St Martin's Church, St Martin-by-Looe
church in Cornwall, England, UK
St Martin's Church is a parish church in the hamlet of St Martin, Looe, Cornwall, in the Church of England Diocese of Truro.
History and description
The church dates from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1882 and also in 1907 at a cost of £400 (equivalent to £41,600 in 2025) when the eastern portion of the church floor was lowered, the walls underpinned and the pillars were straightened. A heating system was installed and the lancet window was opened up. It was re-opened for worship by the Venerable Archdeacon Henry Du Boulay. Until 1845 it was the parish church of East Looe; an early vicar was Sir William de Bodrygan (1280), one of the family of lords who granted that town its early privileges. The south aisle was once reserved to the townspeople, close to the pews where sat the mayor and corporation. the parclose screen (1612) was due to the Langdons of Keverell whose squire used the squint to watch the preacher.
There is a Norman doorway and a Norman font and wagon roofs of the 15th century. There is a fine collection of modern carved woodwork, including the choir stalls, the benches in the nave and a memorial to an officer who served in India.
The public source identifies “St Martin's Church, St Martin-by-Looe” as church in Cornwall, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Martin's, Church and Martin-by-Looe.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “St Martin's Church, St Martin-by-Looe”, the useful work is to connect “church in Cornwall, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17529463. Authority coordinates are 50.369, -4.448. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1907, 2025 and 1845.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “St Martin's Church, St Martin-by-Looe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.