Church Of St Cornelly

Church of St Cornelly

This parish church, dedicated to St Cornelly the patron saint of horned cattle, dates from the 13th to 18th centuries with significant restoration carried out in 1866 under the guidance of Piers St Aubyn. The church is built of slatestone rubble with granite dressings and Delabole slate roofs with coped gable ends, except to the chancel. The plan comprises a nave and chancel under one roof, with a west tower, a short north aisle, and a south porch.

The north wall of the nave contains a reset three-light granite window with cinquefoil headed lights and hoodmould, probably 15th century, with replaced mullions and jambs. To its right is a lancet window of 13th-century date, in situ, with the head cut from a single piece of granite. The walling is mostly 13th century but was rebuilt under the eaves with a 19th-century wall plate cornice. The north aisle at its east end dates to 1720 and was built over a tomb vault belonging to the Gregor family. A granite chimney with chamfered corners was added to the west gable in 1790, beneath which lies a slate grave slab inscribed in Latin to Francis Gregor. The slab probably commemorates an ancestor, with possible dates of 1661 or 1786. The east window of the aisle dates to 1720 and copies the chancel east window, bearing the initials F G (Francis Gregor) in label stops. A buttress stands between the chancel and aisle.

The east chancel window is a Perpendicular survivor, possibly dating from when the church was extended eastward in the 16th century or when the porch was rebuilt. The south window of the chancel has three lights with pointed heads under a rounded arch and is probably from the same period. A joint in the walling to the left possibly marks the original extent of the 13th-century church. The south porch has a four-centred rubble arch under a granite coped gable. The south wall of the nave has a two-light 15th-century granite window with cinquefoil headed lights to the left, and a similar three-light window to the right. The inner south door is pointed and may be 13th century, as is most of the south wall. The eaves walling and upper walling of the east and west gables form part of the 19th-century restoration.

The very slender and leaning west tower rises in three stages. The first stage is 13th-century slatestone rubble with an original west lancet window. The upper stages are of granite ashlar in reducing width, divided by moulded string cornices. An ogee-headed east window with slate louvres in the third stage suggests a 14th-century date, though the battlemented parapet and crocketed corner pinnacles are probably 15th or 16th century. The west window in the upper stage has been mutilated at the head.

The nave has 19th-century wagon roofs, but the chancel roof incorporates 15th-century wagon roof fragments with purlins, bracing and heavily carved bosses. The porch wagon roof, re-erected in the 17th century, includes some bosses from the main roof. Recesses in the north wall to the east of the lancet window and in the south wall of the nave to the east of the door probably held stoups. A further recess in the south wall of the chancel probably contained a piscina.

A segmental arched granite arcade of two bays between the north aisle and chancel dates to 1720 and features standard A-type responds and a pier. The north aisle sits at a slightly higher level. The granite rear arch and jambs to the 15th-century window in the north wall are in situ.

The fittings include a granite font with a 12th-century elvan base in Norman style, though probably 17th century in its current form; a hexagonal pine pulpit dating to around 1700 with painted panels including a coat of arms; pine pews with fielded panels; and an old bell fitted to the tower, with a second cracked bell removed to the north aisle.

The monuments include a bust to Jane, died 1783, daughter of Hugh Gregor; a Baroque cartouche with oval border and carved angels bearing half English and half Latin inscription to Elizabeth, died 1703, daughter of John Gregor of Trewarthenick; a slate grave slab set in the south wall under the chancel window to Sulana, died 1638, wife of Richard Crossman, with a coat of arms depicting goats; and a small slate over a chancel niche to William Mander, died 1625, and Agnes, died 1619.

The church is built in the middle of a Medieval playing place or round, which may have been a Bronze Age burial mound.