St Mary's Church, Penzance

St Mary’s Church stands in the centre of Penzance, a town on Cornwall’s south coast. The site has held a place of worship since at least the fourteenth century, when it was a chapel linked to Madron parish. A Spanish raid in 1595 spared the building because Mass was in progress. By the early nineteenth century the chapel could no longer cope with a population of around seven thousand. Plans for a new church were drawn up by Charles Hutchens, with John Pope Vibert acting as Clerk of Works. The rebuilt church was finished in 1836 and consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter. Funds came mainly from the congregation, with extra gifts for the organ, bells and carillon. In 1886 seventeen aloes were planted in the churchyard by Mr Dorrien-Smith of Tresco. Arson damaged the interior in 1985 and again in 2018, but the structure remained. The churchyard was enlarged in 1883 to make space for more graves. Inside, the nave contains an organ whose casework dates from 1676. The organ itself was moved from Oxford in 1949 by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. The tower holds eight bells cast by Taylor and Co of Loughborough, installed in 1865. A carillon of fourteen tunes was added in 1880 as a memorial to Edward Hearle Rodd. The churchyard’s aloes and the old bell from 1667 add to the quiet character of the place.