Excursion by Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society to Lelant, 12 April 1889
Report in the Society's Report and transactions 1889-1890, (pages 108-112)

Version 5 January 2008
This presentation © Maxwell Adams 2008

Note that the vicar towards the end of his paper refers to St Uny as a woman.

<<The excursions of the previous summer having been well attended and appreciated by the members, it was resolved to renew them during the summer of 1889, and the first place visited was Lelant on April 12th. A fair number of members and friends went by train to Lelant station and walked to the church, where they were most kindly received by the vicar, the reverend RF Tyacke. The vicar read the following paper, describing some of the chief points of interest of his church:

"I can obtain no certain account of the church in this parish earlier than 1268, Bronescombe being bishop of Exeter. Andrew de Montibus was then rector of this benefice. On his death (1260-61) William de Capella (William Chappell), sub-deacon to the pope, was admitted rector on the morrow of St Valentine's Day (15th February), the patrons being the prior and convent of Tywardreath. I expect he was the last rector, as on his death, in 1274, Walter Gascoyne, a chaplain, was collated vicar on September 25th, 1274. Here one sees how the great tithes were taken, vicars sent and paid with the small - now often called vicarial - tithes. The rectory had been appropriated to the prior and convent of Tywardreath as early as temp Richard I. De Montibus might have been only vicar, but Chappell was presented tota ecclesia, consequently he was rector. The rectory was given to Tywardreath prior and convent, by Robert de Cardinham, lord of the manor of Lananta and Tredrait.

"Between 1260 and 1274 some change had taken place, for the bishop was patron of the vicarage in 1274, and we learn that he had shortly before acquired canonically, from the said priory, the avowson of the rectory. He appropriated it to the canons of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross at Crediton, in October, 1272. The deed, a very interesting one, will shortly be published by prebendary HingestonRandolph in his index of bishop Bronescombe's register (p 60.) Sir Amand de Cambron was collated vicar November 20th, 1281; Master Robert le Seneschal, 20th April 1310. I here note that Lelant was in all ancient registers "Lananta." Master Gilbert de Cornubia (deacon) was collated 5th June, 1311 (post prandium dicti diei). The above were the incumbents from some time before Bronescombe became bishop till the fourth year of Stapeldon's episcopate. Cornubia probably survived Stapeldon - 1327. From then during the episcopacies of Barkly, Grandisson, and Brantyngham - 1395, 68 years, my kind informant has not searched the Exeter registers. The next I have are John Clerk, who was vicar in 1395, and may have been for years before, who died in 1416, and was succeeded by John Bryt, chaplain, on June 10th, 1416. (Blank 130 years.) In the Valor ecclesiasticus James Yentell was vicar; viz, 1536. Of the later vicars I have no record. But, of course, the manner in which the great tithes came into lay hands was the plundering of the church property by that saintlike king Henry VIII, and its sale or presentation to some court favourite.

"With regard to the church fabric, tradition says that St Uny, one of the early missionaries to Cornwall, was buried here, and that it became the principal settlement in these parts until the sand drove the people away. No doubt St Uny had a little sanctuary here, just as St Piran had higher up the coast. Probably it was succeeded by a larger church in Saxon times. So far tradition, but now we come to history. The interesting remains of Norman work - one arcade, the spring of the second arch and the northeast base of the tower - mark a much more imposing building, which, from the arcade, must have had at least one aisle, probably two, from the large number of Norman gutter stones found when excavating in 1873 for ventilation. How or why this Norman church lasted so short a time, even tradition tells not, but there, springing east of the Norman pier, stands half an arch of thirteenth or fourteenth century work, and there, making a raised platform under the tower, lies the remainder of the arcading. This church, too, stood but a short time, for with the exception of these remains I have mentioned, the church you now see was dedicated early in the fifteenth century. There was then a great rage for side altars, and so in most of these fifteenth-century churches there were chancel aisles, each with an altar, of which you will note remains. A very small altar was also placed on the east side of this third window in the south aisle. The monuments in t.his church, worthy of note, represent the two families Pawley and Praed. The numerous daughters to be provided for by the Pawley of the seventeenth century will account for him of the early eighteenth century fearing that funds would not be forthcoming for his tombstone - vide - erected 1713, died 1721. No earlier font than the Perpendicular of the same age as the present church has been found, and that was displaced about sixty years ago by a sandstone 'carpenter's Gothic' arrangement, but it will be replaced in the course of the next week. It was found in a farmyard, is of the simplest design, octagonal, standing on eight small and one large central pillar. The church, as it at present stands, is, excepting the windows, a restoration by Mr JD Sedding, 1873. The chancel and north aisle windows are, as you will of course see, no restoration, but the work of some well-intentioned, but architecturally unskilled builder, circa 1847. The pulpit and tower screen are the work of Mr Piers St Aubyn, our well-known Cornish architect.

