Welcome to Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

About Us

CHCT’s essential task is to support the historic fabric of religious buildings throughout the Duchy. Parishes can apply to us for funds which will go towards the restoration and repairs of Cornish churches.
Read more here

Grants

We offer grants, primarily for fabric repairs, to Cornish churches of all denominations which are used as places of worship. Unfortunately we cannot help closed churches or chapels.
Read more here.

 

CHURCH OF THE MONTH

St Germoe, Germoe

Germoe or Germoc was reputedly an Irish king, one of a band of missionaries, who landed with Breaca and her companions in the Hayle Estuary c.550 – 600 AD.  Some escaped death at the hands of a local chieftain, Teudar, and made their way up the river Hayle almost to its source at Tregonning Hill.  Breaca settled on the slopes of the hill whilst Germoe chose the valley where there was shelter and a spring. Thomas Tonkin noted a Cornish saying in the early 18th century which translates as ‘Germoca king, Breage a midwife’, but in reality Germoe was a chapel imbedded womb-like within Breage parish.  An alternative and earlier tradition heard by William of Worcester when he visited Cornwall in 1478 was that the saint here was a bishop. Read more about the church here.

Recently the CHCT offered a £250 Maintenance grant to one church from each Deanery and Germoe was selected by the Rural Dean of Kerrier. The object of the Maintenance Grant is to encourage inspections to be undertaken, preferably, bi-annually rather than quinquennially so that tasks are undertaken before any work required becomes a major project. The Maintenance grant is a one-off grant available to all but is normally only made after an inspection has been undertaken for 50% of the cost up to £250 maximum.

GET INVOLVED

Beating the bounds at Ladock

Why your support is essential

To enable us to offer the invaluable assistance for the preservation of our Cornish heritage, we need every church in the Duchy to support and work with us so that we can be there for all in times of need.

To support more projects, we need more funds and your community can help. If each of our 218 parishes could fundraise just £100 a year for CHCT we would have in excess of £20,000 additional funding to offer annually.  Find out more here.

Cornwall Churches Day

Our main fundraising event is Cornwall Churches Day which can be held at any time during the year. We hope all parishes will get involved and raise some essential funds for both themselves and CHCT.
Find out more here.

£200 was raised for CHCT and the same for Veryan church.
A celebration of cupcakes!

Next CHCT Event

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

ANNUAL FRIENDS’ OUTING
St Moran Church, Lamorran and St Cornelius, Cornelly
22nd September 2pm

Our Annual Friends’ Outing starts at St Moran Church, Lamorran on Thursday, 22nd September, 2022 with a talk by Nick Jeans at 2.15 p.m. We will then drive to Cornelly to view St Cornelius with a talk by Christopher Harvey-Clark. Tea will be served at St Cuby Church Hall from 4.15pm at a cost of £5.00 per head, payable on the day, thanks to St Cuby and St Cornelly PCC. St Cuby wil be open if you wish to visit. If you would like to join us, please contact our Honorary Secretary, Chrissie Hogg, 01326 565021 or e-mail . No tickets will be issued.

In the meantime why not take a virtual trip around some of Cornwall’s historic churches here or if you fancy a day out why not try one of our Drive About Trails.

Next Community Event

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

We have no details of Cornwall Churches Day events currently

Recent Fundraising

Savills have sponsored the Christmas Party since its inception in 2006 and continued their support despite us having to cancel the event in 2020, like all others, due to Covid. Our heartfelt thanks to them and also to all those who responded to the "non-invitation" with donations totalling in excess of £4,000. Thank you one and all.

A huge thank you to all the communities who raised funds for us last year. Your support really does make a difference and together we can help to keep Cornish churches & chapels open for future generations.
See recent fundraising results here.

EXPLORE CORNISH CHURCHES

St Winnow, Lostwithiel PL22 0LF

Church Histories

Over the years, CHCT has been encouraging individual parishes to write a local history of their church. This is a short, informative piece and is written by the local parish with the help of our historian and archivist.

Is your local church missing from the archive? Full details of how to send us your information are included in the archive here.

Arches in the Decorated Style

Reading Cornish Churches

Over the past three years, thanks to Joanna Mattingly, we have been privileged to be addressed by renowned experts on different stages of church architectural development. To date we have worked through the Romanesque, Early English and Decorated periods. In 2021 we hope to move on to Perpendicular period. We have records of the lecture notes from each talk which you can view here.

Visit an interesting selection of churches on a guided drive

Drive About Tours

The annual driveabouts are created by Carole Vivian as a way of discovering 3-4 churches in a day. She writes about the history of the buildings and features to look out for and directs you from one church to another with suggestions for good places to stop for lunch en route. Trails from previous years are available for a donation of £5. Find out more here.

We are very greatful for the ongoing support of Scott & Co.
sponsors of this website.