St Nonna's Church - Altarnun, Cornwall - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

"As with so many things Cornish, there is something indefinably “different” about their churches. This was a land where the earth’s riches of copper, tin and china clay were hard-won; where the treacherous coastlines claimed the lives of seafarers by the thousand. Their churches were as rugged as the people, and Cornwall readily embraced the austerity of Wesleyan doctrine. This is a Celtic land, and the county retains an air of brooding mystery.

Altarnun is typically Cornish. For a start, the dedication to St Nonna (or “Non”) is almost unique - only one other church in Tavistock, Devon has it.. She was the mother of St David, patron saint of Wales. The world was awash with saints in those days! Otherwise known as “Non”, she eventually moved from Wales to Cornwall in AD527. Her relics were held here after her death, and she gives her name to the village: “Altar of Non”.

The fabric of the church is granite and dates from c15. It is not quarried stone but “moorstone” that was literally removed from the moors. Of the c12 Norman church built here, nothing remains except the font. There is none of your Fancy Dan carving here: a crude face leers at you from each of its corners while a uniform radial motif adorns the sides, with serpents entwined around them. It is uncompromising, functional and somewhat Pagan in its appearance. It gives its name - “Altarnon Fonts” - to a dozen similar fonts elsewhere. Remarkably, traces of the original paint survive.



There is a wonderful “wholeness” and symmetry to Altarnun. It is more or less exactly as it was built. It has two aisles that are as long as the nave itself, divided by sweeping arcades. The impression is of one large room, very different from many other English gothic churches where the aisles have a feeling of “separation” from the nave, often emphasised by the addition of side chapels. The windows, amazingly, are of uniform design - even on the tower - having been left untouched since the church was built. They appear to be a kind of transitional design: a light Decorated tracery surmounting typically Perpenidular vertical mullions.

Altarnun is a church designed for a community. The chancel seems almost like an afterthought: a short protrusion from the nave. The altar rail sweeps across the entire width of the nave and aisles leaving a lateral corridor the full width of the church. the rail itself was carved in 1684 and has an inscription along its entire impressive length! The screen which also covers the entire width of the church was added in the 1880s replacing the original rood screen that was removed during the Reformation. This is a church where rich and poor, lay people and clergy were not granted much separation.

The church has waggon-roofs of beautifully seasoned wood, adding to the feeling of spaciousness and symmetry. For, again, the nave is not allowed to assert any superiority through a higher roof than the aisles!

The real glory of this church, however, are its bench ends. There are 79 of them, no less, all carved by Robart Daye between 1510 and 1530. We know this because he carved his signature on the bench end next to the font. All aspects of life are there, religious and secular.

If you like church architecture and are in the vicinity Altarnun - “The Cathedral of the Moors” - is not to be missed. This is a church built for the common man. No rich men’s monuments here."

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/27/2022 Gribbin visited it