"There were chapels connected with Lelant at Towednack, St Ives (2), Brunnion, and Trembethow; of these only two remain - Towednack and St Ives, the latter being the most modern of the two formerly there - the one built when this church was rebuilt in 1424, on the petition of Mr Champernown and others of St Ives, in 1408.

"I noted some time since that a renowned antiquary of these parts disputed the right of the prefix St to Uny Lelant. Well, I dare say in his and my younger days it was known as 'Uny Lelant,' and probably will keep that name amongst Board School scholars, but in 1260, 1395 to 1419, it was St Uny Lanant, Uny being variously spelt. No doubt the Puritans of the seventeenth century disestablished the St, who, however, still turns up 1400 years after her death, and will hold her own, though thirty years ago "Uny" was her name, and so remains for a while on official documents.

"The cross in the old churchyard is apparently an early one, probably the original churchyard cross. That near the entrance to the new churchyard is also an early one, altered into a Latin cross most likely when we Cornish first submitted to Canterbury. The one between the churchyard and the unconsecrated grounds is much later in date. It formerly stood in the St Ives road, but was shamefully disfigured by men who came to paint their boats at Lelant, and was, at the suggestion of bishop Benson, placed in its present position by Charles Praed, Esq."

The vicar then pointed out the Norman arch, pier, and respond of the second bay on the north side, all that remained of the earlier edifice, and showed the interesting monuments of the Praed and Pawley families.

The burial-ground adjoining the church the vicar described as the freest in all England, for anyone might be buried there with any rites, Christian or otherwise. Among the traditions of the church, the most modern was that which owed its origin to the declaration of a pilot that he had seen a fairy funeral there. He was very positive in his assertion that he had really seen this unusual ceremony, but the general opinion was that he had been communing with spirits of a more material kind. As a proof of the small reverence which a section of the population had for the church in the earlier part of the century, Mr Tyacke remarked that an old man once told him that he had seen the church full of "sperrits" - not disembodied ghosts, but kegs of good French brandy, stored there by the smugglers, who considered the church as a very safe hiding-place, because no one would ever dream of resorting there on a week-day. The vicar drew the attention of the visitors to the famous letter of king Charles to his Cornish subjects, a copy of which hangs on the wall of the belfry in a much better state of preservation than it is found in some of the churches.

The antiquarian treasures of the church having been all examined, the party dispersed in search of whatever objects of interest the neighbourhood possesses for either naturalists or archeologists, and finally wended its way over the sandhills to a point where some years before, during the construction of the St Ives railway, a large quantity of bones had been unearthed. A letter from Mr JC Lang, the contractor, was read, which stated that many complete skeletons were found, laid in rough walled graves. Some of the skeletons were over six feet long, and the good condition of the teeth was especially noticeable. The vicar remarked that common report spoke of this as the burial-ground attached to the early chapel of St. Uny, but he was inclined to think the remains those of the living cargo of a slave-ship, wrecked here during the last century. This theory, however, did not account for the walled graves. Here the party divided, some returning to Lelant Station, and others walking on by the coast to Carbis Bay and St Ives. >>