The name St. Allen is that of a local Celtic saint variously spelt-Alune and Allun. In very recent years, the patronal festival, following the mediaeval precedent, has been kept on 22nd February, but for centuries Rogation Sunday was observed as St Allen feast.
Parish boundaries having been drawn 1000 years ago the church of St.Allen has been a parish for that length of time . The church is therefore older than the parish. The early history is obscure but certain names which have come down to us upon which the foregoing speculations have been based: Venton-Allen or St Allen's well, and Eglos-Allen the name of a large field at Tretherres and which once constituted the Rectories Glebe. The evidence for the Celtic life in the parish is confirmed by four Celtic crosses, which have been found within its boundaries. It was customary to mark a Sacred Site by the erection of a Celtic cross. Many of our churchyards posses these crosses which were erected before the parish church was built. A former vicar discovered that of St.Allen buried outside the south porch.
1066 to 1150-Cornwall was not divided into parishes until the Norman conquest, when the Celtic and Saxon churches were rebuilt and areas of tithes were awarded to each church by the new lords of the Manor. The widespread supposition that the state granted tithes is quite erroneous- they were the gifts of pious landowners.
1066- at the time of the conquest St Allen was part of the great Manor of Cargoll. The capital of the Manor was in Newlyn, and the Manor also covered parts of the parishes of Crantock and St Erme. It was originally the property of the monks of St Petroc at Bodmin, and was seized by Count Robert of Mortain, half brother to the Norman William. He presented it to one of his Barons, Reginald de Valle Torta, Lord of Trematon Castle. The ruins of Trematon Castle are seen from the train on the north side of the line between St.Germans and Saltash.
12th century- The first church was probably built around this time and consisted of a nave and a chancel only. The most ancient feature of the present building is a blocked-up Norman Doorway in the north aisle.
1261-The first recorded incumbent is Master William de Capella who was instituted on Christmas Eve of this year.
1269-Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, purchased the Manor of Cargoll from Roger de Valletort and with it the advowson of St.Allen Church.
Walter Bronescombe
This great bishop, known as "Walter the Good" founded Glasney College in response to a vision of St.Thomas a Beckett who commanded him thus to do. As Lord of the Manor of Cargoll he fixed his capital at Lanner Barton in the parish of St. Allen (where Bishops had a Chapel of St Martin. Its altar piece (14th century) is at Tretherras.) and planted Bishop's Wood. St Allen had suddenly become an important place. From 1269 to 1328 the great Bishops of Exeter, Bronescombe, Quival, Stapledon and Grandisson, paid frequent visits. The Chapel of the Manor was the scene of an ordination in 1321. We have little idea now of the magnificence of these men, of there temporal as well as spiritual power and the trains of followers they brought with them on their visits. In later centuries many sqires and yeomen made their homes in the parish, this brought employment, and perhaps many more people lived near St Allen church than is the case today.
1287-18th December The Bishop Quival appropriated the rectory at St Allen to Glasney College, but reserved the Rectors life interest.
1314-May 7th- The Rector died and St.Allen got its first vicar Thomas de Karrynecke
The incumbents have been vicars. The word vicar means "substitute". It was a common custom in the Middle Ages for churches to be appropriated to monasteries and colleges.
13th century - Near the Tower (with its parapet and turret, which is unusual in Cornwall) are fragments of a very fine tombstone from this period.
The tower contains three bells; one is mediaeval, and the others dte from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
A mediaeval corbel may be seen on the east wall of the south aisle.
Before the extensions and alterations of the fifteenth century (which brought the south aisle), the chancel extended a few feet further east; some evidence for this may be found in the fact that the piscina now touches the east wall.
In the 15th century the Bevilles of Gwarnick added the South Aisle. The Font could be the base of a 15th century cross, the socket having been enlarged.
1531-Alexander Barclay was vicar of St Allen.
1538-Lanner Barton was let to tenant farmers, but to this day Bishop's Wood reminds us of the glory that departed.
The most handsome piece of furniture in the church is the reading desk or priests stall which dates from the first half of the seventeenth century.
1604-On the south wall is a board with the words of the Apostles Creed painted on it. Boards containing the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer would once have matched this, the canons of this year required these to be set up at the east end of churches.
Also on this wall, a small picture of Blessed Alan de la Roche was a present from Brittany to this church.
1626-In the eastern-most window of the north wall of the nave there is an exceptionally fine incised slate slab in memory of John Martin, jnr.
1630-1687-James Rosington was vicar.
1657- There is a further slate slab in the floor bearing this date.
1660-High on the west wall is the Royal Coat of Arms.
The eighteenth century clergyman, Richard Buckland, kept a small notebook, now preserved in the county Record Office, which details of local conditions and farming in his time. He gave a full account of the parsonage house to the Bishop of Exeter in 1746, and said of the furniture in the church "there is a Cushion to the pulpit, a covering to the Communion Table of plush, and a Pall of black cloth". He went on to describe the communion plate.
1791-1793-Sir Henry Trelawny Bart was vicar.
1873-74-the church was extensively restored, at a cost of £550.
C F Lister Glover was rector from 1926 to 1958. He angered some parishioners by painting the woodwork; fashions have swung to and fro in the matter of colour in churches, but for the first half of this century, painted pews were not popular in St Allen. The Rector always wore a black biretta, white gloves and a long black cassock, while his wife rode very sedately in the rear seat of the car wearing a large ornate hat. For many years of his incumbency, congregations at the services rarely rose above single figures.
Glover was the last resident incumbent at St Allen. For some years, the living was held with St Erme. More recently, a non-stipendiary priest looked after the parish, followed by John Spence who had heavy diocesan responsibilities. In 1991, Kenwyn was united with St Allen.
1989-1990-Considerable restoration work was undertaken, which included the new vestibule room at the West End of the church, which can serve as a vestry, kitchen and meeting place. Such facilities are important for the continuing life of churches without adjacent halls, and certainly for this church in its remote position.
The principal settlement in the parish is, however, at Zelah. This village seems to have been once longer than it is now. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it had a school, Wesleyan and United Methodist Chapels and a Mission Church built in 1883. This church, because of the remoteness of St Allen, was used for evening services, especially in winter, and for weekday events such as classes of all kinds, missionary and other lectures. The main road –later the busy A30-passed through Zelah until 1992, but the creation of a by-pass was to late to save the remaining Methodist Chapel and the shop. The school had long since closed, and the mission church had been disused for some years.
Note.
The display table in the vestibule was once the Altar at Zelah Mission.
An Elizabethan communion table which once stood in the vestibule has now been restored to its original use in the chapel which has been formed at the end of the south aisle. This almost certainly replaced an older altar at the time of the reformation.