The parish church is the church of Sancta Menefreda, who is thought to have been one of the 24 children of St Brychan. Her first shrine in or near Tredrizzick was associated with a well. This may be the same as the Jesus well, which still exists. Its water was at one time credited with curative properties, and there was an ancient chapel there. The date of this shrine is unknown, but it must have existed some time during the 5th & 6th centuries. The wise Christian missionaries did not make clear break with the old religions but attempted gradually to assimilate and change the old beliefs. So in some districts Christian churches were built on the sites of pagan altars and St Menefreda’s church is an example. In the present churchyard have been found crude slate coffins, evidence of pre-Christian burials, possibly of the same date as the kistvaens on Dartmoor.
We know that a church stood on the present site in late Saxon times. It may have been no more than a wooden shrine. No evidence remains but there can be little doubt that, as with all wood buildings it was re-built several times.
Norman Church.
All that is left of the Norman Church are the octagonal slate pillars and arches on the north aisle, facing you as you enter.
Just inside the door, on the left, is a very interesting carved stone which was found in 1927 behind the plaster on the east wall. The authorities of the South Kensington Museum consider this to be the top half of a pillar piscina of Norman workmanship of the first half of the 12th century.
1255-Records show the name of the first Vicar of the parish. St Menefreda was the mother church with two chapelries of St Enodoc,Trebetherick, and St Michael, Porthilly, Rock. Both churches contain 13th century work.
1400-Is around the date given to the stocks that can be found in the porch. They were used as recent as the end of the eighteenth century when lent by the vicar for the punishment of two boys who had robbed an orchard. They were locked in them for three hours, the fathers of the boys having given written consent to avoid being fined by the Petty Sessions.
14th Century
The Porch was originally built in this period, however it was probably re-built about the time of Henry VII. Of the woodwork of this time, the wagon roof and carved pews remain.
Consecration Cross-On the right of the door, two feet above the handle and on the stone arch, is a small consecration cross. Look carefully for this, as its arms are less than two inches long. It was probably carved in the 14th century when the church was consecrated after extensive re-building.
15th Century
The greater part of the church dates from this period, when a vast amount of church building took place in Cornwall.
1604-On the left side of the North Aisle are slate panels of an altar tomb of the Stone family once owners of the manor of Trevigoe in this parish. The figure of the man was defaced, probably by the parliament troops during the Civil war.
1619-John Roe on the 20th September was granted the manor of Trewornan for £1,450 his memorial was erected in the chancel by Thomas Darell sheriff od Cornwall in 1666.
1717-St Minver has a copy Vinegar Bible of this date. These Bibles have the famous misprint in the page heading of chapter XX of St Luke, which reads The Parable of the Vinegar instead of the parable of the Vineyard. As the printers name was John Baskett and there were many misprints in this edition it has been called "a baskett full of errors"
1875-The tower and spire had to be pulled down and re-built. You will not the spire is leaning, a landmark for many miles.
1921-The beautiful carved oak reredos was given by the son of the Rev. Hart Smith, the Vicar who was mainly responsible for the restoration of St Minver, St Enodoc and St Michael’s churches from 1864 to 1871.
Note
There have been families recorded in the registers with names spanning 400 years. It is interesting to speculate that their ancestors were living here 1,500 years ago when St Menefreda set out to replace the worship of Odin and Thor with Christian worship.
In the north –east corner behind the pulpit can be found the upper half of a stone spiral staircase, which once gave access to the top of the screen. The remains of the chancel screen can be found renovated as a Belfry Screen.
The Communion Rails date from the time of Queen Anne.
On the floor of the South Aisle is the now famous brass the Latin inscription reads as follows
"Here lies the body of Roger Opy, son of Richard Opy and Elizabeth his wife, who was the daughter of John Carminow, knight, who died the 13th day of the month of January in the year of our Lord 1517, on whose soul may God have mercy. I shall not die but live declared the works of the Lord."
The empty matrices once contained shields charged with the arms of Opy and Carminow.
This is the first page of the marriage register. In the time of Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell ordered the keeping of registers of baptisms, marriages and burials. These had possibly been kept on loose sheets of paper. Queen Elizabeth repeated Cromwell’s edict in more vigorous terms and a provincial constitution of Canterbury in 1597 ordered that parchment registers brought by each parish and all the names from the older registers be copied in from the beginning, but especially from the first year of her reign. The first two registers of St Minver are such copies , obeying , as most parishes did, Queen Elizabeth’s edict, for they start from 1559.
War Memorial
The stone of the war memorial, of fine Cornish workmanship, was quarried at St Breward. This quarry provided the stone for the new London Bridge in the 1970’s.