Church Micro 6067...Whitstone - St Annes
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Church Micro 6067...Whitstone - St Annes
This was the church of my childhood, & is very close to my heart. It was here that I took part in the yearly Christmas performances, & endeavored the dreaded Wednesday PE lesson, known as 'The Run'. This consisted of spending the whole PE lesson running up & down the road from the nearby Whitstone CP School to the church!
This pretty little church with its adjacent holy well claims for Patron St. Anne, although St Nicholas appears in official record so early as 1309. Of the Norman church two relics survive in the Norman font and the porch doorway, the latter of course, being not in its original position. The curious little window, or squint, communicating between the porch and south aisle is of great interest if of genuine antiquity, but its purpose is not easy to determine. As usual, the church was rebuilt in the 15th century and a western tower added to it. Richard Buvyle, rector of Whitstone, died in 1358, slain either by his own hand or "emulis suis". He was doubtless buried at a cross-roads. Rumours had it that he was a saint, and some remarkable cures having taken place at his grave, the body was translated to the church. meanwhile the cult of this new saint had taken hold of all North Cornwall and Devonshire. Banks of people kept nightly vigils at the first place of his burial, saying prayers for his soul. These, with the friends who brought them victuals, converted the place into a regular fair, with the inevitable result of what Bishop Grandisson Called "Commessaciones ebrietates et conventicule inhoneste, illicita et nepharia que non decet exprimere". The Bishop took a firm line. He ordered the cultus to cease until due enquiry into the alleged cures had been made. In 1361 a certificate of 10 cures performed on five men and five women was sent to him by a jury consisting of three vicars, three curates, and six laymen, specially summoned at Week St Mary for the purpose. Four were effected at the original grave and six in the church. They are certainly very remarkable, one being of a lunatic lady from Northam, who, being brought bound to the church, strove to lacerate the wax candles with her teeth and to throw down the images. Being, however, cured on the spot her protestant fury abated and her next visit to Whitstone was one of devout gratitude, pilgrimage and prayer. The matter, however, seems to have died a natural death, for we hear no more of it. In 1779 William Score, rector since 1736, reported to the Bishop "as to dissenters in my parish, there have been some disguised Papists as I am told who call themselves Methodists." A Chapel of Holy Trinity was licensed in 1429, possibly an aisle in the church. From Parochial history of Cornwall The church has its own cemetery, but also has a separate cemetery for those people who do not attend the Church which was given to the village in 1926 by Mr S O Ham.
To work out the next stage you will have to find the resting place of Priest Robert Hawker Kingdon, & mark the year he died as ABCD. The cache is placed at N50 45.(D-2)(A+3)(D-A) & W004 27.(B-2)(C+7)(A+6)
“If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”
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