St Pol de Léon's Church, Paul

St Pol de Léon's Church, also known as Paul Parish Church, is a parish church in the Church of England Diocese of Truro, located in Paul, Cornwall, England.

St Pol de Léon's Church, Paul
The church from the south
50°05′23″N 05°32′46″W
OS grid reference	SW 465 271
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Broad Church
Website	www.paulchurch.co.uk
History
Dedication	St. Pol-de-Léon
Administration
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Truro
Archdeaconry	Cornwall
Deanery	Penwith
Parish	Paul, Cornwall
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd Andrew Yates
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Church of Pol de Leon
Designated	29 July 1950
Reference no.	1327894

History and description

The church is said to have been founded in 490 by Paul Aurelian, a Welsh saint. The church building is medieval but was largely destroyed in a raid by the Spanish in 1595.^[1] It was rebuilt by 1600.^[2] The parish tower is constructed of granite with double buttresses. It is 89 ft (27.1 m) tall and is surmounted with a turret 20 feet (6.1 m) tall, which serves as a daymark for shipping in Mount's Bay. The tower contains six bells: two by Abraham Rudhall from 1727, and four by John Taylor & Co from 1950.^[3]

Robert Anning Bell, the Arts and Crafts movement artist, designed the memorial east window in the chancel. It honours Lieutenant William Torquil Macleod Bolitho who was killed on 24 May 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres. The window is described by an advisor for the Diocese of Truro as ... it must rank as one of the most important glass windows in Cornwall of any age. The window, installed in 1918, is currently (2015) in need of restoration at an estimated cost of £150,000. The stonework around the window is made from Polyphant stone, a soft stone that is crumbling away and will be replaced with closely matching stone from the Forest of Dean.^[4][5]

Memorials and burials

The Cornish language writers Nicholas Boson, Thomas Boson and John Boson are all buried in the churchyard, and a monument in the church by John Boson (to Arthur Hutchens, d. 1709) is the only surviving lapidary inscription in traditional Cornish.^[6]

Within the village churchyard there is a memorial to Dolly Pentreath, reputedly and disputedly the last native speaker of Cornish. The memorial was placed there by Louis Lucien Bonaparte, a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Vicar of Paul in 1882. There is also a monument to Capt. Stephen Hutchens (died 1709).^[7]

Gallery

• 
  Exterior south side
• 
  Nave
• 
  East window of the chancel, honouring Lt. William Bolitho
• 
  Sundial on the south side
• 
  Monument to Dolly Pentreath
• 
  Monument to Dolly Pentreath (rear view)

References

• Cornwall portal

1. Parish Guide. Paul Church, 2007
2. Pevsner, N. (1970) The Buildings of England, Cornwall. 2nd ed. Penguin Books; p. 131
3. "Dove Details". dove.cccbr.org.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
4. Williams, John (30 April 2015). "Window honouring war dead needs a £150,000 restoration". The Cornishman. p. 12. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
5. Pevsner (1970); p. 131
6. Matthew Spriggs, ‘Boson family (per. c. 1675–1730)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Oct 2007
7. Pevsner (1970); p. 131