Warleggan is a remote rural community in Cornwall and the birthplace of my great great great great great grandfather in 1735. The church is small and dates back to the 12th century. It just reeks of history - not of the lords and ladies and the ruling class but of the common man. We visited many such churches in our ancestry tours but this one always stuck in our memory. The day we were there it was cold, drizzling rain, windy and foggy which just added to the overall ambience of the place. We have since found out some of the history of the church and its eccentric rectors. It is said to be haunted which certainly melds with the overall impression we got of the church.
One of the really good things about both my wife and my ancestors was that they all came from small rural communities throughout UK Ireland and Europe. So visiting the places was a real joy. I lost count of the number of times we would be driving from one parish to the next and one of us would say "I wonder how many people from Brisbane have driven along this road".
Question: Why do you think they excavated the land and put the church below the level of the surrounding church grounds?
I love the history of England and all other countries over there. Their buildings are so old compared to ours! Great church. Is it still in use? And I don't know thew answer to your question! Keep us informed thanks!
You make a wonderful tour guide, Terry. I never imagined 365 would offer me the chance to visit so many places around the world. Love all the narcissus blooming in the damp grass. I trust you're going to tell us why the building's down in the ground a bit. Inquiring minds want to know.
Fantastic shot, rally well captured. What an experience to see that part of the world, I must say I'm a little jealous.
My only guess to the question would be to hide the church from possible unwanted guests/invasion of the Spanish maybe?
@karlow75@lyndemc@ribbet9@gilbertwood@moxy@dianeburns@jayberg OK here we go. It was a trick question. The church was originally built at ground level and no it didn't sink into the ground, the ground rose up around the church.
Every parishioner had the right to be buried in holy ground, ie inside the church grounds. It is estimated that for a normal sized parish, the number of souls that have been buried in the church yard over the centuries is in the vicinity of 20,000. So as these burials took place, the ground gradually rose up around the church itself.
Warleggan is only a small parish so the rise is not that dramatic but in a couple of the churches we visited the ground was more than a metre higher than the floor of the church.
@gilbertwood Sorry Denise but yes, it is still in use. The local vicar rotates his services between St Neot, Altarnon, Cardinham and Warleggan. You can go to the Easter service there if you hurry.
We actually met and spent a couple of hours with the Vicar from St Neot when we were there. Now there is a very funny story.
@karlow75 We were very lucky Kane. Our daughter lived in London for 14 years and after I retired, we would go over for a couple of months using her place as a base and head off on our journeys of discovery.
Thanks for all the great info Poppo. Amazing about the "sinking"! Now I'm just going to pop down to our breakwater and see if I can hitch a ride on a ship to England!!
Question: Why do you think they excavated the land and put the church below the level of the surrounding church grounds?
My only guess to the question would be to hide the church from possible unwanted guests/invasion of the Spanish maybe?
Every parishioner had the right to be buried in holy ground, ie inside the church grounds. It is estimated that for a normal sized parish, the number of souls that have been buried in the church yard over the centuries is in the vicinity of 20,000. So as these burials took place, the ground gradually rose up around the church itself.
Warleggan is only a small parish so the rise is not that dramatic but in a couple of the churches we visited the ground was more than a metre higher than the floor of the church.
We actually met and spent a couple of hours with the Vicar from St Neot when we were there. Now there is a very funny story.