page_title: Gwennap
section_title: Church history
hierarchical_section_title: Gwennap / Church history
caption_attribution_description: Cross, Gwennap
context_page_description: Gwennap is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is about five miles southeast of Redruth.
  In the 18th and early 19th centuries Gwennap parish was the richest copper mining district in Cornwall, and was called the "richest square mile in the Old World". It is the location of the Great County Adit, and once-famous mines such as Consolidated Mines, Poldice mine and Wheal Busy. Today it forms part of area A6i of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
  It lends its name to Gwennap Pit, where John Wesley preached 18 times between 1762 and 1789, although Gwennap Pit is about 1.7 miles to the northwest, at the hamlet of Busveal near St Day. The pit was caused by mining subsidence in the mid-18th century. After Wesley's death the local people turned the pit into a regular circular shape with turf seats.
context_section_description: Gwennap church is dedicated to St Wenappa; in 1225 it was given to the chapter of Exeter by Lord William Briwere. The parish church is an old foundation, but was rebuilt in the 15th century because of population growth caused by mining and then thoroughly restored in the 19th century. The tower is detached. In 1882, following the removal of the centre gallery, which was said to be an eyesore, The Cornishman newspaper described the church as one of the prettiest in Cornwall. It was later described by Charles Henderson, as "few Cornish churches are less interesting than Gwennap"
  ,
  There is a Cornish cross in the churchyard which was moved to the vicarage garden in the 1840s from Chapel Moor. It has a crude crucifixus figure and a small Latin cross on the front and a large Latin cross on the back and is probably a fragment of a larger cross. There is also an ornamented cross shaft which was found in the church wall about 1860 and by mistake used again in the vestry foundations.
caption: The cross in the churchyard
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