St Uny's Church, Lelant

St Uny's Church, Lelant

St Uny's Church
Coordinates: 50°11′17″N 05°26′06″W / 50.18806°N 5.43500°W
OS grid reference SW548377
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Broad Church
History
Dedication St Uny
Administration
Parish Lelant, Cornwall
Diocese Truro
Province Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s) The Revd Tony Seymour
Curate(s) The Revd Carlyn Wilton

St Uny's Church, Lelant, is the Church of England parish church of Lelant, Cornwall, England, UK. It is dedicated to Saint Uny (or Euny) who is also the patron saint of Redruth.

The church is medieval and entirely built of granite. Parts of the nave arcades are Norman, but all of the windows are Perpendicular in style.[1] The earliest reference to the church is in 1170, when Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, referred to "The Church of Saint Euni".[2] The feast of St Uny was observed on February 1st.[3] Like many other churches in Cornwall, St Uny's has a copy of a letter from King Charles thanking the people of Lelant for their support during the English Civil War.

At the beginning of the 18th-century the church was in a bad state of repair, due to wind blown sand, and in 1727 a rate (or bounty money) of £263 15s was levied in the parish to meet the repairs. In 1731 there is an entry in the churchwardens' records of payment of one shilling for one days work of carrying sand out of the church.[4] The church was, again, restored in 1873, at a cost of £1,175, by J. D. Sedding.[5]

The church has fine memorials to two William Praeds, dated 1620 and 1833 (the Praed's home was at Trevethow in the parish), and also buried here are Henry Jenner (1848–1934) who was the first Grand Bard of the Gorseth Kernow, and the artist Peter Lanyon (1918–1964).

References

  1. Pevsner, N. (1970) The Buildings of England, Cornwall; 2nd ed. p. 100
  2. Parish Guide, n. d.
  3. Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 10
  4. Beacham, Peter; Pevsner, Nicholas (2014). Cornwall. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978 0 300 12668 6.
  5. "An Old Cornish Church". The West Briton. 13 October 1887. Retrieved 2011-09-26.