Guided Walk
By David H. Thomas, BA, DAA, president of Camborne Old Cornwall Society.
This page describes a walk around the Church and a brief guide. Click on a link to see an enlarged photograph of the object described. Printed copies are available for a donation of £1.
The South Porch
The porch dates from 1879, but incorporates much 15th century stonework. Notice the 1983 sundial over the outer door and the timber roof which incorporates 15th century carved timbers from the roof of the old south aisle. Over the inner doorway is positioned a medieval image bracket.
The Outer South Aisle
This aisle was added by J.P. St. Aubyn in 1878–9 with a matching arcade of arches to the main nave. To the left of the door is a polyphant stone holy water stoup, found under the tower in 1862. Below this lies a small Cornish cross discovered at Crane Well in 1896. Walking eastwards up the aisle note the beautiful kneelers, worked in the 1980s by parishioners and friends. Near the vestry door may be seen several memorials from the old south aisle in memory of John Stackhouse (1819), Grace Percival (1763), Tryphena Wynne Pendarves (1873) and William Pendarves (1683). The Pendarves family, along with the Bassets of Tehidy were important local squires and landowners in past days.
The Inner South Aisle
We pass through the screen from the 1879 south aisle into the original south aisle of the church and into the Lady Chapel. This was also at one time the Pendarves aisle and their family vault lies beneath this floor.
The present Lady Chapel dates from the early 1920s and was renovated and restored in 1989. As part of the 1914–18 war memorial scheme it was chosen as the site for the Leuiut altar slab, which was placed on a slate pillar, modelled on an altar at Venasque, in Provence, France. This celebrated ecclesiastical relic is the church's greatest treasure being a tenth century altar slab which came from the chapel of St. Ia, near Troon. It is inscribed "Leuiut iusit hec altare pro anima sua" (meaning "Leuiut ordered this altar for the sake of his soul"). Underneath are five consecration crosses, suggestive of a reconsecration in Norman times. On the altar slab stands a wooden cross made from portions of oak taken from the 15th century south aisle roof. Left of the Leuiut stone is the memorial to Sir William Pendarves (1726), M.P. for St. Ives. Tradition tells how Sir William had a copper coffin made from the first copper raised from the South Roskear mine and on some special occasions this was used as a drinking vessel for punch at Pendarves House. When Anne Acton, widow of Sir William, died in 1780, the vault and copper coffin were both opened and Sir William's beard and nails were found to have grown after death.
To the right of the Leuiut stone is a red banner in a wall case. This was originally a frontal given to the church by Mrs. Grace Pendarves in 1734. By the 1860's it had found its way to Kea Church but it was restored to Camborne in 1904.
Walking back down the aisle we notice on the west wall the brass plaques listing the men of Camborne, and the Camborne School of Mines who gave their lives in the Great War and the Second World War.
Nave and Chancel
To the left of the tower arch a brass tablet records the restoration of 1862. The granite and serpentine Font also dates from 1862. The original 15th century font may be seen in the daughter church of St. John the Evangelist at Treslothan. On the two pillars furthest to the west of the nave, on each side, may be seen the marks of repaired cement indicating the position of the 1725 gallery for the choir and organ, which was removed in 1862.
The brass eagle Lectern, modelled on the one at Balliol College, Oxford, was given in memory of Squire G.L. Basset of Tehidy in 1888, while the magnificent brass Candelabra were the gift of the Rev. George Hooper in 1912. In the nave can be seen another of the church's great treasures, the ornately carved Pulpit.
Pulpit
Generally believed to be of the late 15th century, the pulpit may not have been constructed in fact until the reign of Edward VI in 1550, since the church accounts refer to the making of a pulpit in that year for £3. The panels are carved with the symbols of the Passion, while on the base are executed a quaint face and the date 1711 when the structure was again rebuilt. The canopy or sounding board has vanished. The pillars on either side of the chancel entrance bear marks which indicate the position of the former rood screen which once crossed the church at this point.
