St Paul's Church, Charlestown

St Paul’s Church stands in Charlestown, a granite-built village on Cornwall’s south coast. The church was completed in 1851 to serve the growing workforce drawn by local industry. Its Early English design uses local stone and slate, arranged in a cross shape with aisles, transepts and a chancel. The church is worth the journey for its layered history and notable donors. Charles Graves-Sawle laid the foundation stone in 1849, and the Bishop of Exeter consecrated the building two years later. Funds came from public subscription and three church societies, while later gifts included bells from Sir Noël Coward and an oak pulpit from the Mothers’ Union. Inside, the granite font and oak furnishings sit beneath a slate roof. The 1971–72 belfry added six bells, four of them gifts, and a glass-reinforced spire now rises above the transepts. The north transept houses a lady chapel, and new chairs replaced the old pews in 2007. The organ by Hele & Co of Plymouth still serves the Anglo-Catholic liturgy.