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The church at St Erney, which is Grade 2* listed, is a small church with a squat tower. The earliest reference to the church, in 1269, gives its dedication as St Terni. Officially it is St Terninus – this is the Latinised version of Terni. Nothing is known about this saint although there is a saint in Brittany with a similar name. The plan of the land around the church suggests an early Christian site that could date back to Celtic times. The church, which originates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries, was the parish church of the parish of St Erney. Although it has had the same vicar as Landrake for centuries, old references suggest the two parishes worked more or less independently.
It seems, according to old histories of Cornwall, that the South wall of the church was rebuilt in about 1750 and the North wall in 1826. Major repairs were done in 1872, including reroofing. More work was done in 1901, including a new buttress for the tower. There are three bells. The earliest dates from about 1425. Only the two treble bells can be rung because the tenor bell is badly cracked.
According to the tithe redemption map of 1842, there was a field called chapel field near Markwell which was then a village including five farms. Therefore there may at one time have been a chapel in the parish of St Erney in addition to the church. We are not aware of any other information about this chapel, so it may not have been part of the Anglican church.
