Church Of Saint Anthony

Church of Saint Anthony

This is a parish church of exceptional interest, combining medieval foundations with significant 15th-century remodelling and 19th-century restoration. The building is constructed of granite ashlar for the tower and dressed granite for most openings, with shale rubble walls elsewhere. The roofs are covered in scantle slate with many handmade crested clay ridge tiles dating from the 17th to 18th centuries, all terminating in gable ends; the south transept roof features dressed granite coping.

The church likely had a cruciform plan in the 12th to 13th centuries, with a 12th-century font and south transept surviving from this period. Parts of the south wall may also date to the 13th century. A porch was added soon after the medieval period. The tower and north aisle are products of the late 15th century, whilst significant remodelling occurred in the 15th century generally and substantial restoration work took place in the 19th century. A rood stair turret on the north wall was remodelled as a doorway, probably in the 17th century. The 19th-century work included replacement of the south windows and the addition of buttresses to both north and south walls.

The 3-stage west tower, dating to the 15th century, is embattled and pinnacled, and remains complete and unaltered. It features a 4-centred moulded west doorway with square hoodmould and flat relieving arch, dated to circa the 17th or 18th centuries, with a 2-panel door beneath. Above this is a 3-light Perpendicular window with coloured glass, largely repaired. The second stage is blind, whilst the third stage has 3-light louvred Perpendicular windows on each side. Near the south-west corner of the tower stands the resited remains of a medieval holed cross head with a carved face on one side.

The north aisle contains 15th-century granite Perpendicular windows. Those at either end are arched, whilst those to the north wall are square-headed; all feature cinquefoil headed lights with hood moulds. The west gable end window has quatrefoils in its tracery. The 3-light east window also features tracery and coloured glass. The north wall contains one window to the left of the stair turret and two to the right, separated by 19th-century weathered granite ashlar buttresses. The turret itself has a circa early 17th-century Tudor arched doorway.

The chancel features a 3-light Perpendicular east window with tracery and coloured glass. The south wall, buttressed with two 19th-century additions, contains a single light window between buttresses with an old jamb to one side and a resited arch stone above, possibly representing a remodelling of an original 13th-century window. Near the angle with the south transept is a 2-light 19th-century window. The south transept, probably remodelled in the 15th century and partly rebuilt in the 19th century, has a 19th-century 3-light traceried granite window in early Perpendicular style in its south gable end.

A porch adjoins the left-hand angle of the transept. To its left, on the south wall of the nave, is a 2-light 19th-century Perpendicular style window. The porch's outer doorway has rubble jambs supporting a 2-centred chamfered freestone arch, possibly of 13th-century date or resited from elsewhere. The inner doorway is 15th-century, moulded, and 4-centred with an almost basket-arched form. Stone benches flank either side of the porch, and a holy water stoup is set into the east wall.

Interior

The interior displays remarkable 15th-century waggon roofs over the nave, chancel, and north aisle, featuring carved wallplates, ribs, and purlins, with plastering between them. The walls are also plastered. A 5-bay arcade separates the nave and chancel from the north aisle, with steep 4-centred 2-ordered arches resting on octagonal piers. A similar arch leads to the south transept on corbelled imposts. A basket-arched doorway serves the rood stair, and the east window of the north aisle has a rear arch. A niche in the north wall of the chancel may occupy the position of an original 13th-century window.

Fittings and Monuments

The church retains a 15th-century round inscribed granite font with angel carvings; nearby is the base of the 12th-century font. Painted on the north wall is a Royal Coat of Arms, flanked by the Ten Commandments to the left and the Creed to the right, with the Lord's Prayer below. The chancel east window was glazed in 1890 by A.P. and J.G. Vivian of Bosahan. The north aisle east window is a memorial to John and Mary Roberts, dating to 1890. Most other fittings are of 19th-century date. A notable monument on the west wall of the south transept commemorates Humphry Millet Grylls of Bosahan, who died in 1834 aged 44.

Setting

Sited near the mouth of the beautiful Gillan Creek almost on the shoreline, this church has survived less altered than most since the 15th century. The waggon roofs are particularly remarkable.