St Ewe

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St Ewe
Cornish: Lannewa
Cornwall
St Ewe Cross and St Ewe at dusk - geograph.org.uk - 51087.jpg
The St Ewe Cross and St Ewe at dusk
Location
Grid reference: SW978461
Location: 50°16’48"N, 4°50’20"W
Data
Population: 461  (2011)
Post town: St Austell
Postcode: PL26
Dialling code: 01726
Local Government
Council: Cornwall
Parliamentary
constituency:
St Austell and Newquay
Website: st-ewe-parish.co.uk

St Ewe is a village in mid-Cornwall, some five miles south-west of St Austell.

Antiquities

Evidence of early mediæval habitation is in the form of a roadside Celtic cross that once stood near Nunnery Hill (Charles Henderson in 1925 refers to it being at Lanhadron). However, the crosshead and shaft were thrown down in 1873 by a farmer looking for buried treasure, and both pieces were afterwards lost. The base has survived in situ with an inscription in insular script, unreadable except for the word crucem; Elisabeth Okasha dates the construction of this monument between the ninth and eleventh centuries.[1]

Churches

The parish church is dedicated to St Ewe, a female saint of whom very little is known.[2] The church was originally a Norman cruciform building: the tower and spire were added in the 14th century and the south aisle in the 15th. There is a Norman font and a fine 15th-century rood screen.[3] The small manor of Lanewa was for a long time linked to the advowson of the church, possibly a secular successor to a Dark Age monastery..[4]

At Tucoyse was a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, and there were formerly Bible Christian chapels at Polmassick, Paramore, Kestle and Lower Sticker.[5]

Heligan

The Heligan Estate is located at the eastern edge of the parish of St Ewe, overlooking the small port of Mevagissey. The long-term home of the Tremayne family, the estate is now best known as the location of the Lost Gardens of Heligan, a recently restored Victorian garden.[6]

Outside links

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about St Ewe)

References

  1. See the discussion and bibliography in Elisabeth Okasha, Corpus of early Christian inscribed stones of South-west Britain (Leicester: University Press, 1993), pp. 129-132
  2. Doble, G. H. (1970) The Saints of Cornwall: part 5. Truro: Dean and Chapter; pp. 30-32
  3. Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 94
  4. Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford; p. 94
  5. "St Ewe; church history". GenUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Cornwall/StEwe/#ChurchHistory. Retrieved 1 December 2012. 
  6. Smit, Tim (1999). The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Victor Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-06765-9.