Week St Mary

Week St Mary is a village and civil parish in north-east Cornwall, situated south of Bude near the River Tamar and the Devon border. The parish covers 6,123 acres. The 2011 census recorded a population of 657.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as “Wich” - the word “Week” being an Anglo-Saxon form of the Latin “vicus,” meaning dairy farm or village. The manor was granted to Richard Fitz Turold, steward of the Earl of Cornwall, Robert of Mortain. St Mary is the dedication of the village church, which has a granite tower standing 99 feet high including its pinnacles. The tower was struck by lightning in 1878, throwing one of the pinnacle’s base stones 20 feet from the structure.

Just west of the village is Ashbury, a flat-topped circular hill surrounded by earthworks from a prehistoric Iron Age fort. The open countryside around Week St Mary is typical of this part of Cornwall - high, exposed farmland with long views towards Dartmoor to the east and the coast to the west.

Bude, with its beaches and surf breaks, is roughly seven miles to the north. The village has a strong tradition of community activity, with several local clubs and groups. Week St Mary suits visitors looking for a genuinely rural base in a part of Cornwall that sees far fewer tourists than the more popular stretches of coast.