A new book 'England's Thousand Best Churches', the result of 10 years of research by the author, Simon Jenkins, has put St Neot joint top with Launceston in the 30 Cornish churches to make the list, and in the best 100 in the whole country.
In a star rating of one to five St Neot's Parish Church gained four, there being only 12 five stars achieved nationwide, and the author described the building as containing the principal treasure of Cornish religious art and second only to fairford (Gloucs) in the completeness of its medieval glass. He said the interior was an inside out casket in which rays of daylight, whether sunny or grey, are transformed by glass into a moving kaleidoscope of tone.
Launceston was described as the premier church of Cornwall in the former county capital, its carved wall decoration unparalleled in England.
Other churches in South East Cornwall to make the list were Altarnun, Blisland and St Germans (***), Lanteglos by Fowey (**) and Golant and St Winnow (*).
Talking about Cornish churches in general the author says that as a group they are the oldest, smallest and most distinctive in England, being founded by Celtic missionaries from Wales and Ireland and rebuilt by Normans.
He speaks of the magnificence of the woodcarvings, saying the craftsmen in the county met the challenge of oak as masons elsewhere met that of stone, using as their canvas the ends of parishioners' benches.
He described the 79 bench ends at Altarnun church as among the best in Cornwall.
There are more than 15,000 churches in England, and from the top 1,000 chosen from 40 counties, Cornwall was placed eleventh overall.
Beautifully illustrated with photographs from the Country Life archive, and published by Allen Lane The Penguin Press, the book is available in hardback at £25.