View source for Looe

===Early churches===
Some time before 1144, [[Order of Saint Benedict|the Order of Saint Benedict]] occupied [[Looe Island]], building a chapel there, and the monks established a rudimentary lighthouse service using [[beacon]]s. Another chapel was founded on an opposite hillside just outside West Looe; both are now marked only by ruins.

The parish church of East Looe was at [[St Martin by Looe]] but there was a [[chapel of ease]] in the town. [[St Mary's Church, East Looe]] was dedicated in 1259 by [[Walter Bronscombe]], [[Bishop of Exeter]]. The church was largely rebuilt in 1806 and again in 1882, with the oldest surviving part being the 15th-century tower. The church closed in the 1980s and the building has now been converted to residential use. On the centre of the bridge in medieval times stood the Chapel of St Anne, dedicated in 1436.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orme |first1=Nicholas |title=The Saints of Cornwall |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780191542893 |page=49 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Saints_of_Cornwall/JxIjiMStTKIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=anne%20chapel%20looe%201436&pg=PA64&printsec=frontcover |access-date=19 September 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Church in Looe.jpg|thumb|[[St Nicholas' Church, West Looe]]]]
West Looe comprised part of the [[parish]] of [[Talland]] since the early [[Middle Ages]], but a chapel of ease, [[St Nicholas' Church, West Looe]] was extant before 1330 when it is recorded as being further endowed and enlarged. After spells as a [[Guildhall|common hall]] and a schoolhouse, this building has reverted to its original ecclesiastical use, having been substantially restored in 1852, 1862 and 1915.<ref name="Cornish Church Guide 1925 pp. 148-49">''Cornish Church Guide'' (1925) Truro: Blackford; pp. 148-49</ref>