The Church
From 504 AD and possibly earlier, a church of mud and wattle has probably stood here to the glory of god. The church is named after Wenna, one of the children of Brychan, (ruler of Brycheiniog - Breconshire in Wales. In 6th Century, her brothers and sisters had travelled to Cornwall, some en route to Brittany, and it is perfectly plausible that St. Wenna herself (rather than later devotees of her cult) should have built the original 'cell' at Morval, near her well (now in the garden of Morval House). The name 'Mor-val' may mean 'marshy-valley'. After the Norman invasion in 1066, and the devastation caused, Morval church was presumably rebuilt in the present slate-stone and granite, in a traditional cruciform style. The earliest vicar's name to survive is 'Eustachius' in 1281
In 1244, Sir Humphrey de Locksore, presented the church to the priory of St Germans, which held the great tithe until 1539. The church was rededicated in 1318, and on 18th June, Bishop Walter Stapleton personally dedicated a new High Altar in the church. In 1441 Thomas Cokyn, Recorder of the City of London left 10 marks for building the fine three-stage "bell tower" at the west end, faced with the local slate-stone, with four granite crosses above the tower. Also in the 15th century, the church was widened by adding the north aisle, with its arcade of Cornish granite capitals decorated with horizontal leaves, and its well-carved wooden roof-bosses, one showing a masons trowel and hammer.
On 21 July 1588, the Spanish Armada was first sighted as it passed within two miles of Looe. This was one Sunday when the able-bodied men of Morval were NOT in church, but were clutching their pikes up on nearby Bindown, wondering if boatloads of Spanish soldiers would arrive.
Below the floor of the south transept is a spacious vault, long since sealed, and hiding one of the church's best kept secrets - whether the limbs of John Glyn I, murdered and dismembered near Higher Wringworthy in 1472, did in fact find their final rest under this floor. The whole church was restored in 1661 by the Buller family of Morval House, who added the south transept. In 1671 John Buller I paid for a sundial, perhaps the oldest church-sundial in Cornwall - with its inscription "UT HORA, SIC VITA" — "as (is) an hour, so (is) life').
A stained glass window near the Altar embodies a well-meaning but unfortunate attempt in the Victorian era to portray St. Wenna as a bearded Englishman - i.e. the 7th/8th century St. Boniface/Winfred of Crediton. The glass in the west (tower) window includes a Fleur-de-lis motif which may recall the arms of Hugh de Morville, one of the four murderers of Thomas a Becket; tradition links him with Morval.
The Cache
The headline coordinates take you to just in front of the entrance to the church with its unusual double half door.
There is a line of gravestones in front of the door and you need to find the fifth gravestone away from the porch entrance from which you need the following information:
Sarah Jory of Duloe died October A BCDE aged FG years
William Jory, her husband, died January BA BCGA aged FH years
The cache can be found close by at N 50 AH.EF(G+D) W 004 AF.CCA
The cache is a plastic tube 10 cms long by 3 cms in diameter, and is located a short distance away.
Please be stealthy when retrieving the cache. The nearby houses and the large Morval House, a superb Tudor Manor House, are all part of the estate which is an active farm.
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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