church. Another remembers Sidney Wickett Harris who gifted the building to the Church. The simple altar is made of darkish, slatey local stone. Furnishing is simple with plain wood pews, lacking in carved bench ends.