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The old mother church of East Looe is tucked into the shelter of the hillside below the main road to Widegates This is a fine church, largely 15th century but with some vestiges of the Norman cruciform building which once stood here.

It's wonderful Norman north doorway, dating from around 1140, is somewhat spoiled by an ugly Victorian porch; inside there is a partly-Norman font. There is much good woodwork to be seen, from the original wagon roofs to a feast of modern carving in pews and roodscreen.

Dedicated to St. Nectan, or Nighton, a Celtic hermit beheaded by pagan robbers in the 7th century, this tiny chapel has served the northern part of St. Winnow parish since before 1284. The building has undergone many changes: enlargements made in the last century were removed in the 1970's and the present chapel formed out of the old structure. It is still in regular use in the summer.

St. Pinnock's fine yellow-lichened tower can be seen from afar, nestling amongst the remote hills and plunging valleys that surround the West Looe River. A tiny peaceful church town huddles around this small church which is now mostly 15th century and was heavily restored in 1882.

Typically Cornish this stout, strong church stands high above the Fowey River with just a few cottages for company. The Norman cruciform church was enlarged, like so many others, in the 14th and 15th centuries and thoroughly restored in the 19th; the effect today is of rural simplicity, unadorned and light.

St. Veep is renowned above all for its maiden bells - a complete ring of six bells which came from their moulds in perfect tune and have never had to be tuned - thought to be unique in England. They were cast in 1770 “in the stillness of the night” in a meadow opposite the church.

The glory of St. Winnow is its position; ancient hallowed ground on the banks of the Fowey River with little of the modern age intruding to spoil the peace of centuries.

Nothing but the holy site itself remains of the simple oratory perhaps founded by St. Winnoc in the 7th century and little remains of the Norman church which succeeded it; St. Winnow is now largely 15th century and has been blessed with an unusually careful restoration.

The interior is made dark and warm by the wealth of old woodwork in roofs, benches and screen; there is an air of reverent grandeur here not often found in Cornish churches.

Huddled into a hillside to shelter from the sea on a lonely stretch of coastline, Talland is the mother church of West Looe and Polperro. Approach through the cramped churchyard along a path lined with slate headstones, the first sight of the detached tower is quite a shock. The lower storey of this tower is possibly 13th century, as are three lancet windows behind the organ in the west wall. A late 15th century wagon-roof porch links the tower to the church. The interior is light and simple; dominated, quite rightly, by the marvellous 15th and 16th century benches. Pevsner writes that " the church is very completely pewed ".

Cornwall - maritime County of England, forming its SW extremity; is bounded by Devon on the East, and washed on all the other sides by the sea; length, NE and SW, 75 miles; average breadth, 22 miles; coast line, about 200 miles; area, 863,065 acres, population 330,686. The South coast is much and deeply indented, and has some good harbours.