St Mary's Church, Penzance is a Grade II* listed

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

in Penzance,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

History

The site as a place of worship dates from at least the fourteenth century, but was a chapel to the parish of

Madron Madron ( kw, Eglos Madern) is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, Great Britain. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was started on 27 Oct ...

and first licensed in 1321. The chapel was spared during the Spanish raid in August 1595 because

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

had been celebrated, previously. Despite enlargements in 1662 to 1672, and 1782 it was severely overcrowded by 1824. At that time it served a population of circa 7000 and was still a chapel of ease to Madron, two miles inland. The Reverend Thomas Vyvyan made arrangements to replace it with a new church designed by Charles Hutchens. The Clerk of Works was John Pope Vibert. £16,000 was raised, mainly from the church's own communion for the new building. A further £800 was raised for the organ, £800 for the bells and £300 for the carillon. The rebuilt church was consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter,

Henry Phillpotts Henry Phillpotts (6 May 177818 September 1869), often called "Henry of Exeter", was the Anglican Bishop of Exeter from 1830 to 1869. One of England's longest serving bishops since the 14th century, Phillpotts was a striking figure of the 19th- ...

, on 6 September 1836. A separate parish of Penzance was created in 1871. The churchyard was extended on the southern side in 1883. A gift of seventeen '' aloes'' by Mr Dorrien-Smith of

Tresco, Isles of Scilly Tresco ( kw, Enys Skaw, meaning "island of elder-trees") is the second-biggest island of the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall, England. It is in size, measuring about by . History In early times one group of islands was in the possession of a con ...

were planted in the churchyard in 1886. Arson destroyed the interior of the church in April 1985 and two further arson attempts occurred in November 2018.

Bells

One of the bells from the previous church was installed in the temporary belfry of St John's Church in 1885. It cost £12 18s 9d when first installed in the steeple of St Mary's in 1667. The first bell in the present church was inscribed ″PEACE AND GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD, 1713 JP″ and was moved to St John's Hall in 1865 for use as a fire-bell. Eight new bells were installed that year at a cost of £950. Their size (diameter at mouth), weight and inscriptions are, # ; 6cwt 3qrs 4lbs; ″PEACE AND GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD A.D. 1865; TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS″, # ; 7cwt 0qrs 10lbs; ″TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS, LOUGHBOROUGH A.D. 1835″, # ; 8cwt 0qrs 10lbs; ″THE GIFT OF PHILIP HEDGELAND M.A., JAMES ALDRINGE DEVENISH, ASSISTANT CURATE, WALTER EDMUNDS, JUN., CHAPELWARDEN, SAMUEL YORK, SIDESMAN A.D. 1865, TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS, LOUGHBOROUGH″, # ; 8cwt 2qrs 10lbs; ″TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS, LOUGHBOROUGH A.D., 1865″, # ; 10cwt 1qrs 22lbs; ″THE GIFT OF CAROLINE AND ELIZABETH CATHERINE THOMAS CARNE A.D.1865″, # ; 11cwt 1qrs 3lbs; ″TAYLOR AND CO., A.D. 1865″, # ; 14cwt 2qrs 17lbs; ″THE GIFT OF THE CORPORATION. FRANCIS BOASE, MAYOR, A.D., 1865, J. TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS, LOUGHBOROUGH, LATE OF OXFORD AND BUCKLAND BREWER, DEVON". # ; 20cwt 2qrs 6lbs; ″BOLITHO 1865. J TAYLOR AND CO., FOUNDERS, LOUGHBOROUGH, LEICESTERSHIRE″. A carillon, costing about £300 and paid for by public subscription, was installed as a memorial to the town clerk and ornithologist,

Edward Hearle Rodd Edward Hearle Rodd (17 March 1810 – 25 January 1880) was an English ornithologist. He was the third son of Edward Rodd, D.D. (1768–1842), by his wife Harriet, (1779–1855) daughter of Charles Rashleigh, of Duporth, Cornwall. Life He was edu ...

. The first to be erected in Cornwall, it was completed by Gillett, Bland & Co on 10 November 1880 and first played at 8.00 pm on Sunday, 28 November 1880. The carillon played fourteen tunes and a tune was played for two weeks, every four hours at 8 am, noon, 4 and 8 pm, midnight and 4 am. The carillon had two barrels and two hammers for each of the bells. The hammers did not interfere with the normal ringing of the eight bells by bell-ringers.

Organ

The organ contains casework dating from 1676 originally located in

St Mary's Church, Oxford The University Church of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary's or SMV for short) is an Oxford church situated on the north side of the High Street. It is the centre from which the University of Oxford grew and its parish consists almost exclusively of un ...

. The organ is by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd and was moved here from Oxford in 1949. A specification of the organ can be found on the

National Pipe Organ Register The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) is a British organisation and registered charity which aims to promote study and appreciation of all aspects of the pipe organ. Further, it acts as a lobbying body to raise awareness of organ issue ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Penzance Buildings and structures in Penzance Churches completed in 1835 Church of England church buildings in Cornwall Grade II* listed churches in Cornwall National Heritage List for England