St Piran stands on the edge of an immense churchyard of five acres packed with gravestones from the last two centuries.

It was actually built in 1804 re-using stones taken from a church that once stood in the sands near St Piran’s Oratory, notably the tower and the arcades. The exterior is in a softer sedimentary stone than the tower which doe snot help the two to harmonise. effectively and there is something slightly incoherent about the ensemble.

Pevsner reports that it was ‘made more medieval’ in a restoration of 1873 leaving it ‘conspicuously lacking mellowness’, whatever that may mean.

We are greeted by a standard south-west porch above which a little face peers down, clearly a piece re-used from the previous church.

Inside, it consists of a nave, south aisle (not north as Pevsner reports) and two small transepts. The roof is distinctly Victorian in feel, as is the stained glass.

There are delights, however, notably the font which is a robust C15 piece with some charming vernacular carving of the Virgin and three saints.

A little stoup by the door is another relic of the previous church, as are some bench-ends which have been effectively re-used to create a screen to the tower lobby at the west end. The carving is not exceptional but has some nice details.

There are also some lovely large slate monuments. That to Perryn Hokyn is very fine – or at least its carving is better than its verse.

A free translation of the verse is something like:

While on Earth I Flourished like the Bay
Much Earthly Comforts I enjoyed but they
And all Physicians of no Value were
When on my way Death to me did appear
Death did Arrest me and would take no Bail
For to befriend me all things here did Fail
Then Christ became my Friend and did deliver
My Soul from Death to Blessedness forever

Another touching memorial is to 22 soldiers, all veterans of Dunkirk, who were all killed in a single bombing raid at nearby Penhale camp.

In the churchyard outside is the remnant of a small Latin cross, also brought from the previous church.