The Parish Church of St Neot, Cornwall

St Neot, Cornwall - between Bodmin Moor and the South Coast

Calor Village of the Year - 2004 St Neot, Cornwall

The nave and south aisle of the church date from the fifteenth century, the tower from a little earlier. The list of vicars is complete from 1266 but there are no traces of an earlier building. The church is magnificently sited and was so designed that it showed its best side to the south. Here the south aisle is embattled and the porch with its upper storey is incorporated in the scheme. The date of this is approximately 1425. The north aisle, which was built about a hundred years later and which faces into the sharply rising hillside, is of much plainer proportions.

It is impossible to be precise about the life of our Patron Saint. Charles Henderson, the Cornish historian, suggested that the saint who gave his name to the parish was Aneitus, a Celtic saint who lived and preached locally. Various interpretations of his life written by academics in the Middle Ages tend to differ, but that he was a good and learned man seems beyond doubt. Well respected for his piety, humility and spiritual counselling one legend tells of this man of small stature standing up to his neck in water while reciting all 150 of the Psalms. It is believed he died in approximately 877, and his remains were said to have been in the north wall of the Chancel, from where they were stolen in 974, and re-interred at St Neots in Huntingdonshire.

Great skill was used when the church was built in about 1425, with the huge blocks of granite used in the construction cut to precision and the seven pointed arches separating the south aisle from the nave being completely uniform. On the north side of the church the seventh arch at the east end is clearly older than the others and lower, and may have been the entrance to a chapel. A squint pierces the wall between the north aisle and the sanctuary which was possibly to allow a leper to watch the priest as he celebrated.

The main glory of the church is its stained glass, most of which dates from the early sixteenth century. Robert Tubbe, Vicar from 1508 to 1544, was possibly the man behind the present designs which were greatly restored by John Hedgeland in 1826-28. During this restoration Hedgeland changed parts of windows, and shifted them around, so that it is now impossible to know what they were originally like. Nevertheless in twelve of the windows, half of the glass is original.

The finest and least restored window, the Creation Window, is at the east end of the south aisle and is full of delightful things representing the Creation (including the newly created bird flying off the tip of His finger), the Fall, Cain and Abel and lastly Noah politely doffing his cap to God as he receives his instructions, while the first window in the south aisle represents the story of the Flood and Noah.

Some of the more wealthy parishioners funded the remaining windows, and those in the south aisle were donated by the Borlase, Martyn, Motton, Callaway and Tubbe families. The last window in the north aisle was given by the young men of the parish and depicts 12 scenes from the life of St. Neot. A further 12 scenes in the west window of the north aisle describes the life of St. George and is of unique interest as some of the legendary incidents are not found elsewhere. The east window above the high altar is entirely Hedgeland’s work as are the two in the organ chamber and the Armorial window to the left of the south door. The Grylls family have long been patrons of St Neot church, and Rev R.H. Grylls, a descendant of the Callaway and Tubbe families, commissioned John Hedgeland to undertake the restoration work.

In 2004, Richard Grylls, the present patron, engaged the services of Arthur Bradley to replace the frosted window at the west end of the church, which obscured the belfry, with a new etched glass screen. This new window contains etchings of a dove, mirroring the dove over the baptismal font, together with fruits of the vine, and wheat from the fields, as well as a porcupine – a symbol from the Grylls family crest, and denoting both plenty and realisation of hopes.

Other items of interest are as follows: At the west end of the north aisle is a very fine early seventeenth century slate tomb chest on which are the kneeling figure of William Bere and his wife, part of the carved eulogy reading ‘ Here lyeth Bere whom Angels to heaven beare’. High on the north wall at the east end of the church is a copy of the letter written by King Charles from his camp at Sudeley Castle on 10th September 1643 to the inhabitants of Cornwall thanking them for their Royalist support during the civil war. Every year on Oak Apple Day, May 29th, an oak bough is raised to the roof of the tower and secured. It remains there until a replacement is raised the following year as a constant reminder of St. Neot’s Royalist instincts.

The organ at St Neot Parish Church

This was built in 1884 by “Father” Willis, the most distinguished of all organ builders in the 19th century and responsible for the vast majority of cathedral organs in the country. It is very similar to two other Willis organs in the county, one at Cubert and the other at Breague, both of which started out as house organs. In all probability, the St Neot instrument began its life in a country house near Henley-on-Thames and owned by the Herman family. They had made their money out of cotton manufacturing and the organ, clearly marked with the name of the house, could well have graced one of the stately rooms.

A son, George Hermon, became curate at St Neot in the 1880s and in 1896 the vicar of the parish. He lived with his wife in some splendour at Doublebois House near Liskeard. There were often ten servants in attendance along with Poo Poo his beloved black poodle. A chain smoker, he had an artistic bent and had built a theatre/concert room in the grounds. He was, however, very generous to the parish and gave the clock in the tower, the lectern, magnificent teak screen as well as the organ in the north aisle.

The instrument is typical of Willis: well-built with that glorious tone for which he was so famous. There is a fine diapason on the great, a beautiful claribel flute and a clarinet which was often a feature of his smaller organs. The cornopean, much favoured by this builder, is on the swell along with the restful strings. Like the instrument in Truro cathedral, it is not large in size but its tone makes it one of the glories of this most beautiful Cornish building.

George Hermon rests just outside the north aisle, having died at the age of 59 almost 100 years ago. I like to think that he can still hear the sounds of his instrument when I am playing each Sunday, music played to the glory of God week by week

Submitted by Paul Richards; Organist and Master of the Choristers.

There are five ancient crosses in the churchyard, the most elaborate of which is sited just outside the church door. Granite is a difficult stone to work so this cross, with its four sides of richly ornamented Celtic patterns, is a particularly fine example dating from the tenth century and richly ornamented with Celtic interlacings. It is possibly one of the finest in Cornwall.

A holy well is some 300 yards from the church beside the river Loveny. It is believed that St. Neot established a chapel not far from this spring and in 1833 Michell recorded in his Parochial history of St. Neot that ‘weakly children used within memory to be brought here’. It had virtually disappeared by the 18th century but was restored in 1852.