Church Of St Willow

Church of St Willow

This is a parish church with Norman origins, though substantially reconstructed. The building retains traces of Norman work in the tower arches and in the jambs of the south doorway. A stone carved with a Chi-Rho symbol, built into the main doorway, was dated by Pevsner to the 8th century at latest. The church was largely reconstructed at the end of the 14th century with a new tower, nave, and north arcade. The south arcade dates to around the 15th century. The porch may have been rebuilt in the 17th century. The church underwent restoration by E H Sedding in 1904–5.

The building is constructed of rubblestone with granite dressings and has a slate roof, with the nave and chancel combined under a continuous roof. Both north and south aisles extend to the west end of the chancel. A single buttress appears on the south aisle, while the north aisle has three buttresses, two of which are stepped and one heightened with a chimney.

The south aisle contains a three-light Perpendicular west window with 19th-century restoration, set beneath a wide two-centred arch with hood and drips. To the west of the porch are two three-light Perpendicular windows with rectangular hoods and drips decorated with shields. To the east of the porch are three Perpendicular windows in four-centred arches: two four-light windows to the west and a three-light window to the east. The east windows of both north and south aisles have two-light Perpendicular windows with slight ogee-headed trefoils. An early-19th-century east window features decorated tracery with hood and drips. The east window of the north aisle is a three-light rectangular window with trefoil heads, possibly reset. The north aisle contains three four-light Perpendicular windows beneath four-centred arches with hoods.

The north door has a pointed, chamfered granite arch. A three-light rectangular Perpendicular window with hood and drips decorated with shields sits in a partly blocked opening to the west of the north door.

The unbuttressed tower rises in four stages and is topped with a battlemented cornice featuring crochetted finials. The tower's west window contains 19th-century decorated tracery of three lights. The belfry openings are three-light cusped openings with slate louvres, set within rectangular surrounds with hoods and pointed relieving arches above.

The south porch is gabled with a two-centred chamfered arch. A sundial sits above the porch. A round-headed holy water stoup is set in the east wall of the porch. The south door has chamfered jambs and bears three distinct crosses carved on them—two on the east jamb and one on the west.

The interior has five-bay arcades of octagonal piers in both north and south aisles. The north arcade, dating to around the 14th century, has octagonal piers on square bases with simple octagonal, slightly cushioned capitals and almost round arches. The south arcade, dating to around the 15th century, has moulded bases on square plinths with moulded octagonal capitals. A tall tower arch of simple double-chamfered section opens into the nave and aisles, with large engaged piers on its east side opening to the north and south aisles.

The roof throughout is original and unceiled, featuring waggon construction with chamfered ribs in the north aisle and moulded ribs in the nave and south aisle. Elaborated bench ends date to around 1500.

A font of approximately 13th-century date is constructed from Pentewan stone with a bowl featuring stiff-leaf carving. The bowl is supported on Purbeck marble detached shafts on rounded bases with heavy simple capitals. The bowl is hollowed octagonally inside—the only example of its kind in Cornwall.

Rood loft stairs are visible in the south aisle. A carved oak altar table, gifted by Baronet Mohun to the parish in 1634, sits in the chancel. The Lady Chapel contains an altar table designed by Sedding and an alabaster panel depicting the martyrdom of St Lawrence, fixed to the wall above. This panel was discovered during the restoration work.

Piscinas are present: a two-centred arch surrounds one in the Lady Chapel, while a rounded arch surrounds another in the south wall of the chancel. The chancel aisle is probably the Mohun Chapel. A tomb chest in a canopied recess in the south chancel aisle was built for Thomas Mohun, who supervised its construction. This dates to the late 15th century and was originally accompanied by a painting of the Resurrection on the wall above the tomb. The recess features dividing panels of round arches on decorated pilasters with foliage bands at the sides and heraldic arms in the centres. The panels are partly painted.

Two watercolours at the west end of the church, signed by Jane M Perceval and dated 1903, illustrate the church interior before restoration with box pews in place.

Early glass fragments survive in the east window of the south aisle, displaying heraldic shields and figures of the Nativity and the Annunciation. Further fragments appear in windows in the north aisle. The north and south chancel windows were created by Kemp and feature figures of Saints Prisca, Agnes, Sebastian, and Kabiam. The south aisle west window was executed by Kempe and Tower.

Stocks stand at the west end of the church.