Holidays in St Kew, North Cornwall – Church, Inn & Countryside

HOLIDAYS IN ST KEW

St Kew is a peaceful rural parish in North Cornwall, a few miles inland from the north coast between Wadebridge and Port Isaac. Its old church town lies tucked away in a wooded valley, with a fine medieval church and a 15th-century inn side by side, while the village of St Kew Highway stands on the A39 Atlantic Highway, the main road through North Cornwall.

It is an ideal base for a quiet country holiday within easy reach of some of Cornwall’s most popular places. Port Isaac, Polzeath, Rock and Daymer Bay are all a short drive away, Wadebridge and the Camel Trail are about four miles south-west, and Padstow, Tintagel, Boscastle and Bodmin Moor are within easy reach.

The parish takes its name from St Kew, or Cywa, a Welsh saint said to have been the sister of St Docco, who founded one of the earliest religious communities in Cornwall here. The old name of the church town, Landocco, later shortened to Lannow, recalls his monastery.

Around the villages are farms, hamlets and old manor houses, including the 16th-century farmhouse of Bokelly with its Tudor barn and the 17th-century manor of Pengenna, and many of the farms and cottages of the parish now offer self-catering holidays and B&B.

ST KEW CHURCH

The parish church of St James stands in the church town of St Kew, on a site where Christians have worshipped since the age of the Celtic saints. The present church is a fine 15th-century building of granite and slate, with a tall tower that rises above the trees of the valley.

The church is famous for its medieval stained glass, among the most important in Cornwall. The great Passion window, showing the story of Christ’s Passion, was restored in 2005, and other windows contain fragments of 15th-century glass.

Inside the church is a small Ogham stone, brought from a local farm, inscribed in both Latin and the early Irish Ogham script – a reminder of the links across the Irish Sea in the centuries after the Romans left Britain.

THE ST KEW INN

Beside the church stands the St Kew Inn, a 15th-century village inn with a slate-floored bar and a great open range fireplace. Tradition says it was built to house the masons working on the church next door. It is owned by St Austell Brewery and serves food at lunchtime and in the evening.

For centuries the inn was at the heart of parish life, and tournaments of Cornish wrestling were held in the field beside it, now its car park. In 1992 the inn and church were used as locations for the BBC film Death at the Bar.

In St Kew Highway, on the A39, the St Kew Golf Club has a 9-hole course with 18 tees and a driving range – see our Cornwall golf guide for more courses.

AROUND ST KEW

• Port Isaac – the fishing village famous from Doc Martin, a few miles north.
• Polzeath and Rock – surf, sand and the Camel Estuary.
• Wadebridge – the market town on the River Camel and the Camel Trail, about four miles south-west.
• Padstow – the harbour town across the estuary, by ferry from Rock.
• Camelford and Tintagel – Roughtor, Bodmin Moor and the legendary castle.
• Bodmin – the old county town and Lanhydrock (National Trust).