Church Of St Gluvias

Church of St Gluvias, Penryn

Parish church comprising a 15th-century west tower, much of the remainder rebuilt and remodelled in 1883 by the architect Piers St Aubyn. The church is constructed in granite ashlar, coursed dressed granite and granite rubble with freestone dressings. The roofs are dry Delabole slate with crested ridge tiles. The tower is built in coursed local rubble with granite and freestone dressings.

The plan consists of a 15th-century west tower with a north-west stair turret, north wall, and the east ends of the north and south aisles, all surviving from the medieval period. The 1883 work added a new nave, chancel, south wall, a later south porch, and vestry extensions flanking the tower.

The Perpendicular three-stage embattled tower has angle buttresses and a stair turret at its north-west corner. A 15th-century pointed granite doorway is fitted with a 19th-century planked door and strap hinges. Above this is a 19th-century freestone three-light traceried window, with 15th-century two-light windows to the upper stage of the tower. String courses divide the stages.

The north wall is divided into six bays by buttresses, each bay containing 19th-century three-light traceried windows set into 15th-century openings. A 15th-century pointed arched moulded freestone doorway features a square hoodmould with carved stops and quatrefoils to the spandrels. Many inscriptions decorate this wall. A similar west window is present, alongside taller three-light projecting gabled windows at the east ends of the aisles flanking the projecting chancel with its large three-light east window.

The south wall contains a porch at the far left with a pointed doorway featuring quatrefoils to the spandrels. Five bays with windows similar to those of the west wall extend across the wall. Two buttresses and a round-headed priest's doorway are positioned between the right-hand windows.

The interior features 19th-century six-bay pointed-arched freestone arcades between the nave and aisles, with plastered or painted walls. The 19th-century wagon roofs include a choir and chancel roof incorporating 15th-century carved ribs from the former roof. The east wall of the north aisle contains two niches, each with an arcade of three pointed arches and a pair of round-arched niches, possibly a very early feature that was resited or evidence that this wall is part of a very early structure.

Other early fragments include a 15th-century piscina in the porch and a pointed-arched aumbry at the east end of the south aisle.

The 19th-century fittings include an octagonal freestone font with quatrefoils on a granite base; an octagonal oak pulpit on a moulded freestone base; an organ loft on four Tuscan columns at the west end of the south aisle; sedilia on three brackets in the chancel; pitch pine pews with shaped ends, one inscribed "This church restored AD 1882-3, Michael Jenkin Lavin, Mayor"; a floor of reset slate headstones; and a brass lectern with an eagle. Painted boards from 1841 record the bequests and benefactions of Richard Ludgie (1722-1733 and 1735), John Verran (1758), and Thomas Lukey (1612).

The church contains many fine quality monuments. A brass and slate monument to Thomas Killigrew from 1484 depicts his wife, missing brasses probably for sons, six daughters and shields. A large plaster and slate monument in four parts flanks and fills the jambs of the east window of the south aisle. The eastern part is framed by Ionic columns and surmounted by family crests; two on the right retain original scrolled brackets with cherubs. The panels commemorate members of the Pendarves family: Samuel Pendarves of Roscrow (died 1643), William (son of John and Bridget Pendarves), Grace (wife of Samuel, died 1662), Walter (son of John and Bridget, died 1663), William of Roscrow (died 1670), and Ann (his wife, died 1643).

On the south wall is a plaster aedicule with broken pediment and marble shelf on bracket with lion's head flanking a cherub, commemorating Samuel Ennys of Ennys (now Enys, St Gluvias) (1611-1697) and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Samuel Pendarves of Roscrow (1618-1705). A marble and slate obelisk to Thomas Enys of Enys (died 1802, aged 30) is also located here.

The north wall contains a slate aedicule with a wigged bust and drapes between Corinthian columns to J Kempe (died 1711); a marble cartouche with skull at bottom to John Collier Clerk (died 1691, aged 3); and a similar cartouche to William Worth (died 1689, aged 55).

A large French mosaic reredos depicting saints serves as a memorial to Archbishop Philpotts. Memorial windows are present in the east window of the north aisle (to Lilian Mary Plaice and Frederick Dennis Bruce, Vicar 1915-1927), the east window of the chancel (to Louisa Philpotts, died 1871), and the east window of the south aisle.