Qualla: St Andrew's Church, Calstock

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Lansley, CC BY 2.0. Two brothers named Harry and Shadrach Gale are remembered in this churchyard, and only one of those graves contains anything. After the mines of the Tamar Valley closed in the early 1900s, the Gale brothers, like thousands of West Country miners before them, had gone to work in Colorado. They boarded the RMS Titanic at Southampton on 10 April 1912, travelling second class back to America. Their memorial stone here at Calstock records both names. The bodies are at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The church above the brothers' marker has been standing on this hill since about 1290, when it was consecrated on a site that turns out, by way of recent archaeology, to sit inside the perimeter of a previously unknown Roman fort - the largest Roman site so far found in Cornwall.

Image: Nick Lansley | CC BY 2.0

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: Romans, Then Christians

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick Lansley, CC BY 2.0. The hill above Calstock commands a long bend of the River Tamar and a wide view of the valley. The Romans recognized its value first and built a fort there, the existence of which only became known to archaeologists in the early 21st century when University of Exeter excavations ...

Image: Nick Lansley | CC BY 2.0

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: The Edgcumb Chapel

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Johnson [1], CC BY-SA 3.0. Attached to the east end of the north aisle is a small extension built in 1558 from a different stone than the rest of the church, slightly paler, slightly more crisply cut. This is the Edgcumb Chapel, family chapel of Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele - the initials R.E. appear on th...

Image: David Johnson [1] | CC BY-SA 3.0

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: A Porch with a Fireplace

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon Cobb, CC0. The south porch of the church preserves three unusual features that any visitor with five minutes to spare can examine. In the northeast corner are the worn remains of a holy water stoup, where parishioners once dipped their fingers before entering. In the southwest corner is som...

Image: Simon Cobb | CC0

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: The Victorian Restoration

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Franzfoto, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 1861 an architectural survey of the Diocese of Exeter found the building in need of major work. The thorough restoration that followed took place in 1867 at a cost of £600 and was directed by James Piers St Aubyn, an architect with offices in London and Devonport and a long li...

Image: Franzfoto | CC BY-SA 3.0

St Andrew's Church, Calstock: A Churchyard of Industry and Disaster

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Janet Ramsden, CC BY 2.0. The hilltop is now set in quiet rural countryside, but in the 19th century the valleys around it were dense with mines, quarries, brickworks, lime kilns, and shipyards. The parishioners of Calstock did most of those jobs, and many of them died at them. The gravestones in the chur...

Image: Janet Ramsden | CC BY 2.0