Welcome to Penzance and to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin

What is St. Mary's

St. Mary's is a Church of England church and under the care of the Bishop of Truro. Modern Anglo-Catholic worship is accompanied by traditional choral music. With its sister church of St. John the Baptist it offers Christian ministry and outreach to the town of Penzance and its many visitors.

The History of St. Mary's

The church was begun in 1832, licensed for worship in 1835 and consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1836. The Diocese of Truro was not formed until 1877. The Diocese covers all of Cornwall, and the Cathedral Church in Truro was one of the last to be built in this Country. Originally St. Mary’s was within the Parish of Madron. It has been a separate Parish since 1871.

There is a long Christian Heritage in Cornwall going back to the Celtic Saints of the 6th Century. It is believed a chapel has stood on this site from the earliest times, with the most likely dedication being to the Archangels Gabriel and Raphael, complementing the dedication of the Mount to St. Michael the Archangel. The town takes its name from the Pen Sans or Holy Headland around which it grew. Headland Chapels are a feature of Cornwall and served as navigational aids, places of refuge, and look out posts, as well as shrines to saints believed to protect travellers. Among these the Archangels, the Blessed Virgin Mary (under one of her medieval titles Star of the Sea) and St. Nicholas, patron of sailors, were favourites. (Compare St. Nicholas Chapel in St. Ives which has remained in its basic form.)

A relic from this Chapel of St. Gabriel and St Raphael is the remains of a granite cross which may be seen outside the south-east corner of the church. (A fragment of this was sealed in the new granite High Altar during the reconsecration of the church in 1987). Although now known locally as St. Anthony’s Cross it clearly predates such a dedication. The part of the base that remains depicts the Virgin and Child.

The present church replaced the previous St. Mary’s Chapel on the same site. This chapel had been established at some time in the fifteenth century. It is this chapel which gave the name “Chapel Street” (formerly “Our Lady’s Street”) to the street outside, which for most of its existence was a dirt track leading to “Chapel Stile”.

Relics of St. Mary’s Chapel which survive are, the Holy Water stoup found towards the back of the church. The bowl of this was the original font. Also a doorway can be seen, re-sited in the east wall below the church. The weather vane, on top of the present church, dates from 1789 and came from this Chapel. Its single bell was re-hung in the Church of St. John the Baptist (see below).

As the town grew and developed in the Georgian period and the present Chapel Street was built with its elegant houses, so it was decided to replace the old Chapel. The present church, built in the Neo-Gothic style, belongs to a group known as ‘Commissioners’ Churches, benefiting from the Church Building Act of 1818 which appointed Commissioners to spend one million pounds on churches in expanding towns. The architect was Charles Hutchens of St Buryan and the cost of the building at the time was £16,000. We now have to raise four times that amount every year to maintain the church and its ministry!

Since its original construction the church has been re-ordered internally several times producing startlingly different results (as the two pictures below illustrate).

In March 1985 the interior of the church was devastated by fire which completely destroyed the High Altar and Reredos and the Organ in the west gallery. The present ordering dates from 1986 and while modern in style is based around the four panels two each side of the Altar that can be seen in the earlier (left) illustration above. These now contain statues of the four Evangelists. (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.)

At the restoration opportunity was taken to divide the church by glass screens to provide a narthex or vestibule with a kitchen and to create the new Chapel of the Resurrection which is the usual location of the weekday Mass. Meeting rooms were also provided upstairs at gallery level. The harmony of the new interior is due to the sensitive way in which the architect, Mr. George Vaughan Ellis RIBA, blended the new work with the old – notice for instance how the low arches are echoed in all the excellent woodwork.

The upper casing of the organ and pipes (part dating from 1675) came from the University Church at Oxford. The new action and console were constructed by Lance Foy of Truro. A separate leaflet is available giving much greater detail about this.

The Mayor’s seat, by the south wall near the front was restored by the Town Council. It is believed to have been in the previous building and had not been used by the Mayor for some 150 years. It was used in the sanctuary, prior to the fire, as a sedilia for the priest and his assistants. The font dates from 1874 and is of serpentine stone from the Lizard. The Stations of the Cross are particularly fine. These follow sequentially from the Trial before Pilate to the Placing in the Tomb.

The new East Window was designed by Alfred Fisher of Chapel Studios in Hertfordshire. It interprets the hymn ‘Hail O Star that pointest toward the Port of Heaven’ and shows our patron St. Mary as Stella Maris – Star of the Sea, against the background of the sea with a fishing lugger and the Scillonian Ferry. Below are the Five Joyful Mysteries : the Angel telling Mary of her forthcoming motherhood, her visit to Elizabeth (mother-to-be of St. John the Baptist), the birth of Jesus, His presentation in the Temple, and His boyhood visit to the Temple and discussion with the Teachers of Law.

Thank you for your interest in St. Mary’s Church. We pray for our many visitors and hope that you remember us in your prayers.

A booklet of the history of our church is available in the church bookstall.

The churchyard has been restored by Penwith District Council, seats have been provided and all paths renewed. You may picnic there if you wish.