St Brueredus Parish Church, St Breward

The parish church of St Bureredus serves the village of St Breward, which is located in a lonely spot on the edge of Bodmin Moor. Although the church has Norman origins, it was developed by William Briueve, Bishop of Exeter 1224-1245 and also added to in the fifteenth century.

In the north side of the nave at St Brewards, the basic church plan has been elaborated through the addition of ailes, which are divided from the nave by arcade of pillars. Their function in church worship is unclear unless it was to enable processions to take place, but they certainly gave a church status since they were more expensive to build and called to mind the processional nave aisles of the larger religious houses.

In 1281, a visitation from two clergy of Exeter Cathedral reported on the state of eight of its churches and one of its chapels. In this visit, St Breward was reported to have 'unsatisfactory' windows which made the chancel dark. However in 1331 a similar report was produced and St Breward was one of the only two churches (the other being Gwinear), that were 'judged to be more or less satisfactory'.