St Werburgh’s Church, Warbstow
The church dates from the 15th century. The north porch was added in 1601. It was restored in 1861.
A brief history of Warbstow Church:
Grade II - 15th Century
The village of Warbstow clusters beneath one of the most dramatic hill forts in Cornwall, Warbstow Bury. The Iron Age Bury with its ramparts and ditches, is well worth a visit in its own right, commanding as it does superb views to the Cornish coast, and far off into Dartmoor.
The Church is dedicated to St Werburgha, the daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia who became a nun and set up several religious houses in the North of England in the seventh century. Exactly why she should be patron saint of this parish is unclear but when the Saxons held the hill fort it may have been that the chief set up a shrine to his favoured saint and which later reverted to that of the Norman church.
The church to be seen today is the product of fifteen century enthusiasm for rebuilding and reordering when the church was widened, but is probably the third place of Christian worship to stand on this site, the previous buildings being first Saxon and then Norman. The present church building has altered little in the past four hundred years. A feint inscription over the North Porch door bears the date 1601 and above the inner doorway is a little niche that would have once held a statue of St Werburgha.
The church inside is very simple and it is easy to see its development from the Norman building which the fifteenth century builders enlarged. The font, however, remains Norman and is made of polyphant stone from nearby Hicks Mill (near Polyphant village) and on the South wall of the sanctuary is the oldest window which has also survived from the Norman building . Interestingly, an early example of recycling can be seen in the pig sty across the road from the church gate which contains an identical Norman window no doubt rescued from the rubble of the fifteenth century renovations. The modest little organ, too, is a rare example of the early eighteenth century.
The Church is normally locked but the key is available in the village a note in the porch tells where.
POLYPHANT STONE
GREENSTONES ‘Greenstone’ is a convenient name for a variety of basic (low silica content) dark coloured, intrusive igneous rocks, that have a variety of mineralogies, and are often referred to as dolerites or diabases in the geological literature (e.g. Floyd et al, 1993). Greenstones contain significant amounts of dark ferromagnesian minerals, and consequently are often very dark green or dark blue, near blackish, in colour. Quarryworkers, especially in West Cornwall, sometimes refer to such rocks as ‘Blue Elvan’. Greenstones commonly occur as intrusive dykes or sills in the country rock, and where they cooled quickly or are affected by contact metamorphism around granites, they are finely crystalline, extremely resistant and characteristically form prominent features in the landscape. Greenstones were some of the earliest building stones used in Cornwall and have been extensively quarried.
Cataclews Stone One of the best known examples is Cataclews (or Catacleuse) Stone which has been used as a building stone since Norman times. It is a very dark blue-green rock sourced from a dolerite dyke intruded into coastal Devonian slates at Cataclews Point, Harlyn Bay. The grain size is variable, and the medieval stonemasons seem to have preferred the finer-grained variety for carving and decorative work. Cataclews Stone has been used externally in a number of older buildings in and around Padstow, and also in local churches such as St Petroc, Padstow and St Merryn. Where the stone has been used for external carvings, it has demonstrated strong resistance to weathering. Cataclews Stone has also been used for internal work, notably fonts, as at St Petroc’s Church, Padstow. Below images show the 15C church tower at Merryn, neat Padstow, built of local Devonian slates (from the Trevose Slate Formation) with Cataclews Stone buttresses, quoins and decorative angels. The greenstone was sourced from nearby coastal quarries at Cataclews Point, Harlyn Bay © Geckoella Ltd © Geckoella Ltd Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Strategic Stone Study 15
Tregongeeves Stone A series of Greenstone (dolerite) intrusions also occur in the Pentewan valley, and were quarried at Tregongew and Tregongeeves (Tregongeeves Stone). The stone here is a very dark green, almost black rock rich in the ferromagnesian minerals hornblende and pyroxene. It was quarried mainly for aggregate, but some buildings in St Austell were constructed from the stone, including the former Public Rooms in Truro Road, and the Freemasons Hall in South Street.
Serpentinites Some Cornish basic (and ultrabasic) intrusions have been affected by hydrothermal alteration (termed carbonisation) in which the original olivine minerals have been altered to complex mixtures of talc, chlorite and carbonates. Such rocks, called Serpentinites (see next page) are typically quite soft and porous, and susceptible to frost action, so they are rarely employed for external building purposes.
Polyphant Stone At Polyphant, near Launceston, the carbonatized intrusion has been worked since Norman times. However, as demonstrated at Launceston Priory and Castle, Polyphant Stone weathers poorly in external use, but it can be polished to give a dark green shiny stone which is very well suited for carving and internal decorative work. Many Cornish churches have interior features made of Polyphant Stone, notably the Boer War memorial in Truro Cathedral and the north porch arch at St Lalluwy, Menheniot. Polyphant Stone has also been extensively used outside of Cornwall, for example for the tomb of Archbishop Temple in Canterbury Cathedral and some of the columns in Exeter Cathedral.
Questions to be answered and messaged to the C/O from the top of the cache page. All questions can be answered without entering the Church. Please do not wait for reply before logging a find.
1. N50 41.102 W004 32.517 Enter the porch and see the arch surrounding the door which is of Polyphant stone. What colour would you describe it as and why do you think it was used here?
2. N50 41.096 W004 32.506 Go to the most Easterly window. Do you think this is Polyphant stone? Answer just Yes or No.
3. N50 41.097 W004 32.505 From the Easterly window walk along the South side the first two windows as the most easterly are the only windows not of granite. What stone do you think these two are and what if anything makes you conclude that?
4. N50 41.094 W004 32.519 Go to two memorial stones left relates to the wife Jane GYNN and right the husband John Williams GYNN with particularly interesting epitaphs they are of slate observe the intricate work on the surrounds. Where did this slate come from? Help can be found on the wings at the heads of both memorials.
Permission to set this earthcache has been obtained from the Church Wardens and the Farmer whose land surrounds the Church is aware.
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