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Mawgan-in-Meneage |
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The drive from Helston out onto The Lizard Peninsula moves from the streamlined present of R.N.A.S. Culdrose to the sleepy past inhabited by great families who mightily enriched the places where they worshipped. The air of The Lizard clatters with helicopter rotors, the mechanical lark-song of the serpentine coast. It is only a few miles to Mawgan but time slows at the beginning of the village where the church lies comfortably with its little group of buildings and a fine churchyard. It is a most gracious approach, the stately lines of the monument to James Lander standing proudly to the left beside the rough granite stone which says simply 1744. Pink and white Sea daisies in summer find enough moisture to flourish in the joints of the fine granite three storeyed tower, and there is a great aura of peace about the place. |
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Click on thumbnails o see larger pictures
West door of Tower with leaf scroll decoration
ST MAWGAN OR MAUGAN He was a widely venerated Saint in the Celtic world. Abbot - Bishop in Pembrokeshire and Normandy, he is sometimes described as a Bishop in Brittany, more frequently a monk. In Cornwall two churches, St Mawgan-in Pydar and St Mawgan-in Meneage are dedicated to him - in Brittany, far more,
Notice the superb Lectern carved of polished Serpentine for which this area is famous.
Mawgan's Second Font
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It is worth taking time to walk through the churchyard and look carefully at the west door of the tower. Close to it are the coats of arms of the families who gave it; the names of Carminow, Reskymer, Ferrers and Vyvyan are still to be found active in the life of Cornwall today. Note the leaf-scroll decoration; the ribbed pinnacles high above the granite blocks are built on angel corbels which can be clearly distinguished. The south doorway in the porch is most attractive - it contains one of the few dog doors/catflaps to be found in the county! There is a good ancient holy water stoup and on one side the whole porch is attached to the south transept - as at St Anthony-in-Meneage. The Church was restored in 1894/5 by Edmund Sedding whose work was usually more sympathetic to the glories of the past than St Aubyn’s. In many ways, St Mawgan is one of the best examples of what can be achieved by leaving good roofs intact. The immediate impression is of a very busy place: there is frequently much children’s work around, and a clean, welcoming smell, with plenty of light and flowers. There are two transepts, north and south, a chancel, nave and north aisle of seven bays of Cornish granite. The Norman font on the left is octagonal and unusual; its corner shafts come out like drain pipes. Beyond the Norman font on the south wall are some interesting early pictures of the church as it was before the 19th Century restoration - a much darker, heavier place than today. The Church is full of reminders of the Vyvyan family of Trelowarren - there is a good Bartolini memorial on the South wall of the Tower. One of the glories of Mawgan the wagon roof of the North Aisle, most of which dates from the 15th Century, although the carved figures in the aisle of copies. The originals on which they are modelled are found in the chancel roof. As with many churches in this part of Cornwall the walls are not plastered, and the texture of the stone creates a great feeling of strength.
The shallow North Transept has more fine Vyvyan memorials.The steps to the former Rood Screen can be seen in its north wall. In this part of the church are numerous monuments to the Vyvyans, whose family vault lies beneath the church at this point. There are a number of interesting memorials slates, including a fine one to Richard Vyvyan dated 1665. The Chancel contains a particularly striking East Window, which has 20 Christian symbols ; the roof ceiling is intact here, whilst the boarding has been removed in the nave. There are two original carved angels or evangelists where the rafters meet the wallplates. The South Transept is particularly interesting: an unusually elaborate Squint allows those in the Transept to see the Altar in the Chancel. What has been done is to cut off the corner and replace it with a shaft with a rather badly carved angel holding a shield. The effect is of controlled Mediaeval Do-It-Yourself - the kind of thing which would not be allowed by those who oversee any changes proposed in churches today! A similar version can be seen at Landewednack, indicating that even in those days there was a desire to keep up with the ecclesiastical Joneses. Notice, on the squint pillar, the small brass memorial to Hanniball Basset who died, aged 22 in 1708 Whilst the North Transept is a 19th Century addition, the much earlier South Transept is separated from the nave by two arches - much more delicate than those on the North side. Within the Transept is an interesting memorial to Sir Roger Carminow and a woman wearing wimple, Lady Johanna his widow.. His crossed legs reveal his faith in the resurrection, and the fact that he was a crusader. He was with Edward I in the last crusade of the Palestine Holy War. Sir Roger died in 1308, and the effigies were removed from the old Chapel at Carminow, now gone, in the time of James I. The South Transept now contains a Lady Chapel, the Victorian altar of which came from All Saint's Church, Helston in 1984, as did the second font, in memory of the Roger's family of Penrose, Porthleven.
The small rural congregation keeps this church in the excellent order to be seen today. People of the parish have recently re-furbished the neighbouring Vyvyan Coach House pictured left now used as a small Church Room for a wide variety of parish activities..
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