Church Of St Mary Immaculate, Gate Piers And Statue Of The Mother And Child

Church of St Mary Immaculate, Gate Piers and Statue of the Mother and Child

This Roman Catholic church is constructed of Killas rubble stone with granite stone dressings. The tower and its roof are covered with dressed granite tiles, while the other roofs are slate-covered with coped gables at the west end.

The church is orientated approximately west to east and comprises a nave with an apsidal chancel; north and south aisles, each with small apses at the east end; a square tower at the south-east corner with a round stair turret to its south-west corner; the organ positioned at the base of the tower; a south Lady Chapel; a south porch; a south-west former baptistery; a north vestry; and a single-storey passageway to the north aisle that links the church with the presbytery. A crypt runs beneath the nave, which was formerly used as a school and is now used for storage and as a pre-school (as of 2013).

The exterior has a deliberately irregular appearance with varied eaves lines, window sizes and types. The east end displays the chancel apse with an arcade of round arches, flanked on either side by two smaller apses featuring cinquefoil windows. All three apses have conical roofs with slate coverings. At the south-east corner stands the square tower with spire and round stair turret, divided into three stages. The first stage is square, with three tall windows with round-arched heads and flat-headed slit windows above; the second stage is octagonal with lancet windows; the third stage is cylindrical, featuring an arcade of round-arched louvered lights and a conical roof with lucarnes. The south elevation includes an octagonal former baptistery at its west end with offset buttresses and trefoil windows, a south porch with a two-centred arched doorway and trefoil window above, and the adjacent Lady Chapel. The west end has a two-centred arch doorway with a rose window above, and the north and south aisles to either side. A two-storey addition housing the vestry extends from the east end of the north elevation; at its west end are two north aisle windows, beneath which are arched openings to the crypt. A single-storey passageway extends from the north aisle to the south elevation of the presbytery, featuring two trefoil windows in granite surrounds.

The interior has plain plastered walls and an arch-braced and scissor-braced roof springing from wooden corbels in the nave. The nave roof is higher than the aisle roofs to accommodate clerestory windows. The seven-bay arcades comprise equilateral two-centred arches on round columns with octagonal capitals. Either side of the chancel are a pair of two-centred arched openings with two central colonnettes. To the south side of the chancel is a piscina with a trefoil head. The former baptistery to the south-west was not inspected.

Notable fittings include a polished granite altar to the chancel with a seven-bay arcade with trefoil heads, erected by the Freeman family. Above the altar is a painted canopy by Fr Norris, commissioned by Canon Cantell. An octagonal granite pulpit and a small octagonal freestone font at the east end of the south aisle are present. A polished granite altar and reredos in the Romanesque style serve the Lady Chapel. Carved wooden statues depict the Sacred Heart, Our Lady and St Joseph, and Our Lady and St Bernadette in the Lourdes Grotto, along with wooden reliefs of the Stations of the Cross.

The sanctuary windows were given by two sisters, Jane H. Sturgeon Coleman (née Polglase) and Amelia Billar Polglase, and depict nine events of the Paschal Mystery. Windows in the Lady Chapel were given in memory of the wife of William George Freeman, a benefactor of the church. The glass in the rose window was given in memory of T. H. Horsford and his wife, who died in 1897. Two windows in the former Sacred Heart chapel, now the baptistery, were given by Canon Cantell and made by Fr Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey in 1948, depicting the living water running from the heart of the dead Christ and the Elizabethan martyr Cuthbert Mayne.

Outside the church are a pair of granite stone gate piers with pyramidal caps to the south side. A stone statue of the Mother and Child is located outside the west entrance, though it was formerly positioned in the Lady Chapel.