St Petroc’s Parish Church: Bodmin’s Medieval Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- British, English
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page16 sections
History
St Petroc’s Parish Church is an Anglican parish church in Bodmin, United Kingdom. The existing building dates from 1469 to 1472 and was originally Roman Catholic before becoming Anglican during the English Reformation, the sixteenth-century transformation that separated the English church from papal authority and established the Church of England. Until Truro Cathedral was built, it was the largest church in Cornwall.
Early monastic community
The early history of Bodmin’s monastic community is uncertain. The town’s name derives from the Cornish expression for “house of the monks,” suggesting that the name followed the establishment of a monastery. Tradition says that Saint Petroc, a sixth-century Christian saint associated with monastic foundations in Cornwall, founded a monastery at Bodmin after establishing one at Padstow. Bodmin consequently acquired the alternative name Petrockstow. Another tradition places St Guron, an early Christian figure associated with Bodmin, at the site before Petroc.
The monastery may instead have been founded as a daughter house of Padstow after Petroc’s death. Its foundation was also attributed to King Athelstan, although it probably existed before his reign. Danish raiders destroyed it in 981, but it had been revived by the reign of Edward the Confessor and had become a considerable landholder.
The monastery after the Norman Conquest
At the time of the Domesday survey, the comprehensive landholding assessment commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085 and 1086, the monastery retained 18 manors, chiefly in the hundreds of Trigg and Pydar. These holdings included Bodmin, Padstow, Rialton, Ellenglaze, Withiel, Treknow, Nancekuke, Tregole, Fursnewth, and Coswarth.
Some of the monastery’s lands had been taken by Robert, Count of Mortain. He held Tywarnhayle, Halwyn, Callestick, Cargoll, Treloy, St Enoder, and Bossiney from the monastery, while his tenants held lands in Tregona, Trevornick, Trenhale, Tolcarne, Tremore, Lancarffe, and Treninnick.
Around 1120, William Warelwast, Bishop of Exeter, established a house of regular Augustinian canons at Bodmin. The Augustinians followed the Rule of Saint Augustine, and a priory of regular canons was a religious community of such clergy living under a prior. In 1177, relics associated with St Petroc were stolen, then recovered and returned to Prior Roger.
Suppression and parish use
The priory was suppressed during the reign of Henry VIII, when religious houses were dissolved as part of the English Reformation, and its site was granted to Thomas Sternhold, a sixteenth-century court official and poet. Before the suppression, the canons used the choir while the people of Bodmin worshipped in the nave.
John Leland, a sixteenth-century English antiquary and writer, described a succession of occupants at the institution: monks, nuns, secular priests, monks again, and finally regular canons. He placed the priory buildings at the east-southeast end of the churchyard. Fragments of their stonework were later found and preserved at Priory House.
Later history and restoration
John Wallis served as Vicar of Bodmin from 1817 until his death in 1866. He was also mayor of Bodmin in 1822 and produced topographical works about the parish and Cornwall.
In 1868, the London architect Robert Jewell Withers was chosen to survey the church and report on its condition and the likely cost of restoration. Fundraising continued for several years, and the main structural work was completed in late 1884. The Bishop of Truro reopened the restored church for worship on Christmas Day that year. R. G. Withers was the architect, W. H. Buscomb of Bodmin the clerk of works, and S. Searly of St Austell the contractor.
The church underwent two Victorian restorations and another in 1930. Part of it became the Regimental Chapel of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, dedicated in 1933. St Petroc’s now belongs to the Church of England’s Diocese of Truro, within the Province of Canterbury, and serves as part of a group with Cardinham, Lanivet, and Lanhydrock. St Stephen’s Church at Nanstallon serves as a chapel of ease. The church received Grade I listed status on 24 March 1949.
Remains
Churchyard and medieval fabric
The churchyard extends across a slope. Its southeast part contains the ruined Chapel of St Thomas Becket, a fourteenth-century building, while a small granite building at the western entrance houses St Guron’s Well.
Norman tower
A surviving Norman tower stands on the north side of the church. Its upper section dates from the fifteenth century. Before the spire was lost in 1699, the tower reached 150 feet, or 45 metres. It now contains a peal of eight bells, including a tenor weighing 17 hundredweight, 0 quarters, and 11 pounds.
Restored interior
East end and roofs
The 1884 restoration focused mainly on the eastern end. Three bays at the east end of the north arcade were rebuilt, and almost all the windows were newly made or completely restored. Two memorial windows were added, commemorating Robert Edyvean and Captain William Henry Liddell of the Royal Navy.
Part of the ancient oak roof over the east end of the south chancel aisle survives. The rest of that aisle was roofed in oak, while new pitch-pine roofs covered the remainder of the church. Staffordshire tiles were laid in the aisles, wood pavement covered the church floor, and encaustic tiles, which use contrasting clay or inlaid material in their surfaces, were installed in the chancel and sanctuary.
Furnishings and organ
The restoration introduced new choir stalls, a cedar-wood altar, new altar fittings, and three installations of Rimington’s patented warming apparatus. The original organ was dismantled during the work while a replacement was being built by Hele of Plymouth, and an American organ was used temporarily.
The three-manual organ had first been installed by Brice Seede in 1775. It stood in a gallery at the west end before being moved to the north chancel aisle, and part of it was later used in the nave from 1876. Hele and Company restored or modified it in 1885, Percy Daniel worked on it in 1931, and Hele and Company returned to it in 1936.
Memorials and earlier furnishings
Memorials and relic casket
A black Delabole slate memorial commemorates Richard Durant, his wives, and their twenty children. The Cornish slate monument is carved in low relief. A twelfth-century ivory casket associated with St Petroc’s relics also survives and is thought to have contained the saint’s remains.
Prior Thomas Vyvyan’s tomb
The tomb of Prior Thomas Vyvyan, also known as Vivian, was formerly in the priory church and was moved to the parish church after the Reformation. His effigy rests on a chest made from black Catacleuse stone, a locally used Cornish building stone, and grey marble.
Font and rood screen
The large twelfth-century font is finely carved and belongs to a type common in Cornwall. The Bodmin example is described as the largest and most highly ornamented of this type.
In 1491, Matthy More undertook the reseating of the church and the construction of its rood screen and pulpit. A rood screen separates the nave from the chancel and traditionally carries a representation of the Crucifixion. The work took four years, and surviving portions were later reused in the Corporation seats, wall panelling, reredos, pulpit, and modern screen.
Misericords
Three late-fifteenth-century misericords were removed from their original stalls, which may not have belonged to St Petroc’s, and fitted into the lectern. A misericord is a small projecting support beneath a folding choir seat. The transfer is believed to have taken place during the eighteenth century, although the dating evidence is limited.
