St Winwaloe’s Church at Church Cove Gunwalloe скачать в хорошем качестве

St Winwaloe’s Church at Church Cove Gunwalloe

St. Winwaloe’s Church at Church Cove at Gunwalloe has a rather deep and colourful history. It is named in dedication to a Celtic saint from the fifth century and it is this saint’s name which also gifted the church at Landewednack its name too. Due to the church’s name and its importance to the nearby community, the area where it is situated has links to the Saint, Winwaloe. Gun, or Goon, is Cornish for downs and we see this used in the names of other places in Cornwall, such as Goonhilly (hunting downs) or Gunwen (white downs). In the name Gunwalloe, we see the use of Gun and also Walloe, relating to the Celtic saint Winwaloe, all together meaning Winwaloe downs. This place name is a crucially important piece of information since it suggests that there was a church at Gunwalloe during the fifth century and that Christianity was introduced to Cornwall by that time. This is particularly interesting when looking at the religious past of Cornwall since the church is physical evidence for how Christianity competed with indigenous Paganism as early as the fifth century. The clash between Christianity and paganism at this time has also been suggested to be one of the reasons as to why the church was built on the beach and not somewhere more convenient. The church at Gunwalloe is certainly a rare occurrence since it is one of the only churches in Cornwall to have been built on the beach, a fact which has baffled historians for generations. As a result of this, many suggestions have been made to explain why anyone would build such an important structure in a place where it was at so much risk of being damaged. One theory is that a man who had survived a shipwreck off the coast of Gunwalloe erected a church on the beach where he had washed up, as a way of thanking God for sparing his life. He supposedly positioned it there so that it would experience the force of the sea and storms, just as he had when he was shipwrecked. This would certainly explain the origin of the church’s nickname Church of the Storms – as it is still known today – suggesting that it is named as such by locals because of what it was built to represent. This tale also has another variation where it was actually two sisters who had survived a wreck and built the original church. While the story is fascinating, it lacks evidence and is purely speculation. However, it is not unheard of in Cornwall for churches to have been built in places of significance – for example – St Piran’s Oratory at Perranporth Beach. It is also important to make note of the repairs and renovations made to the church during the nineteenth century. Due to the church’s position on the beach, as mentioned earlier, it is extremely susceptible to storm damage and weathering. There are many records of times in history where terrible weather has resulted in necessary repairs and renovations, the costliest of these occurring during the mid to late nineteenth century. According to an article written in 1871, the church was re-opened in early June of that year, following extensive repairs, including the roof and the repaving of an aisle. Numerous other repairs were needed as well, since the storm had caused damage to windows and furniture within the church, including seats and the chancel. The cost of this particular renovation was a steep five hundred and thirty pounds, amounting to roughly sixty-two thousand, five hundred pounds in today’s money. Despite the amount needed for the renovations, it was all accounted for (bar twenty-one pounds) thanks to the support of local communities at the time. Raising money of this amount today would be quite the challenge, but due to the changing cultural and religious practices of the nineteenth century, donating to charity in Victorian England was commonplace, especially for those in the upper classes who had the money and power to do so more frequently. It has also been speculated that the church found money previously from the shipwrecks nearby washing up treasures onto Church Cove and surrounding beaches. Based on the number of wrecks around this area, it would not be completely out of the ordinary to have had this happen.