Friends

Would you like to support us? The simplest way is to become a Friend of the Cornish Historic Churches Trust; you will join a friendly community and be invited to our four special Friends events each year.

Friends Events

As part of your membership, you are invited to four unique Friends events each year. These events provide enjoyable opportunities to meet other members and to raise funds for the CHCT.

The Annual Lunch is held in May or June at one of Cornwall's historic houses.

The Annual Friends of Cornish Churches Visit is in mid-June where Friends can enjoy a visit to a selection of religious buildings, mainly Churches, but Chapels and meeting houses have previously been included. There is an informative talk at each and the afternoon concludes with tea.

The Annual Meeting for Friends of Cornish Churches is held in late June or July and takes place at an especially interesting church within the county and again is followed by a lecture and tea. In 2017, we started a timeline of charting the architectural development of Cornish Churches; each year we will cover a key architectural period, starting in 2017 with the Romanesque period. More information can be found in the Annual Meeting section below.

The Champagne Christmas Party which is usually held just before Christmas, alternately at Scorrier House, near Redruth, and Boconnoc, near Lostwithiel.

Current Events Diary

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

2019 Events

Thursday 16th May at 2pm
Friends outing: St Kew & St Mabyn

Monday 3rd June at 2.30pm
Annual General Meeting held at St Michael Penkivel
with guest speaker John Allen lecturing on the Decorated Period

Friday 21st June
Friends Lunch at Caerhays Castle
Click here for tickets and further information

Saturday 14th September
Cornwall Churches Day – see how you can get involved!

Thursday 19th December 2019
Christmas Party at Scorrier House  6.30 – 8.30pm

Next Event

Not yet a Friend?

For just £20 a year individual membership or £30 a year for two adults at the same address you can become a Friend of CHCT and play an active role in supporting the Trust.

Details of how to become a Friend are on the form which you can download from the link below. If you have any queries, send an email to friends@chct.info

membership application

News from recent Friends events

Friends of CHCT Annual Lunch

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

The annual lunch this year was held on the longest day – 21 June – in glorious sunshine at Caerhays Castle, the home of Charles and Lizzy Williams. The castle was designed by John Nash and built in the early years of the 19th century for John Bettesworth Trevanion, but the enterprise bankrupted the family whose home Caerhays had been since the early 15th century. John Trevanion fled to the continent and the castle remained empty for some years, its papier-mâché roof letting in the rain and ruining the contents.

The estate was purchased in the 1850s by the Williams family who rebuilt much of the castle and restored the parish church; successive generations have created the glorious gardens which surround the castle.

Over 80 friends enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by committee members, and afterwards were taken on a guided tour of the gardens. St Michael Caerhays church had organised a flower festival a few days previously and a visit to this lovely and ancient building to see the beautiful floral arrangements provided a fitting end to a wonderful day.

We offer our grateful thanks to Mr and Mrs Williams and their extremely helpful staff for all they did to make the event run so smoothly, and to the Nare Hotel for its continuing sponsorship. Your committee is already planning next year’s lunch!

Christine Edwards

Our hosts, Mr and Mrs Charles Williams, drawing the raffle with our Trustee Caroline Tetley

Annual General Meeting 2019

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

We met for our annual meeting at St Michael Penkivel to hear the most enlightening talk by John Allan, who is the Exeter Cathedral archaeologist. John had us riveted for over an hour as he explained how during the Decorated period c.1250-1350 work down in this part of Cornwall was as elaborate in design as some of the work being done at Exeter and Wells, the leading Gothic-style in Europe at the time. Although not on the same scale the use of ‘S’ shaped tracery and elaborate curvilinear designs can be found in quite a few of our parish churches here in Cornwall like St Michael Penkivel and also a group in South East Cornwall centred on St Germans, St Ive and Sheviock.

Notes from the talk by John Allan

Nick Jeanes also made a short presentation about St Michael Penkivel church and pointed out the face of William Morris planted on the little figure of the devil in the bottom left corner of the East window – a jest by the artist who did not credit William Morris with the respect he was getting at the time.

It was a great pleasure to have our Honouree Life President Lord Falmouth with us. In his centenary year Lord Falmouth remains as interested and supportive of the work of the Trust as ever having himself been one of the founder members.

