St Piran Trust

Sen Piran Dasserghi

ST PIRAN'S OLD CHURCH

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THE EXCAVATION OF ST PIRAN’S CHURCH, PERRANZABULOE, OCTOBER 2006

The Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council and the St Piran Trust recently completed an excavation at the site of the old Perranzabuloe Parish Church, which had fallen into disuse in 1804. Sand has been excavated from the interior of the church in order to improve the amenity value and setting of this important monument, with the works part-funded by English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Cornwall Heritage Trust and a number of local bodies.

St Piran’s Church

The oldest part of the church is believed to date back to the 11^th century and it was recorded as Lanpiran in the 1086 Domesday Book.  The church consisted of a nave and chancel, south aisle, south transept and tower.  It has been suggested that the church was extended with a chancel aisle in the late 13^th or early 14^th centuries and the south nave aisle, tower and possibly porch were added in the 15^th century.

Located in the dunes to the north-east of Perranporth, shifting sand was a terrible problem to the church during much of its existence. By the 18^th century, it was a quite normal for parishioners to have to dig out the porch in order to gain entrance to the church and, in the early years of the 19^th century, the decision was taken to build a new church about 2.5km inland. St. Piran's Church was part demolished to provide materials for the new church and then allowed to decay.

In 1820, C. S. Gilbert described the old church as "ruinous, being divested of its roof, pillars, window frames and towers.  Broken walls, staring windows and shattered tomb-stones are here seen in melancholy confusion, while the interior of the ruin is filled with sea sand.”

Dexter’s excavation

By the beginning of the 20^th century, the remains of the church were completely masked by sand and part of the site was excavated by T. F. G. Dexter between 1917 – 1920. He concentrated his efforts at the eastern end of the church. The periphery of the church was dug to define the shape and size of the structure in the summer of 1917 and the spring of 1918; the chancel was cleared of sand ‘internally and externally’ during the summer of 1918 and the spring/summer of 1919.

Some one thousand cartloads of sand were removed from the chancel alone and the excavation revealed substantial walling, window splays, carved stones and a number of other features, which included a piscina (a stone basin with a drain used for the disposal of water used at mass).

The 2005 excavation

It was decided to undertake further works at the church because the condition of the monument was quite poor, the present management regime was limited and there was a pressing need to make the monument more presentable to the general public.

The excavation was carried out by a team of archaeologists and a large number of local volunteers. Over 200 tonnes of sand was removed from the church by a mini-digger and dumper truck. Much of the northern wall of the church and the footings for the tower were uncovered for the first time in nearly 200 years. Important finds included the discovery of a carved column base near the internal entranceway into the tower and the remains of a grave slab dating to the 1620s.

This slab was found in a number of pieces, positioned on the top of a pile of rubble within the centre of the church. It was quite worn and we have therefore assumed that it had previously been laid into the floor of the church. It is our belief that it may have been lifted in the early 19^th century, perhaps to move it to the new church, but fractured and was left behind. The text on the slate slab showed that it marked the grave of a man called John, whose surname began with the four letters RESO, as well as his wife who was not named.

Burial records for Perranzabuloe Parish only survive from 1685, but it is clear from historical documentation that the family name could only be Resoga. This family appears on numerous records relating to Perranzabuloe Parish throughout the 17^th century. The Protestation Returns for 1642, for example, show both a John Resoga and Thomas Resoga, while the Hearth Tax records from the early 1660s show that the family was quite well-off with a John Resoga shown as having six hearths.

Excavation around the church

In 2004, a geophysical survey had been carried out which identified a range of below-ground archaeological remains in and around the Church enclosure including a number of small fields, cultivation marks, the location of possible buildings and patches of stonework in the churchyard.

A series of four excavation trenches were dug to investigate some of these features. The old ground surface of the churchyard (buried below later sand blow) and the re-vetted churchyard boundary were examined, while considerable disturbance from mining activity was noted on the exterior of the enclosure.

One trench was excavated in an attempt to locate evidence for the cottage recorded on a eighteenth century painting of the Church. It was not found but prehistoric pottery of likely Bronze Age date was recovered, along with evidence of possible industrial activity, showing that the area had been lived in for many thousand of years.

The works continue

• Even though the archaeological excavation has been completed, the work continues. During the next 12 months, this will include:

• Conservation works on the exposed remains.

• Erection of interpretation boards at the site of the church, the nearby buried Oratory and Perran Round, improving public understanding of the three sites.

• Organisation of an exhibition in Perranporth.

• Preparation of a strategy for long-term maintenance of the site, which would include the development of a concise management plan following consultation with local people.