St Teath

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St Teath village and the parish of St Teath in North Cornwall

St Tetha Church.

  The Parish Church is named after St Tetha, one of  twenty-four sons and daughters of Prince Brychan, a Welsh chieftain. When the Romans left Britain St Tetha and many of her brothers and sisters, including Endelienta, Mabena, Adwena, Minfreda, came to North Cornwall to convert people to Christianity. The church is located in the centre of the village of St Teath adjacent to the Clock Tower and in close proximity to the village inn.

The churchyard and church land is in the shape of a rough circle which indicates that there was probably some kind of place of worship here in Celtic times. The cross in the cemetery is the 3rd tallest in Cornwall and dates from the Celtic times. The cross originally stood on the other side of the churchyard (where Forge Cottage is now) as the base of it is still there.

Like many churches, the first to stand on this spot was wooden building. Nothing remains of this. The 2nd church was built in about 1100 (Norman). The altar in the Lady Chapel stands on Norman pillars. The old font which stands on the floor just inside the North Door is also Norman. Incidentally, the North Door of a church is only ever used for taking coffins out to be buried. This font was found in 1978 in a stream outside Vicarage Farm (which used to be the actual Vicarage in days gone by.) Someone had made holes in each side of the font for water to pass in and out and had used it as a hand basin or similar. The present church building is mostly from about 1380. The font is from this time and has lock holes on each side of the lid to stop people stealing the Holy Water. There is a statue of a Knight on a window ledge in the church. He was probably killed in battle in the 15th century. Angels are holding his head and his feet are on a lion. In the back of the church is one of the oldest slate Gravestone in the country with the date 1580. You can also see another slate slab with a carved picture of three people in Tudor costume, one woman holding a skull and thigh bone in her left hand. There are only a few small pieces of old stained glass left in the windows. They were smashed at the time of the Reformation. These pieces were dug up from the churchyard under the windows when the church was restored in Victorian  times. The pews were taken out of the central aisle and replaced by chairs at this time. Some of the benchends were taken to St Materiana's church on Tintagel headland where they now reside in a screen behind the altar.

The Parish boundary of St Teath

The village of St Teath lies on the western slopes of the River Allen 3 miles south-west of Camelford. 7 miles north-east of the historic town of Wadebridge and south of the famous Delabole Slate Quarry. It is accessed from the A39 south of Camelford at Knights Mill.

Did you Know?

In the old church records at Exeter, there is a very, very old document dated 1345.The document  invites pilgrims to make a pilgrimage to St Teath so that the time they have to spend in Purgatory when they die would be reduced.

The church tower houses six bells which are rung regular every Sunday morning

St Teath village is part of Cornish sporting legend due to the fact that the first record of cricket played in Cornwall was a single-wicket championship played between gentleman farmers on July 3 1781 in a field behind the village inn.

The cemetery contains a restored Celtic cross which is one of the largest crosses in Cornwall. 

St Teath village website includes the latest news, activities, services and history for the St Teath area.

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