A cream tea rounded off the afternoon in the old school house and was enjoyed by all.

Friends of CHCT annual church visit 2019

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

On Thursday, the 16th of May we had a very interesting afternoon in a special part of Cornwall. We met at St Kew which is a magnificent medieval church with a great feeling of space and tranquility. We were warmly welcomed by Jim Godden who shared some of his local knowledge and stories highlighting the importance of St Kew in the past. We were also fortunate to have Jo Mattingley and Michael Swift with us and they gave an informative talk on the Church. The beautiful Wagon roof still has wonderful carved angels above the main aisle. Approximately 12 years ago the superb medieval stained glass window, showing the story of Christ’s Passion was restored and we were able to appreciate this great piece of work, both the original work and the excellent restoration.

Church of St James the Great at St Kew

A short drive then took us to St Mabyn, where the Grade I listed, 15th century church is very much in the centre of the village. There was a contrast to St Kew as soon as you walked in with three aisles and a much lower ceiling. Some interesting carving on the columns was highlighted to us showing links to local families. The tower of St Mabyn was also of note being 85 feet high. Michael Swift pointed out the mystery window which inspite of much research has not been attributed to a particular craftsperson which is most unusual.

St Mabyn Church

We had a most enjoyable afternoon concluding with tea served from the super new kitchenette. All members are warmly welcomed to these visits and it was lovely to see everyone this year and hope that 2020 we will be seeing you all again together with any friends who could not make it this year.

Annual Christmas Party December 2018

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

The CHCT Annual party is undoubtedly one of Cornwall’s Christmas highlights, and deservedly so.

The elegance of Boconnoc was echoed by the guests who once again turned up in party mood ensuring the great success of the evening.

Deep gratitude goes to Elizabeth and Claire Fortescue who loaned the house for the party, and also to the dedicated team of canapé ladies who year after year produce mouth-watering eats whilst enjoying a parallel party in the kitchen – each party is as much fun as the other!

A huge thank you goes to those who collected and donated prizes for the Raffle and the hamper, also to Alexandra Bolitho for the stunning and most original wreaths, all of which add so successfully to the profits of the evening.

And of course, it wouldn’t even happen without the very generous and dedicated support of our sponsors, Savills, so a huge thank you from all of us goes to them.

I am happy to report that a healthy sum in excess of £6,500 was raised at this year’s party.

Caroline Fox

photos by Charles Francis www.charlesfrancis.photos

Our Savills Sponsors; Michael Pennington, Director & Head of the Cornwall office; Ben Davies, Associate Director – Residential; Chris Anderson, Associate Director –  Rural Professional; Paul Cressy Director and Head of Estate Management

Miss Cicely Willis, Dr Robert and Mrs Kirby-Harris, Mrs Christopher Harvey-Clark, Mr William Trinik and Revd. Philip de Grey Warter (hon treasurer)

Our hostess Mrs Anthony Fortescue and the winners of the raffle, David & Cecelia Bisson.

Annual General Meeting 2018

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

We were warmly welcomed to St Gerrans on the Roseland by Revd Jill Edwards and treated to an inspiring talk by Dr Stuart Blaylock on 13th century architecture in Cornish churches. This is a period well known to be lean on complete examples in our region, but Stuart was able to piece together the progress from the Romanesque period through to the beginning of the Decorated period showing us what remains there are in several churches. He also illustrated how the church morphed in design from each of the bookend periods at either end of the 13th century. Gerrans proved to be an excellent example of what still survives with a triple lancet window in the 13th century north transept, and two single lancets in the north wall (now kitchen area. There is also a Purbeck marble font with arcade designs of probable 1200s date and a coffin-shaped tomb slab of the 13th or early 14th century.

Examples from outside of the county had to be drawn on but the very best example here in Cornwall of Early English architecture was three miles down the road at St Anthony in Roseland. The 2017 lunch had been held at Place House which is attached to this church and this was where Dr Jo Mattingly had pointed out the crucifix plan and high-quality carvings of foliage, corbel heads of kings and bearded men adorning the crossing below the 13th Century Tower.

Stuart Blaylock handout for 2018 CHCT AGM

St Anthony in Roseland