PENZANCE, Cornwall, UK - September 14, 2021
St Mary’s Church, Penzance is a Grade II* listed parish church.
The site as a place of worship dates from at least the fourteenth century, but was a chapel to the parish of Madron and first licensed in 1321. The chapel was spared during the Spanish raid in August 1595 because Mass had been celebrated, previously.
Despite enlargements in 1662 to 1672, and 1782 it was severely overcrowded by 1824. At that time it served a population of circa 7000 and was still a chapel of ease to Madron, two miles inland.
The Reverend Thomas Vyvyan made arrangements to replace it with a new church designed by Charles Hutchens.
The Clerk of Works was John Pope Vibert. £16,000 was raised, mainly from the church's own communion for the new building. A further £800 was raised for the organ, £800 for the bells and £300 for the carillon.
The rebuilt church was consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter, Henry Phillpotts, on 6 September 1836. A separate parish of Penzance was created in 1871.The churchyard was extended on the southern side in 1883.
Arson destroyed the interior of the church in April 1985 and two further arson attempts occurred in November 2018.
A carillon, costing about £300 and paid for by public subscription, was installed as a memorial to the town clerk and ornithologist, Edward Hearle Rodd. The first to be erected in Cornwall, it was completed by Gillett, Bland & Co on 10 November 1880 and first played at 8.00 pm on Sunday, 28 November 1880. The carillon played fourteen tunes and a tune was played for two weeks, every four hours at 8 am, noon, 4 and 8 pm, midnight and 4 am. The carillon had two barrels and two hammers for each of the bells. The hammers did not interfere with the normal ringing of the eight bells by bell-ringers.
