Trethevy: St Piran

Getting here

Welcome to the parish Mission church of Trethevy: St Piran in the Anglican Diocese of Truro and county of Cornwall England. The first known mention of this tiny, ancient and very spiritual place is in 1457 when the Bishop licensed Parson Gregory to celebrate Mass both here and in the chapel in Tintagel Castle.

St Piran is usually connected with south Cornwall but Domesday Book records that the monks of St Piran owned land in this area and the nearby private house known as St Pirans, parts of which date back to c1300, was once a monastery. 

The Church fell into disuse, probably at the Reformation, and was for centuries used as a farm building. The field immediately above the Church  bears the Tithe map name "Chapel Meadow". The chapel was restored to the Church in 1941. The donor, Mr Sidney Harris, recalled a large altar slab of greenstone when he was a boy but this, together with the original stone pews, can no longer be seen. The slate slabs of the pews were apparently used in the drainage system at the entrance of Genver Lane.

Remaining ancient features incklude a small lancet window with a trefoil head in the east wall and a stone piscina on the south side.

The Church underwent sympathetic restoration in 2015 but retains its original character and charm.

Close by is the Holy well of St Piran bearing a cross of unknown date. A short  walk along the private lane by the Church (no vehicles allowed) leads past St Pirans House to the spectacular waterfall at St Nectan's Glen. The waterfall is in private ownership and there is a charge to enter. En route and just a few yards from the Church, there is a rare 3rd century Roman "milestone" in the curtilage of but outside the walls of St Pirans House and by the side of the lane. One of only twenty listed Roman stones in England, there is another in the church of St Materiana, Tintagel in the same parish. 

Primary services throughout the year are held at St Materiana at 10.00am on Sundays but there are additional services here at St Piran's Church at 10.00am on Wednesdays in the summer months (usually from Easter). These are short communion services lasting about half an hour. During the winter months these take place in the Old School in Tintagel (which has heating !)

For Easter services 2016, please visit the site for St Materiana, Tintagel, which is the parish church.

Trevethy
Tintagel
Truro
PL34 0BE

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