Church Of The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Week St Mary

A parish church of substantial size and architectural importance, largely built in the Perpendicular style with elements spanning from the 13th century onwards. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower, and a south porch. The 14th-century south arcade survives, while the aisles date to the 15th century. The late 15th and early 16th centuries saw the addition of the porch and tower. Some chancel masonry appears to be 13th-century work. The building underwent substantial restoration by the architect James P St Aubyn between 1876 and 1881.

The structure is built largely of slatestone, polyphant, and Ventergan rubble with granite dressings, except the tower which is constructed of granite ashlar. The roof is slate throughout. The aisle arcades are notable, with five bays each, and two bays extending into the chancel.

The three-stage west tower is a particularly fine feature, unbuttressed and battlemented. It is ornamented with a band of carving on the plinth and above and below each of the three moulded string-courses. The plinth carving includes mouchettes in roundels, Stars of David, crosses, and pots of lilies, similar in style to Jacobstow but with additional variations. The upper stages display bands of lozenges above the string-courses. A shallow moulded arch frames the west doorway, surmounted by a square-headed hood mould with quatrefoils carved in the spandrels. Above this doorway is a three-light Perpendicular window with a hood mould and band of lozenge decoration below the sill. A plain statue niche occupies the second stage, with a two-light belfry opening above. The north face features a sexafoil-headed niche with hood mould and engaged finial on the second stage, a three-light belfry opening, and slit openings to light the internal north-west stair. The south face is the show front, displaying an elaborate second-stage niche with vine-carved jambs and a three-sided canopy topped with an engaged crocketted pinnacle, and a three-light window to the belfry stage. A further statue niche appears on the east wall of the tower. The tower is crowned with crenellations and tall octagonal crocketted corbelled pinnacles terminating in crosses.

The south porch is gabled, with a moulded four-centred outer door arch of granite carried on engaged shafts with unusual bulbous capitals. The outer arch is square-headed with mouchettes carved in the spandrels. A sexafoil-headed niche with hood mould is set in the porch gable. The porch roof dates to the 19th century and is constructed as a panel and rib structure in wood. The inner door, probably 14th-century, is of deeply moulded polyphant with some evidence of unusual stops.

The aisle windows are in the three-light Perpendicular style with granite tracery; the east aisle windows are four-light. The east windows of the chancel are tall and sharply pointed, with two mullions, one transom, and no cusping. The north aisle features a moulded string and north door with a moulded arch and square head, ornamented with floral motifs in the spandrels. The door itself has moulded battens and studs. A three-sided north stair turret with a peaked granite cap completes this elevation. The south chancel door has a moulded triangular head and may date to the 14th century.

The interior arcades display notable variations. The south arcade to the nave features low polyphant piers of four shafts and four hollows with elaborate mouldings above the capitals and moulded arches. The north arcade and the two easternmost bays of the south arcade are constructed of granite with piers of hollows and shafts, moulded capitals, and four-centred shallow-moulded arches. The tower arch is of moulded granite, carried on moulded shafts and capitals.

The aisle roofs are unceiled waggon roofs with moulded ribs, foliage bosses, and vine-carved wall plates, with some late 19th-century renewal. The south aisle features flowers carved on the ribs, while the north aisle displays vine carving on the three easternmost bays. The nave roof is of late 19th-century date and is also an unceiled waggon roof.

The furnishings include choir stalls dating to 1891 and benches from 1926 to 1930. A font of probable 16th-century date is of granite, octagonal in form, with carvings similar to those on the tower decoration on each face. A pulpit has been assembled from panels of linenfold carving. A simple moulded piscina of 13th-century date survives in the chancel.

Among the memorials of note is a slate memorial to Humphry Sethick, who died in 1663, located in the vestry floor and inscribed with an angel. Another good slate memorial commemorates Margery Gayer, who died in 1679, and is fixed to the interior north wall. A Kempe window in the north aisle commemorates Bertha Hoskins, who died in 1884.

The second stage of the tower retains its original rough-plank floor. A watercolour of the church following the 1881 restoration is housed in the vestry. The bell chamber was not inspected at the time of listing. Plans exist to remove the partial ceiling in the chancel and to buttress the east wall.