---
title: "St Denys, St Dennis"
description: "Located in St Dennis, Cornwall. Built Late C14–C15; substantially rebuilt 1847; rebuilt after fire 1985–87. Diocese of Truro. Grade II*. Late medieval Cornish with C19 rebuilding style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Cornwall","St Dennis","Grade II*","Granite","Diocese of Truro"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-denys-st-dennis"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:44:59.342Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T18:59:19.473Z"
location: "St Dennis, Cornwall"
country: "England"
county: "Cornwall"
town: "St Dennis"
address: "Church Road, St Dennis, Cornwall, PL26 8BA"
postcode: "PL26 8BA"
built: "Late C14–C15; substantially rebuilt 1847; rebuilt after fire 1985–87"
denomination: "Church of England"
dedications: ["Denys"]
diocese: "Truro"
grade: "II*"
style: "Late medieval Cornish with C19 rebuilding"
materials: "Squared granite rubble with granite dressings; granite ashlar tower; slate roofs"
website: "http://www.stdennis.org.uk/community_church.html"
openingHours: "Open church, 10am to 3pm every first Saturday of the month."
parish: "St Dennis"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1327433"
gridReference: "SW 951 583"
accessNotes: "Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church"
---

# St Denys, St Dennis

St Denys stands inside a circular churchyard on an Iron Age hillfort above Goss Moor, Cornwall, in the Diocese of Truro. Historic England lists the church at Grade II* as a late fourteenth- to fifteenth-century parish church with a later fifteenth-century granite tower, substantially rebuilt in 1847 and again after a fire surveyed in 1987.

## Overview

The listing records nave and chancel in one, rebuilt in 1847 under a single gable with the south aisle, a south porch dated 1847, a nineteenth-century north aisle and a two-stage late fifteenth-century west tower of granite ashlar, without buttresses, with an embattled parapet, circular panelled pinnacles and a north stair turret. Fabric is squared granite rubble with granite dressings and a slate roof. The church occupies the site of an Iron Age hillfort; the circular churchyard follows the fort’s outline. The place-name may derive from Cornish *dinas* (fort) as well as from Denis, bishop of Paris.

Cornwall Historic Churches Trust notes a Norman church on the site by the late eleventh century, later appropriated with St Stephen-in-Brannel to St Michael Caerhays. The 1847 rebuild moved the south aisle arcade to Nanpean and spanned nave and aisle with one roof. An arson attack in 1985 gutted the interior, leaving tower and outer walls; the church reopened in 1987 after a community rebuild. The churchyard holds the bowl of a Norman circular font and a twelfth-century stone cross. The tower contains a historic ring of bells, the earliest dated about 1465.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1327433](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1327433)
- [Cornwall Historic Churches Trust: St Dennis](https://www.chct.info/histories/st-dennis/)