ST SYMPHORIAN CHURCH, VERYAN
The church is dedicated to a French martyr, St Symphorian, and the first priests were monks whose mother-house was in France. The church contains some Norman features, the carved faces on the west porch, for example, although these may have been 'collected' from another site by a previous Vicar!. Some doorway arches and windows are probably 13th century, the arcade of pillars fourteenth, while the font is a mediaeval copy of a Norman design.
A striking feature is the way in which the floor slopes upwards towards the altar, reminiscent of many northern French churches.Three of the present ring of six bells were installed in the 18th century, the remaining three being added in the 1890s. They are rung regularly for services. The organ dates from 1913 and the attractive embroidered kneelers were worked by members of the congregation during the 1980s.
An extract from a page about the church says this about St Symphorian:
Symphorian was a young man who lived in Autun in Burgandy, France, around the second century AD. He refused to worship the pagan goddess Cybele, and was tortured and beheaded, his mother shouting encouragement to him from the city wall. He was buried in a cave where some three hundred years later a church was built in his honour.
Symphorian has been patron of this church since at least 1281. He is well known in the rest of Europe but has only three church on this side of the Channel: here, Forrabury (the parish church of Boscastle in North Cornwall) and at Darrington in Sussex.
It is possible however that he was not our original patron. There may have been an earlier Celtic dedication. The manor of Elerky, which comprised much of this parish, was in 1110 given to the Cluniac monastery of Montacute in Somerset, whose monks were natives of Symphorian's city, Autun. It may be that they mistook the name of the local Celtic saint and interpreted it as their own martyr, or they may simply have rededicated the church to him.
St Symphorian's feast day is 22nd August.
The cache:
N 50 13.A(E+A)G W 004 55.(A+B)(E-A)(D-E+A)
At the headline coordinates:
Small wooden sign to the right of the Lych Gate has Church opening times. These digits are AB - C
Head up to the back of the graveyard, you will need to head through the graveyard as the main path is currently closed for works on the tower and is blocked off.
You are looking for a wooden bench. Across the back is a sentence carved into the back rest.
How many letters in the last word of the sentence? D
Nearby is the headstone for Joy Lamb.
Last digit in the year of Joy's death = E
Last digit in the year of William's Death = F
2nd digit in the year both were born = G
The final is a bit of a walk away due to the proximity of other caches in the village and the nearby school, and if doing the War Memorial cache, can be done at the same time.
Good footwear is recommended as the path can be muddy and slippery.
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