Church of Saint Towennac is a Grade II* listed building in the Cornwall local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 June 1954. A Medieval Church.

Church of Saint Towennac

WRENN ID
brooding-chimney-flax
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Cornwall
Constituency
St Ives MP: Andrew George (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
10 June 1954
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of Saint Towennac, Churchtown, Towednack
OS grid reference
SW 486 380
Coordinates
50.18926, -5.52207
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of Saint Towennac is a parish church located in Towednack. It features the base of a Norman font and a chancel arch and chancel dating from the 13th or 14th century, while the rest of the church is primarily from the 15th century. The structure is built from granite ashlar and some granite rubble, topped with dry Delabole slate roofs that have coped gable ends and 19th-century crested clay ridge tiles.

The plan includes a nave that was rebuilt in the 15th century, a chancel from the late 13th or early 14th century, a 15th-century west tower, and a south aisle and south porch also from the 15th century. The windows and roofs were replaced in the 19th century.

The exterior features a squat, two-stage embattled west tower with an original doorway and a window above it, along with louvred two-light windows in the upper stage. There is a prominent external stair turret at the northeast corner, accessed from a doorway in the nave. The south doorway has a four-centred arch and possibly reused pointed porch doorway with a sundial from 1720 above it, while the north doorway is basket-arched. The 19th-century windows are typically two or three-light with hoodmoulds and round-headed lights, except for the chancel's east window, which has intersecting tracery within a pointed arch and may be a 19th-century copy of the original.

Inside, the church has a 13th or 14th-century ordered pointed chancel arch and thick chancel walls, along with a 13th-century piscina. The 15th-century arcade consists of four bays with octagonal piers supporting four-centred arches. There is a circa 1500 four-centred tower arch with octagonal responds and a basket-arched doorway of the same date leading to the tower stair. The interior features 19th-century waggon roofs and plain plastered walls, possibly over older plaster.

Notable fittings include a Norman granite altar with incised crosses reinstated in 1934, a chevron-headed Norman base to an octagonal font dated 1720 with the initials WB and JR, and two 15th-century carved oak bench ends reused in the chancel. There is also a medieval incised cross shaft in the porch, while the rest of the fittings are from the 19th or 20th centuries.

Local climate

Church of Saint Towennac sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 75% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 1 freeze-thaw cycle a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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