The Church
St Paul’s Chacewater is an imposing structure, built on a hill with a wonderful view across the large graveyard.
For visitors, the main attraction is the churchyard, which draws people from across the world looking for their ancestors from this mining community. There is a list of graves and names, now archived to the diocese. Many visitors come to Cornwall specifically to visit Chacewater.
The church itself is an imposing late-Victorian building which stands above its village in a large sloping churchyard. A Commissioners’ church erected here in 1826-8 was damaged by lightning in 1866, and the main body of the church was rebuilt in 1892 from designs by Edmund Sedding. The tall west tower was retained and remains a local landmark.
The church is listed Grade II for its important early and late-nineteenth century fabric. The stained glass of the east window, was brought here from St Mary’s Truro; this is by William Warrington, a prominent figure in the Victorian revival of medieval stained glass techniques.
There is also a charming window depicting a collie dog.
Our Work
St Paul’s is home to a small number (about 12) brown long-eared bats, resulting in scattered droppings across the church as the bats warm up in the church before venturing out to feed.
The project, working with Burton Reid Ecology and the church architect, created successful and cost-effective mitigation in the form of a bat void over the chancel. The bats are confined to the void, which provides ample space for the, but they can no longer enter the body of the church.
Chacewater case study
Chacewater factsheet
Chacewater bat management plan
Upcoming events
On A Wing And A Prayer art installation tour, Tues 4 July - Tues 29 August. More information here.
If you’d like to contact or find out more about the church, click here.