Breage

Pronounced to rhyme with ‘Haig’, Breage is renowned above all for the 15th century wall paintings in its St Breaca Parish Church. The building too dates from the same time and this remarkable set of murals, which feature such subjects as St Christopher and Christ blessing the trades, lay beneath a layer of whitewash until the 1890s. They are thought to be the work of monks who travelled the country decorating churches in this way as a form of religious education. Somehow they have survived being painted over countless times since the Reformation. In the north aisle there is a rare Roman milestone from the 3rd century AD that provides evidence that the Roman occupiers extracted tin here for their own use.

The whole area surrounding the village became one of the richest mining districts in Cornwall. Tregonning Hill, nearby, was where William Cookworthy discovered china clay in the mid-1740s.

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