Beez Neez now Chy Whella - St Cleer Parish Church

St Cleer Parish Church

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Mon 28 Apr 2014 22:27

St Clarus, St Cleer Parish Church, Cornwall

After lunch we walked down to the Church of St. Clarus. He was an English missionary martyred in about 894 near the River Epte in Normandy. Geoff had promised us a bell ringing lesson, but first we had a look around this lovely old church.

Excerpts taken from the Parish Booklet, with grateful thanks. The position of the present church building is most probably the site of St. Clarus’s 9th century wattle and daub oratory. Rebuilt by the Normans, the church was enlarged towards the end of the 13th century, undertaken by the patronage of the Knights Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. More additions were undertaken in the 14th and 15th centuries. The very fine granite tower belongs to the 15th century improvements, it stands ninety seven feet high with four very typical Cornish pinnacles.

As can be seen on entering the building, additions and changes have continued to be made up to the present, accommodating the changing needs of a living community.

The Cornish inscription outside the church porch reads “Wolcum yth-ough dh’agan egios” – Welcome to our church.

A welcome indeed met John Wesley who visited twice in September 1751 on the afternoon of Friday the 13th and again on Tuesday the 24th. His diary for that day reads, “.......reached St. Cleer. The house – St Cleer Church – would not contain half of the people; so I stood in the porch that all, both within and without might hear. Many from Liskeard were present, and a solemn awe was upon the assembly.”

The Baptismal Font has a Norman granite bowl.

Looking to the Main Altar from the back of the church. Notice stocks to the left of picture.

In 1744, the parish stocks cost the churchwardens ten shillings and sixpence and were later in pretty constant use with the bad behaviour of the miners. Later still the 19th century Police House, next door, was the first village Police Station in Cornwall, built especially to deal with drunken misbehaviour – it has two cells for the purpose.

The Lady Chapel contains a Georgian monument to Nicholas and Mary Connock of Treworgey Manor and also a “leper’s squint” which looks through to the main altar.

The Main Altar.

The two-manual organ, beyond the pulpit, is by Albert Keates of Sheffield was installed in 1924. It was cleaned and restored in 1968 and again in 2006. A comprehensive restoration of the church took place in 1904 under the direction of London architect Mr George Fellowes Prynne. A new floor was laid, the box pews were removed, and interestingly “relocated” to panel the upstairs rooms in the Vicarage. The box pews were replaced initially by chairs and later by the carved oak pews. The chancel roof with its choir of angels, the reredos, and the choir stalls were added at this time, with the teak screen made by H.H. Martyn & Co. of Cheltenham.

The very fine panels of the carved pulpit of pitch pine is late Victorian.

The interior of the church contains numerous interesting features, the most important being the 17th century wooden text boards, eighteen in number, unique as far as Cornwall is concerned and rare in the rest of the country. Robert Norris of North Bohetherick restored the text boards in 1976. Our favourite was the Langford Creed.

The list of Vicars, meticulously carved.

No ancient stained glass remains. The North aisle windows are plain. The South aisle glass is Victorian and portrays various female saints. It originally came from the mission church at nearby Draynes.

Sabby points out home, top left of the special inserts.

The St Cleer Millenium Map hangs by the North door. This wonderful work is the product of several hundred local people, aged between four and ninety eight years. It represents all the organisations and groups within the parish. It covers incidents of wandering cattle blocking traffic in the village, to the debate over hunting with hounds to the importance of the mobile library.