The isolated Cornish village of Warleggan, which lent its name to the eponymous villain of the Poldark series, was briefly famous in the 1950s following the incumbency of Rev. F W Densham.
Rev Densham drove his parishioners away with his unique style and within a year was preaching to an empty church on a weekly basis, immortalised by his own notes in the register "no fog, no wind, no rain, no congregation".
Undeterred, he allegedly used cardboard cut-outs of people with the names of former vicars on them to "flesh" out the congregation.
It is said that the vicar's ghost still haunts the vicarage where he died...
Nowadays, the church is much better attended and the village has been twinned with Narnia, in celebration of its isolation and otherworldly atmosphere.
The church tower was in a very poor state when the church applied to Valencia Communities Fund to help make it water-tight and renovate the interior, which resembled a lush jungle rather than a church tower. The tower was repointed and the flora removed, resulting in an impressive transformation.
I wonder what Rev Densham would have thought of it?
