Church Of St Melor

Church of St Melor

This is a parish church dating from the late 15th century, substantially restored in 1891. It is built of granite ashlar with granite dressings and slate roofs.

The church is planned with a nave and chancel in one, a north aisle, a west tower, and a south aisle with south porch added in the late 15th century after the rest of the building was completed.

The west tower rises in four stages with setback buttresses, string courses and a moulded plinth. It is topped with an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The west door features a 4-centred arch with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a hood mould, with a 19th-century door fitted with strap hinges. Above this is a 4-light window with Perpendicular tracery, a 4-centred arch and hood mould. The third stage has a single cusped light. At the fourth stage, all sides are pierced by 3-light bell openings with cusped lights and pierced slate ventilators, Perpendicular tracery, 4-centred arches and hood moulds. On the south side of the tower is a slate sundial with gnomon, dated 1725, and a single light at the second stage.

The chancel stands at a lower roof level than the nave and has a 5-light east window with Perpendicular tracery, 4-centred arch and hood mould.

The north aisle sits on a moulded plinth with single buttresses and weathered buttresses. Its east end has a 4-light window similar to the chancel. Five bays run along the north side, each with 3-light windows featuring cusped lights, 4-centred arches and hood moulds. A rood stair with a lancet light lies between the two eastern bays. The western bay has a 4-centred arched doorway with quatrefoils in the spandrels and hood mould, with a similar 3-light window to its west end.

The south porch occupies the western bay of the south aisle. It has a moulded plinth not continuous with the aisle plinth and setback buttresses. The outer doorway is a tall 4-centred arch with cable mouldings and hood mould supported by jamb shafts, fitted with 19th-century cast and wrought-iron gates. The porch interior has a slate floor and a 15th-century wagon roof with moulded ribs and purlins. A granite bench runs along the right side. The inner doorway is also 4-centred and arched, with roll-mouldings and foliate spandrels; a relieving arch above marks an earlier doorway. The plank door with strap hinges dates to around the 16th century.

Interior

The plaster has been removed from the walls, and slate floors cover the floor surfaces. The nave has an 8-bay wagon roof; both north and south aisles have 9-bay wagon roofs, all dating from the 15th century with bosses and carved wall-plates. The chancel has a similar 19th-century wagon roof. The tower interior has a framed ceiling with moulded ribs and bosses. Both north and south arcades contain five bays with Pevsner A-type piers with carved abaci and 4-centred arches; the tower arch is similar.

The north aisle contains a basket-arched doorway to the rood stair and a stone newel stair. The south aisle has a cusped piscina in its south wall.

Fittings include 19th-century pews in the chancel and a 19th-century wooden pulpit in the nave. A 13th-century font of polyphant stone stands in the nave, with a square top decorated with narrow pointed blank arcades. An early 18th-century altar table with baluster legs occupies the south aisle. Stocks are preserved in the south porch. Wall paintings depicting the Seven Corporeal Works of Mercy, dating from the late 15th century, appear in the south aisle.

Monuments

The nave contains a slate ledger stone to Frances Hooper (1704) and another to William ... (1633).

The chancel holds a marble sarcophagus on slate ground to James Coffin (1855), a marble tablet to Thomas Coffin (1809), and a slate tablet with coat of arms to George Jeffery (1780).

The south aisle displays a slate ledger stone to John Digory (1774), a slate tablet to John Foott (1768), and monuments in the south porch to Philippe Ball (1778), Mary Dingley (1816), and Edward Broadlake (1717).

The north aisle contains a slate tablet with putti to Mary Davey (1760), tablets to James Dingley (1780), John Dingley (1772), and Thomas Congdon Browda (1748), a slate monument with pilasters and entablature surmounted by a rounded pediment with mask and pair of crowned skulls with Latin inscription to Edward Kneebone (1685), and a marble monument with draped urn to Richard Salteen (1708).

Glass

All windows are fitted with lattice glazing. Fragments of 15th-century glass survive in two windows of the south aisle and two windows of the north aisle.