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Fowey Harbour Heritage Society

Welcome to the Fowey Harbour Heritage Society Website

Fowey harbour, which includes the communities of Fowey, Bodinnick and Polruan, has been a significant international trading port since the medieval period and is still a working port today, exporting china clay. Our aim is to encourage you to explore the area and find out more about the places and people that have contributed to its heritage.

Fowey Harbour Heritage Society

Promoting the heritage of the Fowey harbour area

The Society introduces you to the rich and varied history of Fowey harbour and what you can see today by:

  • Organising talks
  • Publishing an annual journal
  • Presenting our annual heritage awards
  • Providing heritage grants to local organisations
  • Promoting guided walks
  • Working with other societies on heritage projects

Programme of talks 2024/25

The programme of talks for 2024/25 is as follows;

All on Saturdays at 2pm.

14 Sept. From Travellers to Tourists, the Story of Pre-1914 Visitors to Cornwall. Louis Turner. Fowey Town Hall.
12 Oct. The Battle of Lostwithiel -1644, Parliament's Greatest Defeat. Tony Smith. Fowey Town Hall.
9 Nov. The Cornwall Memory Game. Merryn Threadgould. Fowey Town Hall.
There will be no talk in December
11 January. Daphne du Maurier's Cornwall. Lynn Goold. Polruan Village Hall.
8 Feb. Tammy Blee's Cabalistic Agency - Cornish Witchcraft and Folklore. Jason Semmens. Fowey Town Hall.
8 March. Some Stories about Cornish Church Building with Special Reference to the Fowey Area. Joanna Mattingly. Fowey Town Hall.
12 April. Crossing the River - The History of the Fowey Ferries. Chris Bradish. Whitecross Village Hall

http

214_350276531.pdf (pdf)

28/7/2024

Facebook.

The Fowey Harbour Heritage Society now has its own Facebook page where you can keep up to date with news and events

Fowey Harbour Heritage Society

1/5/2021

Some Stories About Cornish Church Building With Special Reference to the Fowey Area

Some Stories About Cornish Church Building With Special Reference to the Fowey Area

Fowey Town Hall

8 March 2025 at 2pm

Cost: Free for FHHS members, £10 for non members.

Contact: All enquiries to Hon. Sec, Kath Pearce, on 07977 572268 or via Ticket Tailor https://buytickets.at/foweyharbourheritagesociety/1369888

More Fifty Shades than Pevsner, this talk will focus on some Cornish churches with interesting construction stories. Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, of church roofs at Fowey, Lansallos, and St Veep, amongst other places, has confirmed that Cornish churchyards were still building sites at the Reformation, as was known from documentary sources. It may also explain St Veep's enthusiastic participation in the 1549 rebellion.
Vicar Bennett and his former enemies, the Wynslades, were defending what was yet to be built. Motivation to add ever wider chapels and aisles included the need to accommodate catholic processions alongside pews, additional altars and ever-more priests, a desire to be remembered and reduce time in purgatory, inter-parish rivalry, and even atonement for murder. The lateness of all this Cornish catch-up means that very few medieval chancel arches survive and the typical Cornish church is an unfinished one.
Joanna Mattingly is a retired former extra-mural lecturer and museum curator. She specialises in Medieval Cornish Church History and

She is the author of Churches of Cornwall (Amberley Publishing, Stroud, 2023).

Do you have memories, information or pictures to share?

We would like to encourage you to contribute any material you may have about the history of Fowey Harbour. We would love to hear from you - to get in touch please click here .

We are pleased to be members of The Cornwall Association of Local Historians (CALH).

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