St Levan's Church, St Levan

St Levan’s Church stands in the small village of St Levan in west Cornwall. The building is medieval, rebuilt in the twelfth century and extended in the fifteenth. In 1874 J. D. Sedding restored it to a more medieval appearance. The church was once a chapelry of the Royal Peculiar of St Buryan until 1864. Today it belongs to the united benefice of St Buryan and St Sennen. The church’s history reaches back to the life of St Kybi, whose father was St Levan, a sixth- or seventh-century Cornish saint. On the cliffs nearby is St Levan’s Well and the remains of his chapel, noted by William Borlase in the eighteenth century. William Alsa, a local priest, was hanged for joining the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion. Inside, the tower holds three bells cast in 1641, 1754 and 1881. The churchyard contains two of the six stone crosses recorded in the parish. In the chancel is a stained glass window by Messrs Joseph Bell and Son, placed in 1880. It shows Jesus with a child between Saints Peter and John, in memory of Achile Baglehole, who died after falling from the cliffs at Land’s End.