Church Of Saint Winwaloe

Church of Saint Winwaloe

A church dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, with substantial re-roofing around 1869–71 and restoration work by Sedding. The walls are built in shale rubble with granite dressings.

The building comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, with north and south aisles, a south porch, and a rood stair projection to the south aisle. The roof structure consists of three parallel sections with two valleys, all finished in grouted dry Delabole slate with coped gable ends. A detached tower stands separately.

The west gable end of the nave survives from the original church, possibly pre-dating 1400. The west wall displays three gables, with the central nave gable containing a 19th-century three-light Perpendicular-style window in freestone. The south aisle gable has a late 15th or early 16th-century two-light window with round-headed lights. The north aisle gable carries a 19th-century freestone two-light window with ogee-headed lights, copying originals on the north wall.

The north wall of the north aisle is entirely 15th-century work, featuring original windows and a four-centred moulded arched doorway with a 19th-century door. A holy water stoup recess is set in the right-hand jamb. To the left of the doorway are three windows and to the right one window, all displaying two trefoil and ogee-headed lights with a quatrefoil above. The east wall has three gable ends with a projecting central nave gable. The east window of the north aisle gable is a 15th-century three-light Perpendicular window with bulbous carved cusps. The chancel window is a 19th-century freestone copy of the south aisle east window and those to the south wall, all featuring three four-centred nearly round-headed lights with the central light taller and enclosed within a shallow outer four-centred arch.

The south wall contains four windows: one to the left of the porch, one to the right of the stair turret, and two closely spaced between the porch and stair turret. The porch has a wide late Perpendicular doorway with octagonal panelled jambs and a moulded basket arch. A mounting block stands at the left of the doorway. The inner doorway has casement moulding to its splayed jambs.

The interior displays fine 15th-century waggon roofs to the porch and south aisle, featuring carved wallplates, under-purlins and ribs (though the west end of the aisle has plain purlins and ribs). The nave is flanked by five-bay arcades on either side, adjoining the aisles. The arcade piers are of standard A type (following Pevsner's classification), with moulded and carved capitals and steep four-centred arches. The nave roof is 19th-century arch-braced work. The north aisle roof is also 19th-century, of coupled rafter construction but incorporating a surviving 15th-century carved oak wallplate. A round-headed doorway leads to the newel rood stair. The chancel contains a piscina, and the east wall of the north aisle has a small niche. Some 19th-century coloured glass appears in the east windows.

Two fonts are present: one Norman example in Pentewan stone with a round bowl carved with a stylized tree of life over a round shaft and moulded base; the other with a granite octagonal bowl, probably 15th-century. Two oak inner doors each incorporate four painted panels depicting the eight apostles with Perpendicular tracery above, reused from the rood screen and traditionally said to have been fashioned from wreckwood of "The St Anthony of Lisbon" (or "Padua"), wrecked at Gunwalloe on 19 January 1527 whilst en route from Flanders to Portugal. Parclose screens, stalls, benches and an oak pulpit are 19th-century work by Messrs. Read of Exeter.