Lanteglos by Fowey ,  Cornwall
Church of  St Wyllow, Lantaglos by Fowey. Cornwall sitting on  an ancient Celtic site, now stands alone beside farm fields on a narrow country lane, overlooking the east side of the Fowey estuary. 

Most of the present church built of rubblestone with granite dressings, is in early Perpendicular Gothic style, dating from the late 14c with tower, nave and chancel in one under a continuous roof, and north arcade.   The south arcade was added in 15c.  The south porch is possibly 16c / 17c  .   However one of the jambs of the south door is carved with the letters XP, the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, dated by Pevsner to be C8 at the latest suggesting that there was a much earlier church on the site.
All restored by Edmund H Sedding in 1904-5 after an appeal for funds by the vicar in May 1903  to ‘rescue the fine old Parish Church… from the ruin with which it is threatened’  and a faculty for restoration and reseating was granted in June of the same year 

At the west end of the south aisle are the old parish stocks,  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/93u3vzdZh8">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/93u3vzdZh8</a> and behind are heraldry taken from side panels of a large box pew  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1QWp7PA22a">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1QWp7PA22a</a> once in the south Mohun chapel where the family tombs are sited.   The pews were dismantled during the restoration 

The Mohuns were the most prominent family in the parish for centuries and 2 memorial brasses to members of the family survive, one to Thomas de Mohun 1440 <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/</a> under a carved canopy.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/6m06Ru9W38">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/6m06Ru9W38</a>  The other to his great grandson John Mohun 1508 &amp; wife Anne Code who died within 24 hours of each other of the sweating sickness <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/WnzZD51H72">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/WnzZD51H72</a> 
In the east window of their chapel are fragments of medieval glass depicting the Coronation of the Virgin &amp; the Annunciation.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/6W9B2q1A7C">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/6W9B2q1A7C</a>  

The font is Norman made from stone quarried at Pentewan, near Mevagissey  . It is topped by an ornately carved cover added during the restoration. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/94F03Q098x">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/94F03Q098x</a>

The painted royal coat of arms, was given by Charles II in 1668 to thank the parish for remaining loyal to the crown during the Civil War. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/977KxjCrGu">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/977KxjCrGu</a> and was painted over one to his father 

The nave has carved medieval bench ends <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/H5P3S14o89">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/H5P3S14o89</a> under original unceiled wagon roof <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8mm0333RtZ">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8mm0333RtZ</a>

In the churchyard is a beautifully preserved 14c cross with a lantern head elaborately carved with figures set under canopies showing the Crucifixion ,probably St Peter and St Paul  &amp; the Virgin &amp; Child <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/3zJz5Gc60s">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/3zJz5Gc60s</a> - it was found in a trench at the west end of the church in 1838, presumably hidden during the religious turmoil of the Reformation.

Author Daphne du Maurier was married here in 1932 and used it as the model for Lanoc Church in her first novel, 'The Loving Spirit'.



lanteglos fowey lanteglosbyfoweychurch cornwall